Assignment Code: MEV-014/TMA-01/2021-22

Course Code: MEV-014

Assignment Name: Sustainable Natural Resource Management

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Answer any five questions.

Q1. What are natural resources? Classify the natural resources based on their availability.

Ans) Natural resources are the resources which exist without any actions of mankind. This includes all of the valued characteristics like gravitational, magnetic, electrical properties and forces, etc. While talking about Earth, it consists of water, sunlight, atmosphere, land including all minerals along with all the vegetation, crops and animal life which naturally subsists on or within these known and identified substances and characteristics. In this article, we will be learning about natural resources, conservation of natural resources, and the classification of natural resources. Let us first have a look at what are natural resources in detail and how are they conserved.

Classifying Natural Resources

Natural resources are all the original resources of the earth that are utilised by people and the range of natural services provided by these resources that support life and economic activity. Thus natural resources include industrial raw materials and renewable resources such as timber and fisheries, but also other environmental common property resources such as clean freshwater that are used in or support economic activity.

The definition above stresses that the natural environment is inherently multi-functional. It provides numerous economic functions or services in addition to raw materials such as timber, fossil fuels, minerals, and those relating to food. Thus, physical natural resources are just part of a wider system - the environment. In this module our primary focus is upon the allocation of the physical natural resources that are used as inputs in various economic activities. This is what distinguishes natural resource economics from the broader discipline of environmental economics. We shall say more about this distinction shortly.

Underpinning the definition of physical natural resources are a number of important distinctions between natural resource types which we will now examine in a little more detail.

Renewable and Non-renewables:

Some resources, such as minerals or oil, exist as finite stocks, which are non-renewable within an economic time frame. Others, such as timber or solar energy are renewable and, potentially, the flow of services from these resources can be harvested indefinitely. However, the distinction is not absolute and the key lies in the word 'potentially'. The only resources that are always 'renewed' are solar radiation, the winds, and tides. Many renewable resources such as fish, timber, and even water can be mismanaged, degraded, and eventually exhausted. A more useful distinction may therefore be between stock and flow resources.

Renewable natural resources are the resources that can be generated again once they are used. Some of the examples of the renewable natural resources include sunlight, water, and wood.

Non-renewable natural resources are the ones that exhaust after their frequent usage and sometimes it takes a really long time for them to regenerate. An example of this includes natural gas. Another example of the non-renewable natural resource is coal. Just as coal, there are many such natural resources which are limited which means that they cannot be recycled again. Most of these non-renewable natural resources cannot be recycled and hence it is important to conserve these natural resources. There are several natural resources that have a very high demand but have a lesser availability.

Some Examples of the Non - Renewable Natural Resources Include:

1. Air: Existence of all living beings requires clean air. However, due to several reasons, the air gets polluted and it indirectly affects the health of living beings.

2. Water: A very small amount of freshwater is available on Earth. Out of this amount, some amount is portable which means that it can be used for drinking. Since there is a constant change in the climate, there is a change in the rainfall pattern as well. The melting of ice is dropped in winter as well. All these factors result in lowering the amount of this natural resource which is crucial to life on Earth.

3. Fossil Fuels: Natural resources like natural gas, coal, and petroleum would be over someday which means that they are exhaustible. It takes several millions of years for one dead organism to get converted into fuels. They are consumed with a faster rate than the rate that it is formed. The excess burning of these fossil fuels leads to air pollution since it gives out carbon dioxide which is a type of greenhouse gas.

Stock Resources:

These are compounds which have taken millions of years to form and so, from an economic perspective, may be considered as 'fixed' in supply. There is, therefore, a limit to the quantity of these which can ultimately be used. However, in many cases we do not know where this limit lies. This, in turn, can cause difficulties in designing policies to ensure optimal allocation.

The stock resource class is not a homogeneous one. An important distinction arises between those resources which are consumed by use and those which can potentially be recycled. With existing technologies many metals can be reused with little loss of quality. In principle, their total stock could remain constant over time, taking account both of the metal remaining in the earth's crust and that temporarily stored in products. Thus, we may make a further classification into theoretically recoverable stocks and recyclable stocks.

