NATURAL RESOURCES

Natural resources (economically referred to as land or

raw materials) occur naturally within environments that
exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural
form. A natural resource is often characterized by
amounts of biodiversity existent in various ecosystems.
Natural resources are derived from the environment.
Many of them are essential for our survival while others
are used for satisfying our wants. Natural resources may
be further classified in different ways.
Classification
On the basis of origin, resources may be divided into:
 Biotic - Biotic resources are obtained from the
biosphere , such as forests and their products,
animals, birds and their products, fish and other
marine organisms. Mineral fuels such as coal and
petroleum are also included in this category because
they formed from decayed organic matter.
 Abiotic - Abiotic resources comprise of non-living
things. Examples include land, water, air and ores
such as gold, iron, copper, silver etc.
Considering their stage of development, natural
resources may be referred to in the following ways:
 Potential Resources - Potential resources are those
that exist in a region and may be used in the future.
For example, petroleum may exist in many parts of
India, having sedimentary rocks but until the time it
is actually drilled out and put into use, it remains a
potential resource.
 Actual Resources are those that have been surveyed,
their quantity and quality determined and are being
used in present times. The development of an actual
resource, such as wood processing depends upon
the technology available and the cost involved. That
part of the actual resource that can be developed
profitably with available technology is called a
reserve.
With respect to renewability, natural resources can be
categorized as follows:
Reneweable resources are ones that can be
replenished or reproduced easily. Some of them, like
sunlight, air, wind, etc., are continuously available
and their quantity is not affected by human
consumption. Many renewable resources can be
depleted by human use, but may also be
 replenished, thus maintaining a flow. Some of these,
like agricultural crops, take a short time for renewal;
others, like water, take a comparatively longer time,
while still others, like forests, take even longer.
 Non-renewable resources are formed over very long
geological periods . Minerals and fossil fuels are
included in this category. Since their rate of
formation is extremely slow, they cannot be
replenished once they get depleted. Of these, the
metallic minerals can be re-used by recycling them.
But coal and petroleum cannot be recycled.

Examples
The natural resource of wind powers these 5MW wind
turbines on this wind farm 28 km off the coast of
Belgium.

Some examples of natural resources include the

following:
 Agriculture—agronomy is the science and
technology of using plants for food, fuel, feed, and
fiber.
 Air, wind and atmosphere
 Plants
 Animals
 Coal, fossil fuels, rock and mineral resources
 Forestry
 Range and pasture
 Soils
 Water, oceans, lakes, groundwater and rivers
MAJOR NATURAL RESOURCES

 Forest Resources

 Water Resources

 Mineral Resources

 Food Resources

 Energy Resources

 Land Resources
 FOREST RESOURCES

 Covers earth like a green blanket…

 Produce innumerable goods…

 Provides several environmental services…

 1/3rd of the world’s land area is forested.

 Former USSR – 1/5th

Brazil – 1/7th
Canada – 6-7%
USA – 6-7%
USES OF FORESTS

Commercial Uses

 Timber
 Fire wood
 Pulp Wood
 Food items
 Gum
 Resins
 Non-edible Oils
 Rubber
 Fibers
 Lac
 Bamboo Canes
 Fodder
 Medicines…

Ecological Uses
 Production of Oxygen

 Reducing of Global Warming

 Wild Life Habitat

  Regulation of Hydrological Cycle

 Soil Conservation

 Pollution Moderators.

OVER EXPLOITATION OF FORESTS &

DEFORESTATION
 Increased Population

 Increased requirements

 Total forest area in

1900 – 7000 mha
1970 – 2890 mha
2000 – 2000 mha

 Deforestation rate is less in temperate

countries compared to tropical countries (40-50%).

CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION
 Shifting Cultivation
 300 million people living as shifting cultivators.
 5 lakh ha of forests cleared annually.
 Fuel Requirements
  Increase in fuel wood requirement
1945 – 65 million tons
2001 – 300-500 million tons
 Raw Materials for Industrial Use
 wood for making boxes, furniture, railway
sleepers, plywood…
 Pulp for paper industry.
 Development Projects
 Hydroelectric power projects, Big dams, Roads,
Mining…
 Growing Food Needs
 Creation of agricultural land and settlements by
clearing forests.
 Overgrazing.

