Lecture 7

28.11.2022

Environmental
Studies
(CYCI-104)

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Department of Chemistry

UNIT- II
Natural Resources
 • Introduction
• Renewable and Non-renewable Resources
• Natural Resources and Associated
Content Problems
• Water Resources
• Mineral Resources
• Food Resources
• Energy Resources
 Life on the planet Earth depends upon a
variety of goods and services provided
by the nature, which are known as
Natural Resources.
Any stock or reserve that can be drawn
from nature is a natural resource.
Introduction  Thus, water, air, soil, minerals, coal,
forests, crops and wildlife are all
examples of natural resources.
They are essential for the fulfilment of
physiological, social, economical and
cultural needs at the individual and
community levels.
  It is very important to protect and
conserve our natural resources and use
them in a judicious manner so that we
do not exhaust them.

Introduction
 It does not mean that we should stop
using the natural resources rather we
should use the resources in such a way
that we always save enough of them
for our future generations.
 The resources that can be replenished through rapid
natural cycles are known as renewable resource.
These resources are able to increase their abundance
through reproduction.
Example: Plants and animals.
 Some renewable resources do not have life cycle but
Renewable can be recycled.
Resources Example: Wood and wood-products, natural rubber, fibers
(e.g. cotton, jute, animal wool, silk and synthetic fibers) and
leather.
 Water and soil are also classified as renewable
resources.
 Solar energy, as a special case, is considered as a
renewable resource in as much as solar stocks is
inexhaustible on the human life scale.
 The resources that cannot be replenished
through natural processes are known as non-
renewable resources.
 These are available in limited amounts,
which cannot be increased.
Non -
 These resources include fossil fuels (petrol,
renewable coal etc.), metals (iron, copper, gold, silver,
Resources lead, zinc etc.), minerals and salts
(carbonates, phosphates, nitrates etc.).
 Once a non-renewable resource is
consumed, it is gone forever.
 Non-renewable resources can further be divided
into two categories:
A) Recyclable: that can be collected after they are
used and can be recycled.
 These are mainly the non-energy mineral
Non- resources, which occur in the earth’s crust (Ex:
renewable Ores of aluminium, copper, mercury etc.) and
deposits of fertilizer nutrients (e.g. Phosphates,
Resources potassium and minerals used in their natural state
(clay, mica etc.)
B) Non-recyclable: that cannot be recycled in any
way.
 Ex: Fossil fuels and uranium, which provide
nearly 90 % of our current energy requirements
  Rapid depletion of natural resources.
 Unequal consumption: The main problem
associated with natural resources
 A major part of natural resources are consumed in
Natural the ‘developed’ world.
Resources  The ‘developing nations’ also over use many
and resources because of their greater human
population. However, the consumption of resources
Associated per capita (per individual) of the developed
Problems countries is up to 50 times greater than in most
developing countries.
 Advanced countries produce over 75% of global
industrial waste and greenhouse gases.
 Energy from fossil fuels consumed in relatively much
greater quantities in developed countries.
 Scope of this Chapter

 Water resources
Natural
Resources  Mineral resources
Food resources
 Energy resources
 Water is an indispensable natural
resource on the earth on which all
the life depends.
WATER  About 71% of the earth's surface is
RESOURCES covered by water
Most of the animals and plants
have 60-65% water in their body.
 WATER-A Precious Natural Resource
Although water is very abundant on
this earth, yet it very precious.
WATER-A  Out of the total water reserves of the
Precious world, about 97% is salty water
Natural (marine) and only 3% is fresh water.
Resource  Even this small fraction of fresh water
is not available to us as most of it is
locked up in polar ice caps and just 0.
3% is readily available to use the form
of groundwater and surface water.
 Certain unique features make water a
marvelous resource
It exists as a liquid over a wide range of
temperature from zero degree to 100
degree Celsius.
 Water has the highest specific heat (the
amount of heat one gram of a substance
must absorb or lose to change its
temperature by one degree Celsius. For
water, this amount is one calorie, or
WATER- A UNIQUE 4.184 Joules), due to which it warm up
RESOURCE and cools down very slowly without
causing shocks of temperature jerks to
the aquatic life.
  High latent heat of vaporization (When a material
in liquid state is given energy, it changes its
phase from liquid to vapour without change in
temperature, the energy absorbed in the process
is called latent heat of vaporization. The latent
heat of vaporization of water is
WATER- A about 2260kJ/Kg which is equal to 40.8kJ/mol).
Hence, it takes a huge amount of energy for
UNIQUE getting vaporized. That's why it produces a
RESOURCE cooling effect as it evaporates.

