Human Impacts on the Sustainability of Groundwater

Human Impacts on the Sustainability of Groundwater

Purpose
Assessing the trend of human development, both settlement and industrialization, and their impacts on groundwater and environment in general since 1800 to date.
Introduction
The volume of ground water is no doubt reducing at a rate that is worrying. The causal factor for the state of current ground water is traced back to 1800. At that time, the environment was very pure and human interference had not taken place. All the contributors to the hydrological cycle, that is, vegetation and water bodies, had not been quashed. The reason for the state of the environment in 1800 was low population that was slightly above billion, which did not require massive pieces of land to be cultivated to feed it since the lifestyle then was mainly hunting and gathering. Between 1900 and 2000 the world’s population increased by six billion and industrialization was at its peak (Wright & Boorse, 2010). Vast piece of land has been cleared to accommodate settlement and agriculture. All this contributed to 90% decline in ground water.
The trend of environmental degradation came to limelight in 1962 when Rachael Carson wrote a book called silent spring. Later, in 1972 report named limit to growth and another known as our common future in 1987 by Brundtland commission were published (Wright & Boorse, 2010). It was due to these three major publications that influenced the adoption of the ideology knows as sustainable development.
Hypothesis/Predicted Outcome
The level of ground water and may go low beyond reach.
The fresh groundwater will be replaced by saline ocean water.
Methods
For clear evidence of the previous state of the environment, it was mandatory I review map and analyze them. The satellite vegetation maps showing the vegetation cover from 1800 to date and human settlements map over the same duration of time was a fundamental source of data for this study. Further, geological data on the trend of ground water was also influential in this study. Therefore, the major method of date collection was map reading and analysis.

Results/Outcome