Water springs: an immeasurable resource for ensuring sustainability

Water springs are manifestations of groundwater to the surface, forming and ensuring the supply and sustainability of streams, lakes, rivers, and dams. Therefore, its riparian forest is considered an area of permanent preservation, which aims to protect the water, as well as the spring, from consequences of disordered population growth, added to deficient basic sanitation systems, climate change, agricultural activities, inappropriate land uses, unplanned urbanization, and diffuse sources of pollution. In addition to compromising water quality, many of these factors affect the permanence of water upwelling at the source, compromising the formation and continuity of streams, lakes, and rivers. In this context, the objective of the present research was to carry out a bibliographic review on water springs, approaching adjacent themes to the main axis of the study that are fundamental for a deep understanding of their importance for the maintenance of water resources and ensuring biodiversity in the search for the sustainability of life for present and future generations. This research collaborates with the environmental view and shows that the function of a water sources is broader than its concepts can reveal.