Approaches to water springs in literature: a systematic bibliographic review

The protection, conservation, evaluation, and monitoring of natural water sources are the basis for Integrated Water Resources Management and Planning, including spring water sources which have special importance for the ecosystem services provided. The definition of spring water in scientific literature is characterized by imprecision and subjective interpretations. The term "spring" is included in the Brazilian environmental legislation. It needs to be structured by involving the different areas of knowledge that study them since the applicability of legal penalties established in environmental laws depends on its correct understanding. This research aimed to identify and analyze the information available in academic-scientific literature, as well as in non-scientific materials or documents related to spring water, for characterizing the main approaches currently applied to this topic. The methodology was based on a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) developed through three stages: 1. SLR planning; 2. research processing; and 3. expected results. These steps frame the Input-Processing-Output system, which is intended to guarantee the consistency of the data collected with the review's objectives to identify, describe, and analyze the scientific literature on the subject in a simplified and organized way. The articles and documents consulted were filtered and classified according to their relevance and relationship with the topic. Also, it formulated some categories to group all the references according to the main approaches. 1.216 articles and 960 materials/documents were checked, and 102 references were finally chosen. It was identified that the physical-chemical and microbiological monitoring and assessment of surface water quality had the highest number of associated results, showing an academic priority in seeking ways to ensure human water supply, disregarding all ecological and environmental functions that spring water has.