Land and Soil Resources

Dr. Ratna Trivedi

drratnatrivedi@gmail.com
3 uses that change the land are agriculture,
development, and mining.
Less than 1/3 of Earth can be farmed. New
farmland must be created for the growing
populations.
In the U.S. about a million hectares of
farmland is developed each year.
Development is the construction of buildings,
roads, bridges, dams and other structures.
 Mining
Mining is the removal of nonrenewable resources such
as iron, copper, and coal from the land.
Strip mining removes a strip of land to obtain minerals,
and then replacing the strip. This exposes the soil and
can be washed or blown away. These areas can remain
barren for years before they are rich enough to
support the growth of new plants.
 Protecting the Soil
Poor soil management can result in 3
problems: erosion, nutrient depletion,
and desertification.
 Terms
Litter: The very top layer of dead leaves
and grass.
Topsoil: A mixture of rock fragments,
nutrients, water, air, and decaying
animal and plant matter.
Subsoil: Below the topsoil, contains rock
fragments, water and air, but less animal
and plant matter.
Bedrock: Soil that makes up Earth’s
crust.
It takes hundreds of years to form just a
few centimeters of new soil.
 Erosion
Is the process by which water, wind, or
ice moves particles of rocks or soil.
 Nutrient Depletion
Nutrient Depletion: When farmers plant the same
crops in a field year after year. As a result, the plants
use more nutrients than the decomposers can replace.
The soil becomes less fertile.
 Desertification
The advance of desertlike conditions
into areas that previously were fertile.
 Restoring the Land
Land Reclamation: The process of
restoring an area of land to a more
natural, productive state.
Smooth and replace strip mines with
new topsoil.
Plant grass.
 Review
List three ways that people use land.
What are 3 problems that can occur
when topsoil is not properly managed?
Describe the effects of strip mining.
Describe two methods for reducing soil
erosion.
 Section 2Solid Waste
Every hour people throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles.
Every year people throw away enough white paper to build a wall
4 meters high that stretches coast to coast.
Every year people throw away 1.6 billion pens, 2.9 million tons of
paper towels, and 220 million automobile tires.
Problem of Waste Disposal
Municipal solid waste : Waste materials
produced in homes, businesses, schools,
and other places in a community.
Three methods of handling solid waste.

You can bury it, burn it, or recycle waste.

Leachate: Polluted liquid, from the rainwater that has dissolved

chemicals from the waste.

Sanitary Landfills: Holds municipal

solid wastes, construction debris,
and some types of agricultural and
industrial waste.
 Incineration
The burning of solid waste is called incineration.

The advantages of incinerators is that they do not take

up as much space as landfills, they do not pose the risk
of polluting groundwater, and the heat they produce
can generate electricity.

Disadvantage is that they are more expensive to build.

 Recycling
Recycling: The process of reclaiming raw
materials and reusing them.
Biodegradable: A substance that can be
broken down and recycled by bacteria and
other decomposers.
Most recycling focuses on 4 major categories
of products: metal, glass, paper, and plastic.
Products to Recycle
 Metal
Metals such as iron and aluminum can be melted and
reused. Recycling metal saves money and causes less
pollution than making new metal.
 Glass
Glass is one of the easiest products to recycle because
it can be melted down over and over to make new
glass containers.
Recycling glass is less expensive than making glass
from raw materials. Less energy is required. It also
reduces the environmental damage caused by mining
for sand, soda, and limestone.
 Paper
Most paper products can only be recycled a few times.
Each time the paper is recycled to make pulp, the new
paper is rougher, weaker, and darker.
It takes about 17 trees to make one metric ton of
paper.
 Plastics
When oil is refined to make gasoline and other
petroleum products, solid materials called resins are
left over.
These resins can be heated, stretched, and molded
into plastic products.
Numbers are found on the bottom of plastic
containers. The numbers 1 & 2 are made from plastics
that are often recycled.
 What Can You Do?
These are sometimes called the 3 R’s –
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Reduce: Refers to creating less waste in the
first place. (Use cloth shopping bags than
disposable paper or plastic bags.
Reuse: Find another use for the object rather
than discarding it.( Example ???)
Recycle: Reclaiming raw materials to create
new products.
 Composting
Composting: Is the process of helping the natural
decomposition processes break down many forms of
waste.
Compost is an excellent natural fertilizer for plants.
Examples: (Raked leaves, grass, food waste, eggshells,
coffee grounds and cow manure)
 Hazardous Wastes

Hazardous wastes are classified into 4

categories: Toxic, Explosive, Flammable,
and Corrosive.
 Toxic Waste
Are poisonous wastes that an damage
the health of humans and other
organisms.
 Explosive Waste
Are waste that react very quickly when
exposed to air or water, or that explode
when they are dropped.
 Flammable Waste
Are waste that catch fire easily and can
begin burning at fairly low
temperatures.
 Corrosive Waste
Are waste that dissolve or eat through
many materials.
 Radioactive Waste
Are waste that contain unstable atoms. They require special
disposal.
 Health Effects
Short-term exposure to hazardous
wastes, may cause irritation or more
severe health problems.
Long-term exposure to hazardous
wastes, may cause diseases, such as
cancer,, and may damage body organs,
including the brain, liver, kidneys, and
lungs.
Disposal of Hazardous Waste
Methods of hazardous waste disposal
include burial in landfills, incineration,
and breakdown by living organisms.
Another method involves storing liquid
wastes in deep rock layers.
Scientists have not been able to develop
completely safe methods for disposing
of radioactive waste.
 Land Resource Conservation
Kentucky communities will find land conservation has many benefits and
 much 
effectiveness in protecting water quality, water supplies, and watersheds
.  Experts have 
identified land conservation as an especially valuable set of methods for 
protecting both 
watersheds (Arnold 2006) and sources of drinking water (The Trust for P
ublic Land 2005).  
In fact, there are many benefits to conserving land including: 
a permanent protection of critical watershed or recharge land; 
equitable compensation to landowners for the value of their property th
at serves  community conservation goals; 
multiple benefits to communities, such as flood control, recreation, and t
he  protection of historic and environmental resources; and 
land‐
use control options for communities that do not have regulatory authorit
y in  their source area (Ernst et al. 2004; The Trust for Public Land 1999).