COVID-19 Community Resilience & Permaculture Course

Session 9:
Permaculture Design Introduction to SADIMET Methodology

Within the entire permaculture framework, the design of land, ecosystems, communities, and societies is the core within permaculture design. After this session, you will 

• understand why design is key for a successful permaculture project

• know the 4 reasons why design is so important

• be introduced into SADIMET

• will know the basic of the design process

Watch the video, read the text, and finish the learning exercise to complete this session of our Permaculture & Resilience free online course.

Video: Session 9 -Design Process SADIMET-

Why design is so important for a successful permaculture project

Within the entire permaculture framework, the design of land, ecosystems, communities, and societies is the core within permaculture design. While you can surely increase soil fertility and strengthen your ecosystem by just using some permaculture techniques and tools on your farm or when gardening, this is not permaculture design; it is implementing some parts without seeing the opportunities of the holistic system design approach. Permaculture design ensures that due to interconnections of elements the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts.

In the designer’s manual, Bill Mollison suggests that the systems we construct should last as long as possible and require little maintenance; this is energy efficient planning. In other words, in order to create systems that are beneficial, the systems need to both sustain themselves and those who construct them. The quote that is resonating most with me is 

This is not necessarily the case not only for many parts of our consumption but also for most of the things we are implementing as permaculture designers. So just keep it in mind when heading to the hardware shop and buying soil, trees, or other materials.

4 Reasons why design is so important!

1. Know your priorities.

Design helps you to streamline your ideas and your actions. Without knowing what your key design drivers look like, what your values are and what is your number one priority, you might feel overwhelmed by the possibilities - doing a bit of everything but with limited effectiveness. 

2. Increase efficiency

Once you know your design and have an overall plan you can work in time phases and build your project up without the need to change certain areas again and again. It enables you to integrate better and reduce your use of resources and labor needs, while also increasing productivity.

3. Speeds up your project

The design takes time and you need to see it as an investment. If you are willing to invest some time and energy in the beginning and follow the design process you will have a higher chance of success and it will work out way faster as you actually know why and what you are doing.

4. Get yourself organized in time

If you are working on a big project it is very likely that you will not be able to implement all areas and elements at the same time. This is where a well-designed project will help you a lot. You create time phases, this phase can be based on the resources, energy input, or just succession. Once you have established your final design you ensure that you know where to put an element according to your big picture.

The graph sums up perfectly why design matters.  In the beginning, you have nearly infinitive options available and the cost to change from one to another option is free of cost (resources, time, and money). With time, your assumptions and/or decisions reduce your options or the cost of changing them increases. This develops over time.

Once you are about to launch your project, the cost of changes are super high and your design options are more limited. This is not negative - it just means you already structured the indefinite amount of possibilities to serve a clear vision of what you want to do with this land or project. Your design drivers, your values, and your constraints define the best design for you and one particular land. This design just fits for you and your framework conditions. Thus, you can not just go and copy a design from somebody as you don’t know if your design drivers and other framework conditions are the same. In this case, you don’t understand the why of your project.

Permaculture design helps you to understand why first and afterward look for your optimal solution. Every permaculture design is best when tailor-made. If you work with a permaculture designer, be aware that the consultant is just able to help you to answer the why, but you need to take the ownership and need to know the answer. Designing is your work and the consultant is helping you through the process - showing tools and techniques based on your needs and values.

Let’s talk design: what is SADIMET?

The most popular tool for a land-based permaculture design is a tool called SADIMET which simply is the abbreviation for Survey, Analysis, Design, Implementation, Maintenance, Evaluation, and Tweaking.

In this session, we’ll guide you through the process and explain some of the most essential planning tools and methods of analyzing. If you think about Permaculture Design, you might think about a map of your land with loads of elements and functions. And that’s true, but following the principle, “Design from patterns to details,” means you have to do some work before getting to that part.

Step 1: Survey

Observe, observe, observe. That’s all you have to do in step 1. Sounds easy, right? But actually, it can be quite challenging as our minds are constantly busy analyzing and evaluating. But you want to collect non-judgemental and non-selective observations about a site. Put yourself in the mind of a child and observe with a childlike attitude. Make value-free and non-interpretative notes about what is seen, measured, or experienced. No guesses, no judgments needed; an observation is just a description of what you see while the analysis gives you answers and results. Ideally, you want to observe your land and your behavior/experiences for 1 full year. That gives you the chance to go observe all seasons and how site-related things are behaving and interacting. If you need to get started and don’t have that year, no worries; it is important to create a yield! Start with moveable or changeable structures like a raised bed, compost, small veg patch, or a nursery and use existing structures (and patterns). I highly recommend to not plant trees in the very beginning as you really want to come up with a proper design first. Here’s a little guideline on what you want to have a look at:

A notebook and a camera are very helpful aids for observations! After observing, you can come up with a base map that includes existing boundaries, structures, and land/vegetation types (like trees or grassland, water bodies, access/paths). If you can, you can also add slopes. Usually, Google Maps works very well. Scale it up to a workable size; it is very important to pay attention to scale! Furthermore, make a list of the information that you’ve collected about the site and yourself and create themes: plant species, soil quality, climate, water, resources, goals, leaks, etc. Look out for patterns; they are the backbone for our design!