CONSEQUENCES OF
DEFORESTATION
 It threatens the existence of many wild life
species due to destruction of their natural
habitat.
 Biodiversity is lost and along with that
genetic diversity is eroded.
 Hydrological cycle gets affected, thereby
influencing rainfalls.
 Problems of soil erosion and loss of soil fertility
increases.
  In hilly areas it often leads to landslides .

CASE STUDY 1
 Desertification of Hilly regions of the
iHimalayas
Deforestation in Himalayas, involving clearance of
natural forests and plantations of monocultures
like Pinus Roxbhurgi, Eucalyptus Camadulenses
etc. have upset the ecosystem by changing the
various soil and biological properties. Nutrient
cycling has become poor, original germplasm is
lost and the area is invaded by exotic weeds.
These areas are not able to recover and are
losing their fertility. The entire west Khasi hill
district of Meghalaya in North-East Himalayas,
Ladakh and Parts of Kumaon and Garhwal are
now facing the serious problem of desertification.

CASE STUDY 2
 Waning rainfall in Udhagamandalam (Ooty)
The sub normal rainfall during 1965-1984 at Ooty
in Nilgiri Mountains has been found to be closely
associated with declining forest cover in this
region in the past 20 years. The rainfall pattern
was found to fluctuate with wooded land area in
the hills. When the NIlgiri mountains had
luxuriant forest cover annual rainfall used to be
much higher.

MAJOR ACTIITIES IN FORESTS

 Timber Extraction
 Mining

Effects of Timber Extraction

 poor logging results in degraded forests.
 soil erosion, especially on slopes.
 sedimentation of irrigation systems.
 loss biodiversity.
 climatic changes, such as lower precipitation.

 new logging roads permit shifting cultivators

and fuel wood gatherers to gain access to logged
areas.
  loss of non-timber products

WATER RESOURCES
Water resources are sources of water that are useful or
potentially useful to humans. Uses of water include
agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and
environmental activities. Virtually all of these human
uses require fresh water.
97% of water on the Earth is salt water, leaving only 3%
as fresh water of which slightly over two thirds is frozen
in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen
freshwater is mainly found as groundwater, with only a
small fraction present above ground or in the air.
Fresh water is a renewable resource, yet the world's
supply of clean, fresh water is steadily decreasing. Water
demand already exceeds supply in many parts of the
world and as the world population continues to rise, so
too does the water demand. Awareness of the global
importance of preserving water for ecosystem services
has only recently emerged as, during the 20th century,
more than half the world’s wetlands have been lost along
with their valuable environmental services. Biodiversity-
rich freshwater ecosystems are currently declining faster
than marine or land ecosystems. The framework for
allocating water resources to water users (where such a
framework exists) is known as water rights.

A graphical distribution of the locations of water on

Earth.

WATER USE AND OVER EXPLOITATION

 Increased Human Population + Rapid
Development→ Increased water withdrawal
demands + Wastagedue to Pollution
(anthropogenic activities)

 Globally, 70% of water withdrawn is used for

agriculture
 India – 93% water for agriculture sector
  Water Poor Countries – 4% for watering crops
 Global Industrial Usage – 25%
 Developed Countries – 70%
 Less Developed Countries – 5%
 Per Capita Usage of water - wide variations
 In USA an average family of 4 members consumes
1000M 3 of water every year.

