Module 3

Natural Resources
Natural Resources
A resource may be defined as any part of the environment such as
land, water, air, mineral, forest, wildlife, fish, population etc. which the
human beings utilise to promote their welfare.
In other words, all means of satisfying human needs, at a given time
and place are called resources.
According to Ramade (1984), a resource may be defined as a form of
energy and/or matter which is essential for the functioning of the
organisms, populations and ecosystem. The ecological variables like
energy, matter, space, time and diversity combinedly are referred as
natural resources.
Some resources are essential for the survival of all the living organisms
like air, soil, water, plants and animals while others are specially valued
by man to satisfy his material needs and desires such as minerals and
fossil fuels. Thus, land, water, air, minerals, forests, wildlife as well as
human beings are resources.
DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES IN
INDIA
Forests: In India, at present forest areas cover about
76.5 million hectares of land, which is about 23 per cent
of the total geographical area. It ranges from about 87
per cent in Andaman & Nicobar Islands to only about 4
percent in Haryana making to range difference of 83
percent. The vegetation found in India can be divided
into six main types.
They are tropical evergreen forests, tropical deciduous
forests, thorn forests, tidal forests and mountain forests.
 Wildlife
India possesses a great variety of wildlife. Out of a known world
total of 1.05 million species of animals about 75,000 species
(7.46%) are found in India. India has over 1200 species of birds.
Livestocks
India has about three fifths or 57 per cent of the worlds buffalo
population and about one-sixth or 15 per cent of the cattle
population.
Fisheries
India has a large continental shelf of 20 lakh square km. More
than 1,800 distinct species of fish are known to exist in India. Four
forms of fisheries are found in India such as marine fisheries,
freshwater or inland fisheries, estuarine fisheries and the peral
fisheries.
 Land resources: India covers an area of 32,87,263 sq km. According to
area size, it is the seventh largest country of the world after Russia,
Canada, China, U.S.A., Brazil and Egypt. About 43 per cent of land area is
plain which is highly suitable for agriculture. Remaining about 27 percent
under plateaus is the store house of minerals and metals.
Water resources: Diversity in resources is the result of diversity in land
forms in the form of glaciers, surface rivers and underground water, rains
and oceans. Rivers are major source of surface water in India. The Indus,
the Ganga, the Brahamputra carry about 60 per cent of the total surface
water. Replenishable groundwater potential in India is about 434 billion
cubic metres. Today, over 70 per cent of the population uses ground water
for its domestic needs.
Mineral resources: India is very rich in mineral resources and has the
potential to become an industrial power. It possesses large reserves of iron
ore, extensive deposits of coal, mineral oil, rich deposits of bauxite and
mica. Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh possess large concentration of
mineral deposits, accounting for nearly threefourths of the countrys coal
deposits. Other important minerals found in our country are iron ore,
manganese, mica, bauxite and radioactive minerals
India is witnessing dynamic transformations due to its rapid
economic growth, which is characterized by five main interlinked
factors. These factors act as drivers of demand and have a strong
impact on resource consumption. These drivers of demand are:
Growing population
Expanding industrial and service-related production
Rising (average) income
Growing middle class and/or expanding cohort of middle class
Increasing urbanization
Natural resource accounting
National accounting is an instrument used around the globe to
measure economic indices that also serves as an indicator of
economic development gross domestic product (GDP). This
approach, however, excludes nature in its measurement and
evaluation of economic performance.
The aim of environmental-economic accounting (EEA) is to expand
national accounting to include ecological indicators and highlight
the importance of the environment for the economic process. This
approach looks at the interdependence between the environment
and the economy.
The entire process of Environmental and Natural Resource
