LECTURE-01

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Instructor: Maheen Raza

COURSE CODE: ES- 101 Date: 24/09/2019

TOPIC
BASIC CONCEPTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

What do you think would happen if all of the trees in the forest were cut down, or if
chemicals were spilled in a river, or if snow and rain fall increased drastically?

1. Environment Means
(a) Air, water and land
(b) All layers of the atmosphere
(c) All organic and inorganic matter and living organisms
(d) The ecosystem and ecological relationships
(e) Buildings, structures, roads, facilities and works
(f) All social and economic conditions affecting community life
(g) The inter-relationships between any of the factors in sub-clauses (a) to (f)
2. Definition of Environmental Sciences
Environmental science is the field of science that studies the interactions of the physical,
chemical, and biological components of the environment and also the relationships and
environmental science can be divided into three main goals, which are to learn how the
natural world works, to understand how we as humans interact with the environment,
and also to determine how we affect the environment. The third goal of determining
how humans affect the environment also includes finding ways to deal with these
effects on the environment.
Ecosystem means a dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities
and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.

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 Physical Environment: The Physical Constituent of environment includes soil, water,
air, climate, temperature, light etc. These are also called abiotic constituents of the
environment. This part of the environment mainly determines the type of the habitat or
living conditions of the human population.
Chemical Environment: To maintain the relationship of both physical and biological
environment. This segment of environment is necessary because the chemical in
environment is unfavorable the fish and plants cannot live in the aquarium. Fish use
oxygen from the aquarium and produce ammonia and solid wastes. Uneaten food rots and
pollutes the water. All of these factors affect the quality of the water in the tank. To
maintain a good chemical environment an aquarium needs optimum water quality, a good
source of oxygen, and a system to remove waste.
Biological Environment: The biological constituent of environment is also called biotic
component of environment. This component consists of all living things like plants,
animals and small micro-organisms like bacteria. This component interacts with the
abiotic component of the environment. This interaction of two components forms various
ecosystems like pond ecosystem, marine ecosystem, desert ecosystem etc. ( Concept
Producer, Consumer, Decomposer).
3. Environmental sciences is study of phenomena of environment and relationship with
factors of air, water, land, all layers of atmosphere (troposphere,
stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere) , all inorganic and organic matter and living
organism, the ecosystem and ecological relationship, buildings, roads, structure facilities
and works, all social, economic conditions affecting community life ( interrelationship of
all factors).
4. Interdisciplinary Science

Environmental science is also referred to as an interdisciplinary field because it

incorporates information and ideas from multiple disciplines. Within the natural sciences,
such fields as biology, chemistry, and geology are included in environmental science.
When most people think of environmental science, they think of these natural science
aspects, but what makes environmental science such a complex and broad field is that it
also includes fields from the social sciences and the humanities.

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 The social science fields that are incorporated into environmental science include
geography, economics, and political science. Philosophy and ethics are the two fields
within the humanities that are also included in environmental science. By combining
aspects of the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, the field of
environmental science can cover more concepts and also examine problems and topics
from many different points of view.

5. Components of Environmental Science

 Environmental Soil Study,
 Natural Resource Study,
 Wastewater Study
 Environmental Engineering
 Environmental Chemistry
 Environmental Sociology
 Environmental Economics
 Environmental Biology
6. Major Environmental Science encompasses issues
 Climate Change, Conservation, Biodiversity , Water Quality, Groundwater
Contamination , Soil Contamination, Use of Natural Resources , Waste
Management , Sustainable Development( Sustainable is nothing except justices) ,
Disaster Reduction, Air Pollution, Noise Pollution