 An excellent solvent for several nutrients. Thus, it

can serve as a very good carrier of nutrients,
including oxygen , which are essential for life.
 Water has multiple uses for all living
organisms:
Absolutely essential for life. Most of the
life processes take place in water
contained in the body.
1% drop in the body: feel thirst.
10% drops : may cause death.
Water Uses
 Uptake of nutrients, their distribution in
the body, regulation of temperature, and
removal of wastes are all mediated
through water.
Human beings depend on water for
almost every developmental activity.
 Water keeps on cycling endlessly
through the environment, the process
is called Hydrological Cycle.
The water from various moist surfaces
Hydrological
evaporates and falls again on the earth
Cycle in the form of rain or snow and passes
through living organisms and
ultimately returns to the oceans.
Hydrological
Cycle
  Every year about 1.4 inch thick layer of
water evaporates from the oceans, more
than 90 % of which returns to the oceans
through the hydrological cycle.
 Solar energy drives the water cycle by
evaporating it from various water
Hydrological bodies, which subsequently return
Cycle through rainfall or snow.
 Plants too play a very important role by
absorbing the groundwater from the soil
and releasing it into the atmosphere by
the process of transpiration.
  Global distribution of water resources is
quite uneven depending upon several
geographic factors
 Tropical rain forest areas receive
maximum rainfall while the major world
deserts receive very little rainfall.
Global  On a global over 70 percent of the water
distribution and withdrawn is used for agriculture.
use of water  In India, we use 93 % of water in
agriculture sector while in a county like
Kuwait, which is water poor, only 4% is
used for watering the crops.
 About 25% of water on global average is
used in Industry, which again varies from
a high of 70% in European countries to as
low as 5% in less developed countries.
 Although precious, water resources are
overexploited
Overuse of groundwater for drinking,
irrigation and domestic purposes has
resulted in rapid depletion of
groundwater in various regions leading
to lowering of water table and drying of
wells.

Overexploitation
 Pollution of many of the groundwater
of water resources
aquifer has made many of these wells
unfit for consumption.
Overexploitation
of water
resources
 Rivers and stream have long
been used for discharging the
waste.
Most of the civilizations have
grown and flourished on the
banks of rivers but unfortunately,
WATER-A growth in turn, has been
Precious Natural responsible for pollution of the
Resource rivers.
  As per the United Nations estimates (2002),
at least 1.1 billion people do not even have
access to safe drinking water
 2.4 billion do not have adequate sanitation
facilities.
Overexploitation
 Increasing population and expanding
of water development would further increase the
resources demands for wastes.
 It is estimated that by 2024, two-thirds of
the world population would be suffering
from acute water shortage
Distribution of
fresh water
resources
 Groundwater
About 9% of the total fresh water resources
are in the form of groundwater.

 Till sometime back groundwater was

Groundwater considered to be very pure.

 However, in the current time, even

groundwater aquifers have been found to be
contaminated by leachates from sanitary
landfills, industrial waste etc.
 AQUIFER
 A layer of sediment or rock that is
highly permeable and contains water is
called an aquifer.
GROUNDWATER Layer of sand and gravel are good
aquifers while clay and crystalline rocks
(like granite) are not since they have
low permeability.
GROUNDWATER
 Aquifers may be of two types:
 Unconfined aquifer which are
overlaid by permeable earth
GROUNDWATER materials and they are recharged
by water seeping down from above
in the form of rainfall and snow
melt.
GROUNDWATER
  Confined aquifers which are
sandwiched between two
impermeable layers of rock or
sediments and are recharged only
in those areas where the aquifer
intersects the land surface
Sometimes the recharged area is
hundreds of kilometers away from
GROUNDWATER the location of the well.
 Aquifers

GROUNDWATER  GROUNDWATER
 Ground Subsidence
When groundwater withdrawal is more than
its recharge rate, the sediments in the aquifer
get compacted, a phenomenon known as
ground subsidence.
 Huge economic losses may occur due to this
Effects of over phenomenon because it results in the sinking
utilization of of overlying land surface.
ground water  It results in
• damage in buildings
• fracture in pipes
• reversing the flow of sewers and canals
and tidal flooding.
 Ground Subsidence in Vietnam

