Erosion Protection Engineering

There are many amazing things I have seen, many incredible, vibrant islands, but still there is a thought that creeps into my dreams; what about all the islands I've seen that are barren rocks? I asked Ryza about it and she told me she hadn't thought about it but said "Big or small, that must be the fate of all islands."

— Darosi, Excerpt from Journal No. 1

The Fate of All Islands

Every time any resource is washed, blown, or thrown off of a skyisland, it is lost to that island forever. When the Harani returned from its first voyage - before it was lost - and the crew reported what they saw and learned, during and after the spontaneous speech "We Are Not Alone", people became worried about what may become of Breharan if they didn't try to avoid the effects of erosion.   It became a common sentiment that the people of the past took for granted the bountiful resources of the skycontinent but this isn't actually true as many peoples had for a long time worked to preserve the resources of Breharan. What was new was the larger multi-nation collective effort to create a shared base of knowledge with all the known techniques and strategies to counter erosion.

Resource Maintenance

Many of the techniques had been practiced by certain groups for a long time; the people of Zinato have long buried the dead to return their energy to the earth, having learned from the Wash Away the Burm have learned to plant and sustain a wall of trees on the continent's edge, and the people of Grara grow cover plants on their fields to regenerate the soil but also prevent it from drying out and being blown away.   The Great Dam of Darapur is itself an example of this. Initially built to hold water, it was quickly realized that the river was actually moving a lot of soil and particulate down to the dam and that the basin had to be dredged regularly. The use of physical - stone or wood - structures to prevent landslides, composting of waste, fire protection engineering, and the spread of certain plant species have all become commonplace in the Time of Exploration.