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Water Portal / Rainwater Harvesting / Groundwater recharge / Contour trenches

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[[Image:Contour_Trench_hill.JPG|thumb|right|300px| Contour trenches on a hillside.]]

At its simplest, contour trench construction is an extension of the practice of plowing fields at a right angle to the slope. Contour trenches are ditches dug along a hillside in such a way that they follow a contour and run perpendicular to the flow of water. The soil excavated from the ditch is used to form a berm (a narrow shelf) on the downhill edge of the ditch. The berm can be planted with permanent vegetation (native grasses, legumes) to stabilize the soil and for the roots and foliage in order to trap any sediment that would overflow from the trench in heavy rainfall events. Contour trenches are not irrigation channels, rather they are trenches dug used to slow down and attract runoff water , which then infiltrates into the soil. Small scale contour trenches can also be used within field level.

==Suitable conditions==

* Locate trenches in natural runoff areas, but not on slopes over 10%.

* Soil in vicinity needs to have sufficient infiltration capacity and potential sub-surface storage capacity.

 

 

 

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