Ground Source: https://www.vir.com.vn/ground-subsidence-creates-25-meter-deep-hole-in-

central-vietnam-31074.html
Subsidence
Ground Subsidence in Kochi

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi published Aug 24, 2018

 Lowering of Water Table
 Mining of groundwater is done
extensively in arid and semi-and
regions for irrigating crop fields .
However, excessive mining causes
Effects of over  lowering of water table.
utilization of  drying up of wells.
ground water  decrease the number of aquifers
 change in the speed and direction of
water.
Result: sharp decline in future
agricultural production
 Water Logging
Excessive irrigation with ground water leads
to water logging and salinity problems.
Intrusion of salt water:
In coastal areas over exploitation of ground
water leads to the intrusion of salt water from
sea.
Effects of over
utilization of
ground water Pollution of water:
Near the agricultural land ground water
decreases therefore water containing nitrogen
(from fertilizers) enters into the ground and
pollute the ground water with excess nitrate
content.
Therefore that water cannot be used for
drinking and agriculture.
Effects of over
utilization of
ground water
  The water coming through
precipitation (rainfall, snow) when
does not percolate down into the
ground assumes the form of streams,
lakes, ponds, wetlands or artificial
reservoirs known as surface water.
Surface Water  The surface water is largely used for
irrigation, industrial use, public water
supply, navigation etc.
A country's economy is largely
dependent upon its surface water
(rivers).
 Major Issues
Environmental  Floods
Issues Related
to Water
 Droughts
Resources  Dams
 Water conflicts
 It is an over flow of water when
magnitude of flow of water
exceeds the carrying capacity of
the channels of the rivers.
In some countries like India and
Bangladesh rainfall does not
occur throughout the year, rather
90% of it is concentrated into a
few months (June-September)
Floods resulting into the overflow of
rivers.
 Causes:
Natural : Heavy rainfall, melting of
snow , cloud bursts and sudden
release of water from dams. (Flash
floods)
 Reduction in the carrying capacity
Major of the channel.
Causes of  Anthropogenic : Deforestation,
Floods mining and over grazing increase the
runoff from rains and the level of
flood raises.
https://www.oneindia.com/india
  Water spreads in the surrounding
area and submerges them.
 Cultivated land gets affected.
Effects of  Extinction of civilization.
Floods  Water Borne Diseases
Huge social, economic and cultural
losses
 Lecture 11
20.04.2021

Environmental
Studies
(CYCI-104)

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Department of Chemistry

 Drought is scarcity of water, which
occurs due to
Inadequate rain fall
 Late arrival of rain fall
 Excessive withdrawal of ground
water

Lack of water for the needs of

agriculture, livestock, industry or
Droughts human population may be termed as
a drought.
 Drought causes serious damages to
plants, animals and human life.
About 80 countries in the world that
are lying in the arid and semi arid
regions, experience frequent spells of
droughts, very often extending up to
year long duration.
Ironically, these drought-hit areas are
often having a high population growth
Droughts that makes the situation worse.
 Anthropogenic causes
•Several anthropogenic causes like
overgrazing, deforestation, mining
there is spreading of the deserts
tending to convert more areas to
DROUGHTS drought affected areas.
In the last 25-30 years India has
experienced more and more
desertification, thereby increasing the
vulnerability of larger parts of the
country to drought.
 Anthropogenic causes
Erroneous and intensive cropping
pattern and increased exploitation of
scarce water resources through well or
canal irrigation to get high productivity
has converted drought-prone areas
DROUGHTS into desertified ones.
Example: In Maharashtra there has
been no recovery from drought for the
last 30 years due to over-exploitation of
water by sugarcane crop which has
high water demands.
 Hunger, malnutrition and diet related
diseases
Widespread crop failure leading to acute
shortage of food and adversely affects human
and live stock population.
Worse situation of drought causes
Effects of desertification.
Droughts Raw materials of agro based industries are
critically affected during drought time, hence
industrial and commercial growth decreases.
Drought increases the degradation of natural
resources.
Drought causes large migration of people
and urbanization
 Indigenous knowledge is essential.
 Rain water harvesting system.
Construction of reservoirs to improve
ground water level.
Drought Modern irrigation technology (drip
Management irrigation) very useful to conserve water.
 Afforestation activities also improve the
potential of water in the drought area.
Crop mixing and dry farming are the
suitable methods which minimize the risk
of crop failures in dry area.
 Indispensability of water and its
unequal distributions in different
regions has often led to inter-state or
international disputes related to
Conflicts Over sharing of river water
Water These have been largely affecting out
farmers and also shaking our
governments.
Some major water conflicts at
discussed here .
 Water conflicts in the Middle East
Three rivers basins, namely the Jordan, the
International Tigris-Euphrates and the Nile are the
Conflicts shared water resources for Middle East
countries.
Ethiopia controls the head waters of 80%
of Nile’s flow and plans to increase it.
Sudan too is trying to divert more water.
This would badly affect Egypt, which is a
desert, except for a thin strip of irrigated
cropland along the river Nile and its delta.
The population of Egypt is likely to double
in the next 20 years, thereby increasing its
water crisis.
 There is a fierce battle for water among
Jordan, Syria and Israel for the Jordan
International River water share.
Conflicts