Step 2: Analysis

In this step, you’ll find out the key functions for your design as well as the key limiting factors. Find out the constraints and leaks first; these are the key limiting factors. Based on that you’ll come up with your key functions; those functions that are required to meet the needs of the land and your needs. Your key functions are your main objectives, (i.e. food production, energy (off-grid), or education). There are several ways to find out your key drivers:

SWOC Analysis

One is the so-called SWOC analysis. This tool is borrowed from the business world -it is a good way to analyze the observations you’ve made in step 1 and find out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Constraints or Challenges.

Simply list them all down - everything you can think of and all that you’ve been observing. This will help you to create a bigger picture and to draft your goals. Use your constraints to design your goal: “the problem is the solution!”

SMART GOALS

Once your goals are put in words, do a SMART analysis. This is another business tool that allows you to measure the success of your design over time and will be very helpful when it comes to evaluating and tweaking. Your SMART goals should be Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, and Time-bound. Have look at this example:

A bad goal would be “I want to produce more of my own food.” This is neither specific, measurable nor time-bound. 

A little bit more specific and realistic would be something like this: “I want to produce 10% of my own food.”

A SMART goal would be: “By the end of 2021, I want to produce 200 kg of root vegetables and enough lettuce and greens to provide for my family.”

During this process, always come back to the permaculture ethics and principles: Are my key functions benefitting life in all its forms? Are my design drivers based on patterns that I’ve observed? In this step of analyzing you’ll also apply methods to analyze the site in a way that will help you with the right placement of elements: sector analysis, input/output, function/system/element, and zoning. As these tools are quite important, we’ll talk about them in further sessions to make sure you’ll be able to apply them.

Step 3: Design

Take your base map and start designing! Experiment with different placements of systems and elements. Select and place them in a way that the identified functions are fulfilled and integrate the ones that are satisfying your needs. 

Random Assembly Method

If you feel overwhelmed by the options, try the random assembly method. Don’t think too much, just place your elements on your base map, take a picture, and place them differently. Take a photo and do that again and again. Invite friends to do the same with your design! You’ll find certain elements always at the same spot; so this could be a good placement. 

Exclusion Method

Another way to start is a design by constraints or limiting factors. There’s a guy named Ian McHarg who came up with the McHarg Exclusion Method. Take your base map, an element, and a transparent overlay. On that transparent overlay, you map the areas that are excluded for that element for a specific reason, i.e. too close to the road, too far away from the house, too near to the wildlife corridor, etc. The area that remains blank could be perfect for that element. And again, always come back to the permaculture ethics and principles: Is my design benefitting life in all its forms? Is my design based on patterns that I’ve observed?

Step 4: Implementation

Before you start to implement your design, take some time to create an implementation plan. Make a clear and realistic timeline and work with phases, priorities, and leverage points. Which systems or elements go in first? Think about your resources and start with small and slow solutions.

Step 5: Maintenance

This step is a very important one that often gets neglected. Come up with a maintenance plan! Who is taking care of the nursery? Who is watering the garden and when?

Step 6: Evaluation & Tweaking

Bill Mollison emphasizes that design is an ongoing process that is guided by experiences and skills from earlier observations. So this is what you’re doing in this step: giving feedback to your design. Is the design feeding into your goals? Did any new problems arise? Is the design realistic? Are there any unnecessary costs? Start over again and modify your design as required.

SADIMET in short

SADIMET is one out of a lot of different design methods that guide you through your design and ensure that you are not forgetting major steps. It is ideal for land-based design. Other methods are working better for social permaculture design. The first phase Survey is the most important one, however it is also the phase we all tend to shorten as our mind has learned to analyze things right away. By doing so you are closing doors and losing on great out of the box solutions, way too early.

Learning exercise

Like every day, a new learning exercise. Today, we would love to ask you to walk through the survey phase, using the beautiful sum-up graphic by Sketching the Move. Look for a spot of land, might be your own but also a park works well and observe. We would love to hear from you, so please share your results, thoughts and observation with regards to the Survey phase with us.