Sustainability of Water Bodies in Landscape (Natural and Man-Made Water Bodies)



Sustainability of Water Bodies in Landscape (Natural and Man-Made Water Bodies)

Introduction

A sustainable landscape is designed to be in balance and attractive with local environment and climate, which requires minimal input of certain resources (Jawad, 2003). Water is considered as a renewable resource for both the quantity and quality of goods largely depends on healthy ecosystems. It is balance of the environment that guarantees its renewability. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the sustainability of water bodies in landscape (Carver, 2008). Thus we are going to evaluate water bodies' sustainability by giving brief introduction about sustainability of landscape and sustainability of water bodies along with examples of two rivers in Mesopotamia-Iraq- (Euphrates & Tigris).

The landscaping has been throughout its history creating beautiful spaces and lush, regardless of its impact on the environment. The landscape is increasingly seen as a resource. Thus sustainability of landscaping is important. It includes range of activities that have developed in result to issues of environment (Hausleiter, 2010). These actions are used in each stage of landscaping encompassing construction, design, management, and implementation of commercial and residential landscapes. Sustainable landscape architecture or sustainable landscape is a category of sustainable design related to the planning and design of outdoor spaces. This may include aspects of sustainability aspects as ecological, social and economic landscape. For example, the design of a sustainable urban drainage system can consider: habitat for wildlife and plants; implementation of recreational areas, because people love the presence of water, save money, since the construction of public sewer is expensive and floods cause costly damage (Fisher, 2000).

There are various names given to water bodies such as streams, gulfs, rivers, ponds, seas, and bays. These are some of the natural water bodies in landscape. However there are manmade water bodies such as various canals, lakes, and ponds which have human origination (Cumberlidge, Musgrave, 2007). In United States of America, Lake Mead is considered as the largest manmade water body. Thus sustainability of these manmade and natural water bodies is very important since they play an important role in human life (Whitehead, 1992). The sustainability of these water bodies is considered as the most vibrant environmental concept today since the role of water as a natural resource is used for conserving and managing ecosystem for sustainable development and production. For example: the design of garden terraces and green roofs can also contribute to the sustainability of a streetscape project. The green roof assists in the management of surface water, providing spaces for wildlife and recreation.

Discussion

There are several threats to water bodies

Overcrowding for the year 2025: we will be 9,000 million inhabitants.

Industry consumes about 25% of the reserves, for example to make

A car 400,000 litters are needed, without pollution.

Urbanization with consequent deforestation, resulting

Reduced rainfall.

Unsustainable agriculture that consumes huge amounts of water.

Climate change.

There are over 31 countries in the world with serious problems of water scarcity and are more than 1,000 million people that ...