Flow Resources:

Flow resources are defined as those which can be naturally renewed within a sufficiently short time-span to be of relevance to decision-makers. It is useful, however, to make a further distinction between those flows which do not appear to be dependent on human activity and those which are indefinitely renewable if use remains at or below their capacity to reproduce or regenerate. The latter, the so-called 'critical zone resources' can, however, be exploited to exhaustion. If the rate of use exceeds the rate of natural replenishment, such resources can effectively be mined like a mineral stock. Non-critical zone resources remain renewable irrespective of human activity.

Reserves:

A further, crucially important, distinction is made between currently exploitable resources and theoretically exploitable resources. Current resource appraisals often identify currently exploitable resources as reserves. These are the supplies of materials or energy which are exploitable in political, economic, and technical terms under current conditions. Other sources may not be currently exploitable but may become so if extraction technology improves or if demand for the resource is high enough to justify exploitation of these more difficult and costly sources. In other words, they may become part of the reserves in future.

Q2. What is a mineral and describe its types? Describe the importance of mineral resources.

Ans) Minerals are an important part of our everyday life and make up most of the earth they are defined as naturally occurring substances that have a crystalline structure.

Examples of Minerals:

Minerals are solid substances found in nature. They are not alive. The atoms which make up a mineral are fitted together to form a crystal. The chemical composition that is the kinds of atoms in a given kind of crystal is the same for every crystal of that kind although impurities or matter that is not part of the crystal may be included. Gold, diamond, rock salt and the graphite used to make the “lead” in pencils are examples of minerals.

Each of these minerals is different yet many times minerals look like one another or something else. A piece of green coloured plastic may look identical to an emerald. A very clear piece of quartz may look like a rough diamond. The Mols hardness test a streak test, colour, luter, cleavage and fracture are all ways of identifying minerals.

Different Types of Minerals

Minerals are classified based on their crystal form and chemistry.

Minerals are divided into two types namely metallic and non-metallic.

Metallic Minerals:

Metallic minerals exhibit lustre in their appearance and consist of metals in their chemical composition. These minerals serve as a potential source of metal and can be extracted through mining. Examples of metallic minerals are Manganese; iron ore and bauxite are Metallic minerals and be divided into ferrous and non-ferrous metallic minerals. Ferrous minerals are one that contains iron and non-ferrous are one that does not contain iron.

Non-metallic Minerals:

Non-metallic minerals are minerals which either show a non-metallic lustre or shine in their appearance. Extractable metals are not present in their chemical composition. Limestone, gypsum, and mica are examples of non-metallic minerals.

1. Bauxite ore mostly exists in deeply weathered rocks. Volcanic rocks contain bauxite deposits in some regions.

2. Iron metal extracted from iron ore. It never exists in pure form and has to be extracted from iron ore by eliminating the impurities.

3. Gold is the oldest and most precious element to be known.

4. Manganese ore is a silvery brittle or grey-white metallic ore occurs in many forms and found worldwide.

Examples of Minerals and their Uses:

Here is a list of Minerals that are immensely used to improve our day-to-day lives.

1. Hematite: It is a Metallic Mineral and an Iron Oxide. It’s formula is Fe2O3. It is used to extract iron and is one of the many Iron Ores. Other Iron ores are Magnetite, Limonite, and Siderite.

2. Gold: Gold is also a Metallic Mineral that is generally found in its elemental form (i.e. not in a compound) or as an Alloy with Mercury or Silver. Gold has been used for centuries as jewellery and as a store of value or currency.

3. Coal: Coal is a black hard substance that is mostly Carbon. It is one of the most commonly used fossil fuels. It was earlier used to run steam engines but is now mostly used to produce electricity in thermal power stations. It is also used as a domestic fuel, albeit at a low scale.

