Conclusion: Sustainable Freshwater Consumption

Throughout my blog posts, I have attempted to highlight how freshwater has been used in the past and present, and to explore the impacts of unsustainable freshwater consumption. 

Case studies such as the Aral Sea have shown how freshwater and related systems can be severely damaged, causing huge losses and consequences to both humans and the environment. I personally feel that human consumption of water in some parts of the world today, such as that of Las Vegas, is highly unsustainable which requires human intervention to not deplete already scarce resources beyond its limit. Furthermore, the human manipulation of freshwater systems through dams may have increased the surface area of freshwater but it has a significant influence on the freshwater system, as well as other ecosystems and their processes. Currently, the planet's consumption of freshwater has not passed the 'freshwater planetary boundary' limit, however, from what these previous case studies have shown, over-consumption has wider influences on other ecosystem functions and processes, hence using the 'quantity' freshwater consumption may not be adequate enough to show the impacts of unsustainable freshwater consumption. 

These blogs has reinforced my own understanding that the sustainable consumption for freshwater is not only important to ensure that there is a secure supply of freshwater for human consumption, but that without sustainable consumption, other ecosystem processes and functions will also be affected, which will in turn affect both the environment and humans alike.