Freshwater as a Sustainable Resource and Generator of Secondary Resources in the 21st Century: Stressors, Threats,

Risks, Management and Protection Strategies, and Conservation Approaches

This paper is a synthetic overview of some of the threats, risks, and integrated water

management elements in freshwater ecosystems. The paper provides some discussion of human

needs and water conservation issues related to freshwater systems: (1) introduction and background;

(2) water basics and natural cycles; (3) freshwater roles in human cultures and civilizations; (4) water

as a biosphere cornerstone; (5) climate as a hydrospheric ‘game changer’ from the perspective of

freshwater; (6) human-induced stressors’ effects on freshwater ecosystem changes (pollution, habitat

fragmentation, etc.); (7) freshwater ecosystems’ biological resources in the context of unsustainable

exploitation/overexploitation; (8) invasive species, parasites, and diseases in freshwater systems;

(9) freshwater ecosystems’ vegetation; (10) the relationship between human warfare and water. All

of these issues and more create an extremely complex matrix of stressors that plays a driving role

in changing freshwater ecosystems both qualitatively and quantitatively, as well as their capacity

to offer sustainable products and services to human societies. Only internationally integrated

policies, strategies, assessment, monitoring, management, protection, and conservation initiatives

can diminish and hopefully stop the long-term deterioration of Earth’s freshwater resources and their

associated secondary resources.