4. Diamond: Diamond is another form of Carbon that is one of the hardest substances found in nature. Some diamonds are very lustrous and are used as ornaments. Other diamonds, which do not find any use in jewellery, are used as cutters in industries.

Importance of Mineral Resources

Mineral resources are essential to our modern industrial society and they are used everywhere. For example, at breakfast you drink some juice in a glass (made from melted quartz sand), eat from a ceramic plate (created from clay minerals heated at high temperatures), sprinkle salt (halite) on your eggs, use steel utensils (from iron ore and other minerals), read a magazine (coated with up to 50% kaolinite clay to give the glossy look), and answer your cell phone (containing over 40 different minerals including copper, silver, gold, and platinum). We need minerals to make cars, computers, appliances, concrete roads, houses, tractors, fertilizer, electrical transmission lines, and jewellery.

Without mineral resources, industry would collapse and living standards would plummet. In 2010, the average person in the U.S. consumed more than16,000 pounds of mineral resources1 (see Table Per Capita Consumption of Minerals). With an average life expectancy of 78 years, that translates to about 1.3 million pounds of mineral resources over such a person’s lifetime. Here are a few statistics that help to explain these large values of mineral use: an average American house contains about 250,000 pounds of minerals (see Figure Mineral Use in the Kitchen for examples of mineral use in the kitchen), one mile of Interstate highway uses 170 million pounds of earth materials, and the U.S. has nearly 4 million miles of roads.

All of these mineral resources are nonrenewable, because nature usually takes hundreds of thousands to millions of years to produce mineral deposits. Early hominids used rocks as simple tools as early as 2.6 million years ago. At least 500,000 years ago prehistoric people used flint (fine-grained quartz) for knives and arrowheads. Other important early uses of minerals include mineral pigments such as manganese oxides and iron oxides for art, salt for food preservation, stone for pyramids, and metals such as bronze (typically tin and copper), which is stronger than pure copper and iron for steel, which is stronger than bronze.

Q3. Describe soil and land resources and their conservation practices.

Ans) The formation of soils require thousands and even millions of years of physical, geological, chemical, and biological processes. Soil’s complex mixture of eroded rock, minerals, ions, partially decomposed organic material, water, air, roots, fungi, animals, and microorganisms supports the growth of plants, which are the foundation of terrestrial ecosystems. Soil is a balanced intersection of air, water, and land resources, sensitive to changes in any one element. We use soils for agriculture, gardening, landscaping, earth sheltered buildings, and to absorb waste from composting and septic drain fields. Peat, an accumulation of partially decayed plant material, can be burned for energy.

Soils can assimilate and remove low levels of contamination; thus it is useful for waste treatment. Not surprisingly, high levels of contamination can kill soil microorganisms, which help to accomplish this service. Toxics from industry, underground storage tanks, pesticide use, and leaching from landfills and septic tanks contaminate soils across the globe. Contaminated soils endanger human and ecosystem health.

Agriculture, as one of the largest land uses, has altered soils in a number of ways. When we harvest crops repeatedly from soil, we remove basic ions such as Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, and Sodium. One result is acidification, which lowers soil fertility and productivity. Acid rain and the use of nitrogen fertilizers accelerate acidification, and acid rain can increase soil contamination.

Irrigation can degrade soils through salination – the accumulation of salts. High concentrations of salt make it difficult for plants to absorb water by osmosis, so salination reduces plant growth and productivity, and can lead to desertification (degradation of formerly productive land – usually at least semi-arid) and soil erosion.

Agriculture, deforestation, overgrazing, and development can remove vegetation to cause unnatural levels of erosion by wind and water. In the U.S., erosion forced its way into public awareness during the 1930s after drought compounded exposed soils. The famous Dust Bowl resulted in the loss of at least 5 inches of topsoil from nearly 10 million acres of land and the migration of 2.5 million people out of the Great Plains.

