17.10.24, 18:30, Mark Shepard, Water in our agriculture and landscape

During this evening of lectures, Mark Shepard (Restoration Agriculture Development) will highlight his approach to water management within an agricultural landscape, as described in his book ‘Water for any Farm: Applying Restoration Agriculture Water Management Methods on Your Farm’. His central premise: to guide every raindrop to where it is needed, by initially slowing down the water and then allowing it to settle in the right place and store it in the soil, in pools and other water elements, and eventually increasingly in the living material of crops and other organisms.

Going beyond just agricultural application, his principles and (technical) insights can inspire to give water its proper place elsewhere in our landscape too, for a resilient and regenerative landscape in the event of both a shortage and an excess of water.

Mark Shepard is known worldwide as an agroecological pioneer, as described in his book ‘Restoration Agriculture. Real-World Permaculture for Farmers' translated into Dutch as ’Restoration Agriculture. Agroecology for Farmers, Citizens and Outdoors'. He puts regenerative agriculture into practice worldwide with Restoration Agriculture Development.

Beforehand, Jan Staes (Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development - University of Antwerp) places the water story at different scales and from different applications in the Flemish context. Jan Staes is a professor at the University of Antwerp. He is involved in several projects exploring the potential of ecosystem-based adaptation measures to mitigate climate change impacts and ecosystem services in general. He is coordinator of the TURQUOISE research project (2021-2025), which investigates the effectiveness of ‘Blue Green Measures for Climate Adaptation’ in the outdoor area. He was also part of the Dry Delta consortium exploring the opportunities that lie in landscape redesign based on blue-green measures.

The evening will be introduced by Stefanie Delarue (Futures through Design - HOGENT).

For students, designers, researchers and anyone who wants to work with water in a regenerative way in our Flemish (agricultural) landscapes.

This session is part of a multi-day week on water + agro-ecology. To what extent does agroecology offer an answer to climate records that are falling? And what role does water play in the agricultural system of the future? During a multi-day event from 14 October to 19 October 2024, we will engage in a dialogue with everyone who wants to delve into these topics. From conscious gardener to concerned policymaker to proactive farmer. Discover the full programme atwww.herstellende-landbouw.be/event.