Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

You're probably better off with volumes 2 and 3

Customer Rating:

If you're an absolutely new to rainwater harvesting book, this book may be of some use. But if you understand the basic ideas of rainwater harvesting, I'd skip this book. Perhaps volumes 2 and 3 are more specific. Volume 1 tells you about the meat, but doesn't give it to you. I suspect the meat (i.e. useful detailed information) is in volumes 2 and 3. You may prefer Art Ludwig's the New Create an Oasis with Greywater. I found it had the same basic information on rainwater harvesting as Volume 1, but in addition, has detailed information on creating a greywater system.

Great water book!	Customer Rating:
The author has a really great sense of our water and how we must learn to live within our means. Not just a technical manual but a rationale for changing our water ways.

a MUST READ!	Customer Rating:
If I had to give up all the books on my shelf, this would be one of the last to go. Not only pertinent to drylands, harvesting rainwater can and should be implemented in any climate. I can only wonder why all buildings and residents don't take collecting rainwater into account. Our landscapes and lives can be greatly enhanced by putting the tools Mr. Lancaster introduces into practice.

Not just for drylands

Customer Rating:

The concepts described in this book are applicable to all climates. The book is useful to any permaculture practitioner for any climate type. I live in the northeast with 35 inches per year, and it has been helpful to me personally in designing rainwater harvesting systems for my village lot. When is vol. 2 coming out? I suggest as companion reading "Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks (Paperback) by Art Ludwig; and also his "The New Create an Oasis With Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systms - Includes Branched Drains (Paperback)". Together you can come up with an irrigation plan for a yard anywhere.

Wonderful, readable, and essential

Customer Rating:

This is an incredible study of a topic that most of us don't think about much, that is, how we are wasting our rainwater, and what we could be doing instead. This is required reading for anyone who cares about the environment. Best, the book is highly readable, with excellent illustrations. I knew literally nothing about this topic before I read this book. Now I am a believer. The story of the African man who "farms water" is incredibly moving and actually brought tears to my eyes. I have already bought three copies of this book to distribute to friends and I will probably buy more! The author, Brad Lancaster, speaks on this topic around the country and I am looking forward to hearing him in person. There are two more volumes coming in this series and I am looking forward to reading those, as well.