Today in the U.S., contour ploughing, cover crops, terracing, strip farming, no-till farming, reforestation, and better construction practices prevent some soil erosion, but the USDA reports that 1.6 billion metric tons of topsoil were lost annually between 1997 and 2001. Since Great Plains agriculture began some 200 years ago, the U.S. has lost one-third of its topsoil. Alarming rates of slash-and-burn agriculture in tropical forests expose thin soils to erosion, and development in China sends 1.6 billion tons of sediment annually into the Yellow River.

Land use changes affect global processes as well as the ecosystems they directly involve. Deforestation – even if it is replaced by agriculture – reduces photosynthesis, which means that less CO2 is removed from the atmosphere. The result is that CO2 builds up – and as you will see in the Climate Change concepts, an increase in CO2 means an increase in the greenhouse effect and global warming. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that land use change contributes 1.6 gigatons of carbon (as CO2) per year to the atmosphere. This is highly significant when compared to the better-known fossil fuel-burning carbon contributions of 6.3 gigatons.

Urbanization and industry contribute to yet another land use issue that affects water resources and the atmosphere. Increasingly, impervious surfaces such as parking lots, building roofs, streets and roadways are covering land areas. Impervious surfaces prevent water infiltration and groundwater recharge, increasing runoff and altering waterways. They deprive tree roots of aeration and water, decreasing productivity and increasing CO2. Far more than vegetated surfaces, they absorb solar radiation and convert it to heat, increasing runoff, which eventually degrades streams. In the U.S., impervious surfaces cover an area almost as large as the state of Ohio. Solutions to this harmful impact include the development of porous pavements and green roofs.

Conservation of Land

Growing population and their ever-growing demand has led to a large-scale destruction of forest cover and arable land and has created a fear of losing this natural resource. Therefore, the present rate of degradation of land must be checked. Afforestation, land reclamation, regulated use of chemical pesticide and fertilisers and checks on overgrazing are some of the common methods used to conserve land resources.

Conservation of Soil

1. Mulching: The bare ground between plants is covered with a layer of organic matter like straw. It helps to retain soil moisture.

2. Contour Barriers: Stones, grass, soil are used to build barriers along contours. Trenches are made in front of the barriers to collect water.

3. Rock Dam: Rocks are piled up to slow down the flow of water. This prevents gullies and further soil loss.

4. Terrace Farming: Broad flat steps or terraces are made on the steep slopes so that flat surfaces are available to grow crops. They reduce surface run-off and soil erosion.

5. Intercropping: Different crops are grown in alternate rows and are sown at different times to protect the soil from rain wash.

6. Contour Ploughing: Ploughing parallel to the contours of a hill slope to form a natural barrier for water to flow down the slope.

7. Shelter Belts: In the coastal and dry regions, rows of trees are planted to check the wind movement to protect soil cover.

Q4. Discuss status and distribution of forests in India. Discuss the impacts of deforestation.

Ans)

Status of Forests

India occupies 2.5 percent of world geographic area supporting 17 percent of human population and 18 percent livestock of the world. The forest cover in the country is about 76.5 million hectares (23% of total land mass). The dense forests (crown density more than 40%), open forests (crown density 10% less than 40%) and scrub including mangrove forests (tree land with less than 10% crown density) accounted for 48,34 and 18 percent of forest area, respectively. On average about 1.2 million ha.(hectare) area is taken up for plantation which generates 144 million man-days of employment per annum.

The productivity of forests is extremely low as 0.7 cum (Cubic metre) as against the world average 2.1 cum/ha./year (Lal, 1989) and along with this, the average growing stock is 32 cum per ha. as compared to world average of 110cum. Achieving the potential of world productivity i.e. three times would bring conservable improvement in economic environmental well-being of land and people in the country.

The biotic pressure on forests had always been causing a continuous decline in forest area over time. The decline in area of dense forests in India is recorded from 46.42 to 36.37 million ha. during the time period 1972-1997(deforestation @ 0.6 million ha. per annum, FAO, 1998). due to loss of natural forests. A sharp reduction in forest area was observed in all states during last two decades. The forest area is declining more rapidly in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh states of Indian Unions. The area under forests registered fluctuating trend since 1980-81. The forest area increased by about 0.8 percent in 1990-91,but a sudden decline i.e. 0.3 percent is reported in 1992-93 and then slight increase during subsequent years. The inter-states distribution of forest area per capita indicates that Arunachal Pradesh state ranked first i.e. 7.93 ha. While Madhya Pradesh state having highest forest area constituted 21.19 percent of total area under forests.