Ground Water vs Surface Water

 Ground Water – Aquifers
 A layer of sediment or rock that is highly permeable
and contains water is called as an aquifer.
 Unconfined Aquifer – overlaid by permeable and
is rechargeable
 Confined Aquifer – sandwiched between two
impermeable layers of rock or sediments,
recharged only where aquifers intersects with the
land

 Surface Water – Streams, ponds, lakes…

Effects of Ground water Usage

 Subsidence
  when ground water withdrawal is more than its
recharge rate the sediments get compacted
 Results - Sinking of overlying land surface
- Structural damage to buildings
- Reversing the flow of sewers and canals
 Lowering of Water Table
 Water Logging

Sustainable Water Management

 Building several small reservoirs instead of a
few mega projects
 Developing small catchment dams and
protecting wet lands
 Soil Management, and afforestation permits
recharging of underground aquifers, thus
reducing the need for big dams
 Treating and recycling municipal waste water
for agricultural use
 Preventing leakages from dams and canals
 Preventing loss in municipal pipes
 Effective rain water harvesting in urban
environment
 Water conservation measures in agriculture,such as
using drip irrigation
 Implementing methods to retain moisture and
re-vegetate the degraded areas
 MINERAL RESOURCES

 Minerals – Naturally occurring, inorganic,

crystalline solids having definite chemical
composition and characteristic physical
properties

 e.g., Quartz, Feldspar, Biotite, Dolomite,

Calcite, Leterite…

 Composed of elements like silicon, oxygen

iron, magnesium, calcium, aluminum…

Uses and Exploitation

 Development of industrial plants and machinery
 Generation of energy – Coal, Liginite, Uranium
 Construction, Housing and other Settlements
  Transportation means
 Communication – Telephone wires, cables,
 Electronic devices
 Medicinal uses
 Formation of alloys
 Agriculture – as fertilizers, seed
dressings,fungicides…
 Jewellery

MINERALS
 Non-Metallic Minerals
graphite, diamond, quartz, feldspar…
 Metallic Minerals
Bauxite, Laterite, Hematite…
 Critical Minerals – essential for the economy of
a nation e.g., iron, aluminum, copper, gold…
 Strategic Minerals – required for the defence
of the country e.g., Manganese, Cobalt,
Platinum, Chromium…

Impacts of Mining
 Devegetation and Defacing of Landscape
 Subsidence of Land
 Ground water Contamination
  Surface water Pollution
 Air Pollution
 Occupational Health Hazards

Remedial Measures
 It is desirable to adopt eco-friendly mining
technology.
 The low grade ores can be better utilized by
using microbial leaching technique.
Thiobacillus ferroxidans has been successfully
and economically used for extracting gold
embedded in iron sulfide ores
 Restoration of mined areas by re-vegetating
them with appropriate plant species.

FOOD RESOURCES

 The main food resources – wheat, rice, maize,

barley, oats, pulses, sugarcane, other fruits and
vegetables, meat milk…
 The FAO estimation – minimum calorific intake
on a global scale is 2,500 calories/day.
Undernourished - < 90% of min requirement
seriously under nourished - < 80%
 Deficiency or lack of nutrition malnutrition

World Food Problems

Last 50 years
 world grain production increased three
times increase in per capita production by
about 50%
 population growth (mostly in less developed
countries)
 Every year 40 million people die of under
nourishment and malnutrition

INDIAN SCENARIO
3rd largest producer of staple crops
300 million Indians are under nourished

Overgrazing
  Livestock wealth plays a crucial role in the rural life
of
our country
 India leads in livestock population
 The huge population of live stock needs to be fed and
the grazing land or the pastures areas are not
adequate
 Livestock grazing on a particular piece of grass land
or pasture surpass the carry capacity
 Carrying capacity of any system is the
maximumpopulation that can be supported by it on
asustainable basis
However, most often, the grazing pressure is so high
that its carrying capacity is crossed and the
sustainability of the grazing land fails.

