CBSE Class 10 Social Science Resources And Development Notes Set 03

These CBSE Class 10 Geography notes for Chapter 1 Resources and Development cover how resources are classified (by origin, exhaustibility, ownership and development status), the misuse of resources and the need for sustainable development, resource planning in India, land resources and land use patterns, soil types, and soil erosion and conservation.

Origin of Resources

Resources result from the interaction between nature, technology and institutions: people interact with nature using technology, and institutions help transform and develop resources further. TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), based in New Delhi, is a real example of such an institution, originally known as the Tata Energy Research Institute.

Classification of Resources

On the basis of origin:

Biotic resources: resources obtained from the biosphere, possessing life — for example, human beings, flora and fauna.
Abiotic resources: resources composed of non-living things — for example, rocks and metals such as gold, silver and copper.

On the basis of exhaustibility:

Renewable resources: resources that can be renewed or replenished through physical, mechanical or chemical processes — for example, solar energy, wind energy, and also wildlife and forests.
Non-renewable resources: resources not replenished at the rate they are consumed, making them finite — some minerals are recyclable, while fossil fuels are generally non-recyclable.

On the basis of ownership:

Individual resources: resources privately owned by an individual — for example, rural people's farmland, or urban people's own houses and shops.
Community resources: resources accessible to all members of a community, regardless of individual ownership — for example, grazing grounds and public parks.
National resources: resources belonging to the nation as a whole; the state has the legal power to acquire even private property for national use (such as building roads, canals or railways). All land within a country's political boundaries belongs to the nation, as does its territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles (about 22.2 km) from the coast, under the rules of UNCLOS.
International resources: managed by international bodies; oceanic resources beyond 200 nautical miles from a country's coastline fall under international jurisdiction, as governed by UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), adopted in 1982 and in effect since 1984, which sets the legal framework for marine and marine-related activities worldwide.

On the basis of status of development:

Potential resources: resources found in a region with the potential to be used, but not yet developed — for example, the strong potential for wind and solar energy development in western India (the Gujarat-Rajasthan belt).
Developed resources: resources already developed and in use, whose quality, quantity, economic feasibility and technological accessibility have all been assessed and found acceptable.
Stock: resources that could meet human needs but currently lack the technology needed to access or use them — for example, hydrogen gas, which has great energy potential that current technology cannot yet fully exploit.
Reserves: a subset of stock — resources that have become usable once technology to access them becomes available. For example, hydro energy, once part of a stock, is now a usable reserve thanks to advances in water and turbine technology.

Development of Resources

Resources were long treated as a free gift of nature, leading to their indiscriminate and improper use, and in turn to serious problems: depletion of resources, their accumulation by a few people, and the division of society into "haves" and "have-nots". As global demand for resources has grown, depletion has continued across many countries, making the equitable distribution of resources essential for a sustainable quality of life — which is why resource planning is essential to sustain all forms of life.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable development means that development should take place without damaging the environment, and that development today should not compromise the needs of future generations. The 1992 Rio Earth Summit (held by UNEP, the UN Environment Programme) produced several key outcomes: the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development; a Statement of Forest Principles; the Convention on Biological Diversity; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; and Agenda 21, a global action plan aiming for sustainable development, combating environmental damage, poverty and disease, and promoting local versions of the same agenda ("Local Agenda 21") at the community level. More recently, the Paris Agreement, adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, set the overarching goal of holding the rise in global average temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

Resource Planning

Judicious use of resources requires careful planning, especially in a country as diverse as India, both in population and in the distribution of resources. Some regions are rich in certain resources but lack others: Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have rich coal and mineral deposits but lack advanced technology; Arunachal Pradesh has abundant water but limited infrastructure; Rajasthan has abundant solar and wind energy potential but very limited water availability. Balanced resource management at the regional, state and national level is therefore essential, so that resources become accessible to everyone across the country.

Resource planning in India involves several steps: (1) identifying resources across the country through surveying and mapping; (2) developing a planning framework with the technology and skills needed to implement resource development plans; and (3) aligning the resource development plan with regional, state and national development plans. India pursued this through its Planning Commission, a Government of India institution formed on 15 March 1950, operating directly under the Prime Minister and setting a roadmap in five-year plans; it was dissolved on 13 August 2014, with its functions taken over by NITI Aayog.

The relationship between resources and technology can be seen clearly in India's colonial history: India had abundant resources, such as silk and other raw materials, but lacked the technology to process them at scale, while Britain had the technology but needed raw materials — so Britain drew resources from India, using its technological advantage to become an industrial power. This shows that technological development is essential for making judicious use of resources.

Resource Conservation

Resources are the foundation of development, so their conservation is vital for society's progress. Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "There is enough for everybody's need, and not for anybody's greed," and opposed mass production in favour of production carried out by the masses. The Club of Rome first systematically advocated resource conservation at the global level in 1968, and the Brundtland Commission Report, 1987, made a further landmark contribution to the idea of resource conservation globally.

Land Resources

People live, and carry out nearly all economic activity, on land, which also supports natural vegetation, wildlife and human life — yet the earth's land is finite, making its conservation very important. India's land includes a variety of relief features: plains make up 43% of the land area, used mainly for agriculture and industry; mountains account for about 30%, important for tourism and ecological functions; and plateaus make up about 27%, where minerals, fossil fuels and forests are typically found.

Land Utilisation

Land in India is put to several uses: forests; land under buildings, roads and factories; permanent pastures and grazing land; and barren and fallow land. Within fallow land: culturable waste land is land left uncultivated for more than five agricultural years; current fallow is land left uncultivated for one year or less; and fallow other than current fallow is land left uncultivated for between one and five years.

How land is used depends on physical factors (soil type, topography, climate) and human factors (population, culture, customs and traditions). India's total geographical area is about 3.28 million sq. km, though complete land-use data is available for only about 93% of this, since data for about 7% of the area, mainly in the North-East, remains incomplete, and some Indian territory also remains under occupation by China and Pakistan. The net sown area is the area on which crops are actually sown and harvested.

Soil Types

Soil Erosion and Soil Conservation

Soil erosion is the breaking down and washing away of the soil cover. Soil formation and soil erosion normally occur together and balance each other, with wind, water and glaciers responsible for natural, gradual erosion. This balance is often disturbed by human activities such as deforestation and shifting cultivation.

Types of soil erosion: Splash erosion is the initial phase, caused by raindrops striking the soil surface. Sheet erosion removes a uniform, thin layer of soil from the surface. (Further forms, such as gully and wind erosion, are also recognised, though not detailed here.)

Methods to control soil erosion in hilly areas include: contour ploughing (ploughing along the contours of a slope); terrace farming (cutting step-like terraces into hillsides); and strip cropping (growing strips of grass between crops to reduce run-off).

Quick Recall: Key Facts

Cotton is mainly grown in the black soil regions of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Alluvial soil, found in river deltas, is very fertile, holds varying proportions of sand, silt and clay, and is rich in potash, lime and phosphoric acid, favouring crops like paddy and sugarcane. In terms of land use, roughly 54% of India's land is used for agriculture, about 22% is under forest cover, and the remaining 24% is used for other purposes. The share of land under forest has grown only slowly since 1960-61, due to rising demand for land for agriculture, urbanisation and industry, along with ongoing deforestation and illegal logging, despite afforestation, reforestation and forest conservation efforts. Technical and economic development have together increased resource consumption: better surveying has revealed more resources, advances in various fields have identified new uses for them, improved engineering and science have made extraction more environmentally manageable and more feasible, and rising economic growth and international demand have further driven resource exploitation to support trade.