Distribution of Forest

India is a large and diverse country. Its land area includes regions with some of the world's highest rainfall to very dry deserts, coast line to alpine regions, river deltas to tropical islands. The variety and distribution of forest vegetation is large: there are 600 species of hardwoods, Sal. India is one of the 12 mega biodiverse regions of the world. Indian forests types include tropical evergreens, tropical deciduous, swamps, mangroves, sub-tropical, montane, scrub, sub-alpine and alpine forests. These forests support a variety of ecosystems with diverse flora and fauna.

Forest Cover Measurement Methods:

Prior to 1980s, India deployed a bureaucratic method to estimate forest coverage. A land was notified as covered under Indian Forest Act, and then officials deemed this land area as recorded forest even if it was devoid of vegetation. By this forest-in-name-only method, the total amount of recorded forest, per official Indian records, was 71.8 million hectares.[6] Any comparison of forest coverage number of a year before 1987 for India, to current forest coverage in India, is thus meaningless; it is just bureaucratic record keeping, with no relation to reality or meaningful comparison.

In the 1980s, space satellites were deployed for remote sensing of real forest cover. Standards were introduced to classify India's forests into the following categories:

1. Forest Cover: defined as all lands, more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percent. (Such lands may or may not be statutorily notified as forest area).

2. Very Dense Forest: All lands, with a forest cover with canopy density of 70 percent and above

3. Moderately Dense Forest: All lands, with a forest cover with canopy density of 40-70 percent

4. Open Forest: All lands, with forest cover with canopy density of 10 to 40 percent

5. Mangrove Cover: Mangrove forest is salt tolerant forest ecosystem found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical coastal and/or inter-tidal regions. Mangrove cover is the area covered under mangrove vegetation as interpreted digitally from remote sensing data. It is a part of forest cover and also classified into three classes viz. very dense, moderately dense, and open.

6. Non-Forest Land: defined as lands without any forest cover.

7. Scrub Cover: All lands, generally in and around forest areas, having bushes and or poor tree growth, chiefly small or stunted trees with canopy density less than 10 percent

8. Tree Cover: Land with tree patches (blocks and linear) outside the recorded forest area exclusive of forest cover and less than the minimum mappable area of 1 hectare

9. Trees Outside Forests: Trees growing outside Recorded Forest Areas.

The first satellite recorded forest coverage data for India became available in 1987. India and the United States cooperated in 2001, using Landsat MSS with spatial resolution of 80 meters, to get accurate forest distribution data. India thereafter switched to digital image and advanced satellites with 23 meters resolution and software processing of images to get more refined data on forest quantity and forest quality. India now assesses its forest distribution data biennially.

The 2007 forest census data thus obtained and published by the Government of India suggests the five states with largest area under forest cover as the following:

1. Madhya Pradesh: 7.64 million hectares

2. Arunachal Pradesh: 6.8 million hectares

3. Chhattisgarh: 5.6 million hectares

4. Orissa: 4.83 million hectares

5. Maharashtra: 4.68 million hectares

   
   

Impact of Deforestation

Environmental Effects of Deforestation:

1. Loss of Habitat: One of the most dangerous and unsettling effects of deforestation is the loss of animal and plant species due to their loss of habitat. 70% of land animals and plant species live in forests. Not only does deforestation threaten species known to us, but also those unknown. The trees of the rainforest that provide shelter for some species also provide the canopy that regulates the temperature. Deforestation results in a more drastic temperature variation from day to night, much like a desert, which could prove fatal for many inhabitants.