Impacts of Overgrazing
 Land Degradation
 Overgrazing removes the vegetal cover over the soil
and the exposed soil gets compacted due to which
the operativesoil depth declines
 Roots cannot go deep into the soil
 Adequate soil moisture is not available
  Organic recycling also declines in the ecosystem
Because → not enough detritus or litter remains on the
soil to be decomposed
 The humus content of the soil decreases and
overgrazing leads to organically poor, dry,
compacted soil
 Due trampling by cattle the soil loses infiltration
capacity,which reduces percolation of water into the
soil and as aresult of this more water gets lost from
the ecosystem alongwith surface runoff
Thus overgrazing leads to multiple actions resulting in
loss of soil structure, hydraulic conductivity and soil
fertility

Soil Erosion
 Due to overgrazing by cattle, the cover of
vegetation almost gets removed from the land
 The soil becomes exposed and gets eroded by the
action of strong wind, rainfall etc…
 The grass roots are very good binders of soil
 When the grasses are removed, the soil becomes
loose and susceptible to the action of wind and water.

Agriculture
1. Slash and burn cultivation or shifting
cultivation
2. Modern agriculture

The types of agriculture are very different in their

process and their outputs in terms of yield as
well as their impacts on the environment.

Traditional Agriculture and its Impacts

 It usually involves a small plot, simple tools,
naturally
available water, organic fertilizers and a mix of crops
 It is more near to natural conditions and usually it
results in low production

The main Impacts of this type of agriculture are

 Deforestation
The slash and burn of trees in forests to clear the land for
cultivation and frequent shifting results in loss of forest
cover
 Soil Erosion
Clearing of forest cover exposes the soil to wind, rain and
storms, thereby resulting in loss of top fertile layer of soil
 Depletion of Nutrients
During slash and burn the organic matter in the soil gets
destroyed and most of the nutrients are taken up by the
crops within the short period, thus making the soil
nutrient poor which makes the cultivator to shift to new
area.

Modern Agriculture and its Impacts

 It makes use of hybrid seeds of selected single crop
variety, high-tech equipments and lots of energy
subsidies in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and
irrigation water
 The food production has increased tremendously,
evidenced by the “green revolution”

The Impacts
 Impacts related to high yielding varieties
 Fertilizer related problems
 Pesticide related problems
 Water logging
 Salinity problems

Fertilizer related problems

 Micronutrient Imbalance
Most of the chemical fertilizers used in modern
agriculture have
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are essential
macronutrients
Farmers use these indiscriminately to boost up crop
growth.
 Nitrate Pollution
Nitrogenous fertilizers applied in the fields often leach
deep into soil and ultimately contaminate the ground
water.
The nitrates get concentrated in the water and when
their concentration exceeds 25 mg/L, they become the
cause of aserious health hazard called “Blue Baby
syndrome”
 Eutrophication
Eutrophication means Over Nourishment

Due to eutrophication lakes get invaded by algal blooms;

these algae grows very fast by rapidly using up the
nutrients, theyoften are toxic and badly affect the food
chain.

Pesticide related problems

 Creating resistance in pests and producing new pests
Some individuals of the pest species usually survive
even after pesticide spray
The survivors give rise to highly resistant generations
About 20 species of pests are now known which have
become immune to all types of pesticides an are
known as “super pests”
  Death of non-target organisms
Many insecticides are broad spectrum poisons which not
only kill the target species but also several non-target
species which are useful to us
 Biological magnification
Many of the pesticides are not biodegradable and keep
on accumulating in the food chain, this process is
called as biomagnifications.

Water logging
 Over irrigation of croplands by farmers for good
growth of their crop usually leads to water logging
 Inadequate drainage causes excess water to
accumulate underground and gradually forms a
continuous column with the water table
 Under water logged conditions, pore spaces in the
soil
get fully drenched with water and the soil-air gets
depleted
 The water table rises while the roots of the plant do
not get adequate air for respiration
 Mechanical strength of the soil declines, crop plants
get lodged and crop yield fails
Preventing excessive irrigation, sub-surface drainage
technology and bio-drainage with trees like Eucalyptus
are some of the remedial measures to prevent water
logging.

Salinity Problems
 At present ⅓rd of the total cultivable land area
of the world is affected by salts
 In India about 7 million Hectares of land are
estimated to be salt affected
 Saline soils are characterized by the
accumulation of soluble salts like sodium
chloride, sodium sulphate, calcium chloride,
magnesium chloride…
The most common method for getting rid of salts
is to flush them out by applying more good
quality water to such soils. Another method is
laying under ground network of perforated
drainage pipes for flushing out the salts slowly.

