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Geography EOY Topic 2: Sustainable resource use and management - Coggle…
Geography EOY Topic 2: Sustainable resource use and management
What is a resource?
It is a material that people use to
meet their needs
or improve quality of life
Social needs (Interactions with others
Physical needs ( Food and water)
Ecomomic needs (Money)
Can be found in both the physical and built environmnet
What are the different types of resources?
Natural resource
Found on earth
Produced by the natural processes occuring in the physical environment
Renewable
Replenished by natural processes more or less within the time frame in which they are used
Rate of replenishmet > Rate of consumption
Examples: Wind and sun
Non renewable
Finite, may or may not be replenished naturally. If it is replenished, natural processers occur very slowly and take beyond the time period used.
Continuous exploitation will lead to their availblity drop to very low levels or for them to be depleted all together.
Egs: Fossil fuels - Found in the crust of the Earth made from decomposing plants and animals (take very long to replenish
Coal - Decomposition of dead plants in swamps
Oil and natural gas - Formed from dead marine animqals
Rate of replenishement < Rate of consumption
Wind, solar energy
Man made resource
Products made using the natural materials found on Earth
Aluminium from bauxite
Sustainable use of resources
While using resources to meet our needs in the short term (>10 yrs), we ensure that there are sufficient natural resources in the long term (>10 years)
How do we do this?
Alternative energy (Any other energy source that is not fossil fuels
Such as
Solar energy Advantage: Singapore has lots of sunlight. Disadvantage: Intermittent
Geothermal energy Advantage: No fluctuation Disadvantage: Need to dig deep, potentially costly
Wind energy
Nuclear energy
Emits lower carbon emissions
But the energy is generated on a smaller scale
It is also expensive to use batteries to store the energy.
And it can be intermittent (Solar and wind)
The 4Rs
Reduce: Use less (Using less plastic bags)
Reuse. Using those plastic bags again.
Recycle: Turn into something else (Aluminium cans -> Other aluminium products)
Recover. Recover energy from
waste
(waste to eletricity plants)
Peoples views on resources
How do people decide if a material or object is a resource?
Culture (Way of life, ideas, customs and societal behaviours
Egs blowpipes are resourcces to some tribes but not to the rest of us humans
Technology - Use of technology to produce goodds and services/acheive our goals
For example 1000 yearrs ago rare earths will not bee as seen as a resource.
Simple technology (Blackboards)
Advanced technology (Digital devices)
What are their views on the usage of natural resources?
Nature Centric
Natural Resources are inherently valuable in themselves
Believe, and advocate for, the preservation and protection of the physical environment
Human centric
Natural Resources are valuable because of benefits that they have to humans
Believe that the physical environment should be used for ecnomic gains/personal gains (Extraction in most cirucmstances)