2. Increased Greenhouse Gases: In addition to the loss of habitat, the lack of trees also allows a greater amount of greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere. Healthy forests absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, acting as valuable carbon sinks. Deforested areas lose that ability and release more carbon.

3. Water in the Atmosphere: The trees also help control the level of water in the atmosphere by helping to regulate the water cycle. In deforested areas, there is less water in the air to be returned to the soil. This then causes dryer soil and the inability to grow crops.

Environmental Effects of Deforestation:

Soil Erosion and Flooding: Further effects of deforestation include soil erosion and coastal flooding. Trees help the land to retain water and topsoil, which provides the rich nutrients to sustain additional forest life. Without forests, the soil erodes and washes away, causing farmers to move on and perpetuate the cycle. The barren land which is left behind in the wake of these unsustainable agricultural practices is then more susceptible to flooding, specifically in coastal regions.

Effects of Deforestation on Indigenous People:

Destruction of Homelands: As large amounts of forests are cleared away, allowing exposed earth to wither and die and the habitats of innumerable species to be destroyed, the indigenous communities who live there and depend on the forest to sustain their way of life are also under threat. The loss of forests has an immediate and direct effect on their lifestyle that we in the highly industrialized parts of the world, despite our own dependency on what the rainforest provides, will never know. The level of immediacy is exponentially greater for indigenous peoples. The governments of nations with rainforests in their borders often attempt to evict indigenous tribes before the actual clear-cutting begins. This is one of the pre-emptive effects of deforestation.

Q5. Describe approaches for natural resource conservation.

Ans) There are several ways to conserve natural resources in your very own home, such as:

Use Less Water

Taking shorter showers or turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth can reduce water waste in your home. Only use your dishwasher or washing machine when there is a full load, and switch to energy-saving appliances if possible.

Turn Off the Lights

Turn off any lights or televisions after you leave a room. Unplug appliances like portable air conditioners, toasters, and coffeemakers when not in use, as they can continue to use small amounts of electricity. Additionally, LED light bulbs require far less wattage than standard bulbs, so switching to this alternative lighting method can also help conserve resources.

Use Renewable Energy

Although renewable energy consumption has been in practice for centuries, recent years of climate change and global warming have pushed many scientists and researchers to look for ways to incorporate more green practices into our everyday lives. Renewable energy replenishes itself, cutting down on our need to harvest new resources. Using solar panels or wind energy can significantly reduce our reliance on natural gas and cut back on resource depletion over time.

Recycle

Making new products requires the use of resources, but recycling helps reuse the materials we already have. Manufacturing fewer new materials reduce waste, which helping decrease groundwater and air pollution. Find a center that accepts items like plastic bottles, cardboard, or aluminium for recycling. Switch to paperless billing and buy recycled paper to limit the need for logging and deforestation.

Compost

Composting is a great way to convert your food scraps into useful materials for your home garden. Composting enriches your soil and reduces the need for watering by improving runoff, which reduces soil erosion. Composting also attracts beneficial organisms that cut down on the need for pesticides or harmful chemicals. Composting encourages sustainability and can lessen the amount of waste and pollution produced by food waste.

Choose Reusable Goods

Avoiding single-use plastics is another way to conserve resources. Instead of buying water bottles, plastic cups, or paper plates, opt for ceramic, metal, or glassware. Use your own fabric grocery bags rather than plastic bags. Reusing items is a great way to reduce waste and keep excess trash out of landfills.

Manage your Thermostat

Heating and air conditioning make up approximately half of your energy bill but lowering the heat by just two degrees in the winter can help conserve energy in your home. Raising the thermostat two degrees in the summer will also have energy-saving effects and help reduce your monthly bill.

Thrift Shop

It can take over 600 gallons of water to make a single cotton t-shirt. Buying second-hand clothing can reduce the amount of reusable clothing that ends up in landfills by extending its lifecycle. Thrift shopping increases the amount of time between the use and disposal phase of a garment’s lifecycle, giving us more out of our used clothing, which can decrease the need for overproduction and manufacturing.