Accounting involves 3 steps:
Physical Accounting
Monetary Valuation and
Integration with Economic Accounting.
Valuation of biodiversity is difficult
Pi(t)=Ri(t)+Ei(t)
where Pi(t) is the shadow price of asset i at time t
Ri(t) is the market price of asset i at time t
Ei(t) is the social value of the externalities generated by the
deployment of an additional unit of i at t
The term Ei(t) in the equation possesses an intriguing
feature. In order to estimate it, one has to know the shadow
prices of possibly many other assets, in other words ,shadow
prices are interdependent.
Biodiversity is not included in the compilation of National
Accounts presently only limited data are available and also
there is no regularity in the data availability.
Renewable Energy Sources
Renewable Energy Sources
Radiant solar energy
Solar heating (passive and active), solar
power plants, photovoltaic cells
Biomass energy
Direct: combustion of biomass
Indirect: chemical conversion to biofuel
Wind energy
Hydro energy
Geothermal energy
Power plants, direct use, heat pumps
Ocean energy
Tidal; salinity-driven
Hydro Energy
Advantages
Cheap to operate
Long life and lower operating costs than all other power plants
Renewable
High yield
Lower energy cost than any other method
Pretty plentiful
Some countries depend almost entirely on it
Not intermittent (if reservoir is large enough)
Reservoirs have multiple uses
Flood control, drinking water, aquaculture, recreation
Less air pollution than fossil fuel combustion
Hydro Energy
Disadvantages:
Human population displacement
More significant breeding ground for disease
Reduces availability of water downstream
Ecosystem impacts
Barriers to migrating fish
Loss of biodiversity both upstream and
downstream
Coastal erosion
Reduces nutrient flow (dissolved and particulate)
 Water pollution problems
Low dissolved oxygen (DO)
Increased H2S toxicity; other DO-related problems
Siltation a big problem (also shortens dam life)
Air pollution
Actually may be a significant source of GHGs (CH4, N2O, CO2)
Decommissioning is a big problem
The Size Issue
Many (most) of the above problems are significantly worse for
larger dams
However, small dams have shorter lifetimes, less capacity, and are
more intermittent
Biomass Energy
What is it?
Biomass energy is the use of living and recently dead
biological material as an energy source
Ultimately dependent on the capture of solar energy and
conversion to a chemical (carbohydrate) fuel
Theoretically it is a carbon neutral and renewable source of
energy
How it works?
Traditional: forest management, using wood as fuel
Use of biodegradable waste
Recent interest in agricultural production of energy crops
Production of a liquid or gaseous biofuel
Biomass Energy
Carbon neutral
CO2 ultimately released in energy generation is recently captured and so
ideally does not change total atmospheric levels
Carbon leaks can result in a net increase in CO2 levels
Sequestration in soil can result in a net decrease in CO2 levels
Biomass Energy
Advantages
Versatile
Renewable
No net CO2 emissions (ideally)
Emits less SO2 and NOx than fossil fuels
Disadvantages
Low energy density/yield
In some cases (eg, corn-derived bioethanol) may yield no net energy
Land conversion
Biodiversity loss
Possible decrease in agricultural food productivity
Usual problems associated with intensive agriculture
Nutrient pollution
Soil depletion
Soil erosion
Other water pollution problems
Geothermal Energy
How it works
Geothermal power plants
Use earths heat to power steam turbines
Geothermal direct use
Use hot springs (etc) as heat source
Geothermal heat pumps
Advantages
Renewable
Easy to exploit in some cases
CO2 production less than with fossil fuels
High net energy yield
Disadvantages
Not available everywhere
H2S pollution
Radiant Solar Energy
How it works
Solar power plants
Steam produced to turn turbine
Solar heating
Active and passive systems
Photovoltaic cells
Solar batteries use special semiconductors
Advantages
Renewable and free
High energy yield
A very clean source of energy
No air/water pollution during operation
Low operating costs
Will pay for themselves over time
Disadvantages
Intermittent source
Energy storage issues
Low energy density
Requires pretty much land
What is Solar Energy?
Photovoltaic (solar)
Energy produced panel
by the sun
Clean, renewable
source of energy
Harnessed by
solar collection
methods such as
solar cells
Converted into Sun and electrical
power lines
usable energy Set of solar panels