Jordan River
Conflicts
 The Indus Water Treaty
 The Indus, one of the mightiest rivers is dying a
International sloe death due dams and barrages that have been
Conflicts built up.
 The Sukkur Barrage, Ghulam Mohammad
Barrage, and Tarbela and Chasma Dams on
Jhelum, a tributary of Indus have resulted in
severe shrinking of the Indus delta.
 In 1960, the Indus water treaty was established
by which Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab were
allocated to Pakistan and the Satluj, the Ravi and
the Beas were allocated to India .
 However, the Treaty requires the three rivers
allocated to Pakistan may be used for non-
consumptive purposes by India i.e. without
changing flow and quality.
 The political relations between the
two countries affect the Indus
Water Treaty and the misuse of the
The Indus water is possible.
Water Treaty it is desirable to work out techno-
economic details and go for an
integrated development of the
river basin in a sustainable manner.
 Out of India's 18 major rivers 17 are
shared between different states.
National  In all these cases, there are intense
Conflicts conflicts over these resources
which hardly see to resolve.
 The Cauvery river water is a bone of
The Cauvery contention between Tamil Nadu and
water dispute Karnataka and the problem is almost
hundred years old.
Tamil Nadu, occupying the
downstream region of the river wants
water-use regulated in the upstream.
 Whereas, the upstream state
Karnataka refuses to do so and claims
its primacy over the river as upstream
user .
 The issue of sharing the Ravi-Beas
The Satluj-
waters and SYL issue between
Yamuna Link
Punjab and Haryana is being
(SYL) canal
discussed time and again and the
dispute
case is in the Supreme Court.
  The Eradi Tribunal in 1985 (Chair V. Balakrishna Eradi) on the allocation
of water on the basis of the time in-flow data of 20 years (1960-80),
according to which 17.17 MAF (million acre feet) water was available.
The Satluj-
 However, now it is argued by Punjab that in the last few years there has
Yamuna Link been consistent decline reducing the quantity to 14.34 MAF.
(SYL) canal
 The Supreme Court on 15, 2002 directed Punjab to complete and
dispute
compassion the SYL within a year, failing which the Centre was told to
complete it. However, two years have passed, but neither the SYL has
been completed nor the conflict over sharing of Ravi-Beas water is
resolved.
 The Yamuna basin covers the
state of Haryana while the
The Satluj- Indus basin covers Punjab.
Yamuna Link The conflict revolving around
(SYL) canal sharing of river water needs to
dispute
be tackled with greater
understanding and objectivity.
  Big dams are often regarded as a
symbol of national development.
 However, there are several other issues
and problems related to Dams.
Big Dams- Necessary Evils??
Benefits and
Problems
 Dams are aimed at providing
employment and raising the standards
and quality of life.
Help in checking the floods and famines
Benefits of Generate electricity and reduce water
Dams and power shortage, provide irrigation
water to lower areas, provide drinking
water in remote areas
 Promote navigation, fishery and other
employments.
Benefits of
Dams
Benefits of
Dams
 The environmental impacts of big
dams are also t00 many due to which
Environmental very often the big dams become a
Problems subject of controversy.
Related to Dams
  Displacement of tribal people
 Loss of forests, flora and fauna
 Loss of non-forest land
Environmental  Siltation and sedimentation of reservoirs
Problems  Stagnation and water logging near
Related to reservoirs
Dams  Breeding of vectors and spread of
vector-borne diseases.
 Flash floods.
Environmental Salt water intrusion at river mouth.
Problems  Loss of land fertility along the
Related to river since the sediments carrying
Dams nutrients get deposited in the
reservoir.
Environmental
Problems
Related to
Dams
 POSITIVE SOCIO
POSITIVE ECONOMIC
ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS
IMPACTS
 Employment
ENVIRONMENTAL  Reduction in
IMPACTS
Electricity
famines generation
PROBLEMS OF BIG-  Irrigation water
 Prevention of
floods DAMS supply
 Promotion of  Promotion of
productivity in navigation
lower areas  Promotion of
fisheries
 NEGATIVE SOCIO-
NEGATIVE ECONOMIC
ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS
IMPACTS
IMPACTS  Submergence of
ENVIRONMENTA  Deforestation and OF BIG- villages and fertile
loss of biodiversity DAMS lands
L PROBLEMS  Waterlogging and  Displacement of
salinity native people
 Flash floods  Resettlement
 Change in water issues
flow and siltation  Outbreak of vector
borne diseases