Version 1
: Received: 27 January 2024 / Approved: 28 January 2024 / Online: 29 January 2024 (09:55:33 CET)
Version 2
: Received: 7 March 2024 / Approved: 7 March 2024 / Online: 7 March 2024 (11:10:49 CET)
Albert Jiang, Edward McBean, and Yi Wang. A sustainable environment requires sustainable water—a review of some water issues to learn from. Environmental Reviews. e-First https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2024-0020
Albert Jiang, Edward McBean, and Yi Wang. A sustainable environment requires sustainable water—a review of some water issues to learn from. Environmental Reviews. e-First https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2024-0020
Albert Jiang, Edward McBean, and Yi Wang. A sustainable environment requires sustainable water—a review of some water issues to learn from. Environmental Reviews. e-First https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2024-0020
Albert Jiang, Edward McBean, and Yi Wang. A sustainable environment requires sustainable water—a review of some water issues to learn from. Environmental Reviews. e-First https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2024-0020
Abstract
Water sustainability has inevitably become one of the most severe issues in the 21st century for various reasons, including population growth, urban expansion, and climate change. This paper presents an array of key features related to water sustainability for urban regions over the last several decades. The purpose is to recognize the critical circumstances for maintaining water sustainability and recognizing that many regions in the world have passed the tipping point of balancing their water sustainability and failing to recognize that restoring sustainability will be extremely difficult. From the water quantity perspective, examples are used to demonstrate situations which in hindsight have been initially shown to be effective, but, in the long term, highly problematic. Most importantly, the 1960s India example shows that what was considered an agricultural ‘success’ in the past has later become an environmental disaster. To achieve water sustainability, lessons must be learned from the past, and adaptive measures must be adopted, which will help humanity avoid adverse and irreversible environmental tragedies. Government authorities can learn from this critical review of some approaches and realize their responsibility to proactively promote better water resource management strategies (domestic and international collaborations) and strictly regulate water use practices to prevent water deterioration of sustainability.
Keywords
Sustainability; Water Quantity; Water Quality; Climate Change; City subsidence; Groundwater; Population Growth
Subject
Engineering, Civil Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