such as electricity
Solar Panel Use Today
Large companies like
Google, Walmart, and
Microsoft use solar
energy to partially
power some of their
facilities

Solar panels being tested

Solar panels on Microsoft building
on Walmart store
Photovoltaic Solar Cells
Generate electricity
directly from sunlight
Silicon-based
2 Main types: solar cell
Single-crystal silicon
(traditional)
Widespread
Expensive to manufacture
Dye-sensitized (nano)
Newer, less proven Dye-sensitized
Inexpensive to solar cell
manufacture
Flexible
Solar Cells are Converters of
Energy
Solar cells are
devices that take
light energy as input
Light energy and convert it into
electrical energy
Electrical energy
(carried through wires)

Solar cell -
converts light
energy to
electricity
Solar Collector
Glass on outside
Absorbent on
inside
Circulating Fluid
 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

Exploring Solar - 1/23/17 - The

NEED Project
Ivanpah, Mojave Desert
The United States houses the largest CSP plant in the
Mojave Desert.
Ivanpah is operated by NRG. It uses 347,000 garage
door-sized mirrors and 173,500 heliostats.

Image courtesy of NRG En

Exploring Solar - 1/23/17 - The

NEED Project
Photovoltaics
PV Cell
PV Array Components

PV Cells
Modules
Arrays
PV System Components
Remote PV Power
Top Countries for Installed PV
Capacity
Global Regional PV Installations per Inhabitant
Advantages of Solar Energy
Clean
Sustainable
Free
Provide electricity to remote places
Disadvantages of Solar Energy
Less efficient and costly equipment
Part Time
Reliability Depends On Location
Environmental Impact of PV Cell
Production
Exploring Wind Energy
What
Makes Wind
Global
Wind
Patterns
Why Wind
Energy?
Clean, zero emissions
NOx, SO2, CO, CO2
Air quality, water quality
Climate change
Reduce fossil fuel dependence
Energy independence
Domestic energy
national security
Renewable
No fuel-price volatility
Renewable Electric Capacity
Worldwide

US DOE, EERE 2013

Renewable Energy Data
Book
China Leads the World in Wind
Capacity
Total Installed Generating Capacity
(MW)
Top
Top 55 Countries
Countries for
for 2013
2013
New
New Installed
Installed Capacity
Capacity
1.
1. China
China
2.
2. Germany
Germany
3.
3. United
United Kingdom
Kingdom
4.
4. India
India
5.
5. Canada
Canada
Why Such Growth? costs are low!
Increased Turbine Size
R&D Advances
Manufacturing Improvements

1979 2000 2004 2011

40 4-6 3-4.5 Less than 5
cents/kWh cents/kWh cents/kWh cents/kWh
Modern Wind Turbines
Turbines can be categorized into two classes based on the orientation of the rotor.
Large Wind
Turbines
Common Utility-Scale
Turbines
328 base to blade
Each blade is 112
200 tons total
Foundation 20 deep
Rated at 1.5-2 megawatts
Supply about 500 homes
Potential Impacts and Issues
Property Values
Noise
Visual Impact
Land Use
Wildlife Impact

Properly siting a wind turbine can mitigate many of these

issues.
Wind Energy
Advantages
High net energy yield
Renewable and free
Very clean source of energy
No pollution (air or water) during operation
Long operating life
Low operating/maintenance costs
Can be quickly built; not too expensive
Now almost competitive with hydro and fossil fuels
Land can be used for other purposes
Can combine wind and agricultural farms
Wind Energy
Disadvantages
Energy storage issues
An intermittent source of energy; need backup (eg stored energy) for low-wind
days
Or must be connected to the electrical grid
Only practical in areas that are windy enough
Visual pollution
Danger to birds
New (slow turning) designs largely eliminate this problem
Low energy density of wind
Must use large areas of land
Biofuels
Ethanol is an alcohol distilled from plant material (corn in the U.S., sugar cane
in Brazil, wheat in Europe) and used as gasoline substitute or blend stock
U.S. and Brazil account for 90% of global ethanol production and consumption
Ethanol can be blended to around 10% of the gasoline pool without any
noticeable impact on vehicle performance, but higher blend proportions
require some engine modifications
Biodiesel is produced by the transformation of animal fat or vegetable oil into
a conventional diesel substitute
Feedstock represents more than 80% of the total costs of producing biodiesel
compared with around 60% for ethanol
Bio-fuels
Pros - Biofuels
Inherently renewable
Emit less particulate pollution than traditional petroleum based
gasoline and diesel fuels
Easier to transition to without special infrastructure needs

Cons - Biofuels
Not enough land space to grow crops for biofuel demand
Question over whether producing them actually requires more energy than they
generate
Still polluting when compared to wind or solar
soil and land degradation
Twenty-five per cent of India's total land is undergoing
desertification while 32 per cent is facing degradation
that has affected its productivity, critically affecting the
livelihood and food security of millions across the country.
As much as 105.19 million hectares (Mha) of the
country's total geographical area of 328.73 Mha is being
degraded, while 82.18 Mha is undergoing desertification.
The major forms of land degradation include soil erosion
(which accounts for over 71 per cent of the total
degradation), and wind erosion (10.24 per cent).
Conservation of resources
(1)It is necessary to create awareness about the preservation and conservation of
resources among people.
(2)Afforestation, preventing the felling of immature and young trees and creating
awareness amongst the local people about planting and nurturing trees may help in
conserving forests.
(3)Terrace farming in hilly regions, contour ploughing, controlling the shifting
cultivation, overgrazing and plugging the Gullies. Some of are the import methods of
soil conservation.
(4)Construction of dams to impound rain water, use of sprinklers, drip or trickle
irrigation technique, recycling of water for industrial and domestic purposes will help
in conservation of the invaluable water resource.
(5)Minerals are non-renewable resources so they need to be conserved through efficient
utilization, development of better technology of extraction and purification, recycling
of minerals and use of substitutes.
(6)Non conventional sources of energy e.g. solar, wind or water will have to be
developed in order to save conventional sources of energy.