ENERGY RESOURCES

 Energy consumption is considered as an index

of its development
 The first form of energy known was FIRE
 Wind and Hydropower have been in use for the
last 10,000 years
  The invention of steam engines replaced the
burning of wood by coal and coal was later
replaced to a great extent by oil.

In 1970’s due to Iranian revolution and Arab oil

embargo the prices of oil shoot up, leading to
exploration and use of several alternate
sources of energy.

Energy Sources
A source of energy is one that can provide adequate
amount of energy in a usable form over a long period
of time
These sources are of two types:
 Renewable Resources – which can be generated
continuously in nature and are inexhaustible
(also called as non-conventional energy sources)
e.g., wood, solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, hydro
power, bio-mass energy, bio-fuels, geo-thermal energy
and hydrogen
 Non-renewable Resources – which have
accumulated in nature over a long span of time and
cannot be quickly replenished when exhausted.
e.g., coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear fuels like
uranium thorium…
Solar Energy
 Sun is the ultimate source of energy.
 The nuclear fusion reaction taking place inside the
sunrelease enormous quantities of energy in the
form ofheat and light
 The solar energy received by the near earth space is
approx. 1.4kJ/m2-s (solar constant)
 Traditional uses – drying clothes and food grains,
preservation eatables, for obtaining salt from seawater…
 Techniques for harnessing Solar energy
→ Solar Heat Collectors → Solar Cells
→ Solar Cookers → Solar Water Heaters
→ Solar Furnaces → Solar Power Plants

Solar Heat Collectors

 These can be passive or active in nature
 Passive heat collectors are natural
materials like stones, bricks…whichabsorb heat during
day time and release itslowly at night
 Active solar collectors pump a heat
absorbing medium (air or water) through a
small collector which is normally placed at
top of the building.

Solar Water Heater

  It consists of an insulated box painted black from
inside and having a glass lid to receive and store
solar heat
 Inside the box it has black painted copper coil
through which cold water is made to flow in, which
gets heated and flows out into storage tank.

Solar Furnace
 Thousands of plane mirrors are arranged in concave
Reflectors , all of which collect the solar heat and
produce a high temperature.

Solar Power Plants

 Solar energy is harnessed on a large scale by using
concave reflectors which cause boiling of water to
produce steam; the steam turbine drives a generator to
produce electricity.
Hydro Power
 Water enters the plant when an intake gate is
opened, and moves through the penstock. Gravity
and a narrowing scroll case increase the pressure of
the water as it enters the turbine. Water exits the
turbine and is returned to the river. The turbine
spins a rotor directly above it, and electricity
produced by the interaction of rotor and stator is
 transmitted through a transformer at the station and
thence to the grid.
 Hydro power does not cause any pollution, it is
renewable and normally the hydro power projects
are multi purpose projects helping in controlling
floods, used for irrigation, navigation etc.

Ocean Thermal Energy

 The energy available due to the difference in
temperature of water at the surface of the
tropical oceans and at deeper levels is called
ocean thermal energy
 A difference of 20˚C or more is required
between surface water and deeper water of
ocean for operating Ocean Thermal Energy
Conservation power plants
 The warm surface water of ocean is used to
boil a liquid like ammonia, the high pressure vapors of
the liquid are then used to turn turbine of a generator
and produce electricity.

Geothermal Energy
 The energy harnessed from the hot rocks
present inside the earth is called geothermal
energy
  High temperature, high pressure steam fields
exist below the earth’s surface in many places,
this heat comes from the fission of the
radioactive material naturally present in the
rocks
 Holes are drilled artificially upto the hot rocks
and and pipes are put through which the steam
gushes out at high pressure which turns the
turbine of a generator to produce electricity.

Bio-mass Energy
 Bio-mass is the organic matter produced by the
plants or animals which include wood, crop
residues, cattle dung, manure, sewage…
 The bio-mass is directly used as a fuel but the
efficiency of such furnaces is very low and it
produces lot of smoke causing air pollution
 It is therefore more useful to convert the biomass
into bio-gas or bio-fuels.

Bio-gas
 Bio-gas is mixture of methane, carbon dioxide,
hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide, the major constituent
being methane
 Bio-gas is produced by anaerobic degradation of
animal wastes in presence of water
 Bio-gas is non-polluting, clean and low cost fuel
 No storage problems (direct supply from plant)
 The sludge left over is a rich fertilizer containing
bacterial biomass with most of the nutrients preserved
as such
 Bio-gas plants in our country are basically two types:
1. Floating gas holder type
2. Fixed dome type.

LAND RESOURCES

 Land is a finite and valuable resourceupon which we

depend for the basicamenities of life

 Soil is classified as a renewable resource

  The rate of regeneration of soil is very slow, about
200-1000 years are needed for the formation of 1”
of soil, depending on the climate and soil type.

Land degradation
 With increasing population growth the demand
for arable land for producing food, fiber and fuel
wood are also increasing
 more and more pressure on the limited land
resource; degraded due to over exploitation
 Soil degradation is a real cause of alarm
because soil formation is an extremely slow
process
 Soil erosion, water-logging, salinization and
contamination of the soil with the various
industrial wastes … cause land degradation.

Soil Erosion
 Soil erosion means wearing away of the soil; defined
as movement of soil components, especially surface
litter and top soil from one place to another
 Soil erosion results in loss of fertility because it is the
top soil layer that is fertile.
Types
  Normal erosion or geologic erosion
gradual removal of top soil by natural processes which
bring an equilibrium between physical, biological and
hydrological activities and maintain a natural balance
between erosion and renewal
 Accelerated erosion
caused by anthropogenic activities; the rate of erosion is
much faster than the rate of formation of soil;
Overgrazing,deforestation, mining accelerated erosion

Agents causing soil erosion

 Climatic Agents
Water and wind are the climatic agents of the soil
erosion.
Water effects soil erosion in the form of torrential rains,
rapid flow of
water along slopes, run-off, wave action and melting
andmovement of snow
Wind affects soil erosion in the form of saltation
(verticalmovement of soil under the influence of direct
pressure of
stormy winds), suspension and surface creep
 Biotic Agents
Excessive grazing, mining and deforestation are the
major biotic agents responsible for soil erosion
Due to these processes the top soil is disturbed or
rendered devoid of vegetal cover.

Soil Conservation Practices

 Conservational till farming
 Contour farming
 Terracing
 Strip Cropping
 Alley Cropping

Conservation till farming

 Special tillers are used to break up and
loosen the subsurface soil without turning
up the top soil
 The tilling machine make slits in the unploughed
soil and injects seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and a little
water in the slit, so that the seed germinates and
the crop grows.

TERRACING
STRIP CROPPING

Land Slides
 Various anthropogenic activities like hydro-electric
projects, large dams, reservoirs, construction of
roads and railway lines, construction of buildings,
mining … are responsible for clearance of large
forested areas.
 During the construction of roads, mining activities
etc., huge portions of fragile mountainous areas
are cut or destroyed by dynamite and thrown into
adjacent valleys and streams. These activities
weaken the already fragile mountain slopes and
lead to land slides
 They also increase the turbidity of various nearby
streams thereby reducing their productivity.

Desertification
 Desertification is a process whereby the
productive potential of a rid and semi-arid land
falls by 10% or more
 Moderate desertification – 10-25% drop
 Severe desertification – 25-50% drop
 Very Severe desertification – >50% drop
 Desertification is characterized by devegetation
and loss of vegetal cover, depletion of ground,
salinization ans severe soil erosion

Causes
→ Deforestation, Overgrazing, Mining…
Conservation of Natural Resources
- Role of an individual

Equitable use of Resources for

Sustainable Lifestyle .