Environment and Resources

 Components of environment
 Ecological perspective
 Ecosystem processes
 Human dimensions
 Environmental changes and threats to the environment
 Resources and their classification
 Equitable use of resources
 Natural resource management

ENVIRONMENT
Environment can be defined to mean whole complex of physical, social, cultural, and aesthetic
factors which affect individuals and communities and ultimately determine their form, character,
relationship, and survival. Examples of such factors are; air and water quality, erosion control,
natural hazards, land use planning, site selection and design, subdivision development, conservation
of plant and animal life, urban congestion, overcrowding, displacement and relocation resulting from
public or private action or natural disaster, noise pollution, urban blight, code violations and building
abandonment, urban sprawl, urban growth policy, preservation of cultural resources (including
properties on the National Register of Historic Places), urban design and the quality of the
constructed environment, and the impact of the environment on people and their activities.

The dimensions of the environment can be categorized as follows:

o Physical environment (natural and constructed)
Land and climate
Vegetation, wildlife, and natural areas
Surrounding land uses and physical character of area
Infrastructure/ public services
Air pollution levels
Noise levels
Water pollution levels
o Social environment
Community facilities and services
Employment centers and commercial facilities servicing areas
Character of community
o Aesthetic environment
 Existence of on-site, or proximity, to significant historic,
archaeological, or architectural sites of property
 Scenic areas, views, vistas, and natural landscape
 Architectural character of existing buildings
o Economic environment
 Employment and unemployment levels
 Level and sources of income
 Economic base of area
 Land ownership including private, local, public, state, and federal
 Land values

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Environmental engineering is manifest by sound engineering thought and practice in the solution of
problems of environmental sanitation, notably in the provision of safe, palatable, and ample public
water supplies; the proper disposal of or recycle of wastewater and solid wastes; the adequate
drainage of urban and rural areas for proper sanitation; and control of water, soil, and atmospheric
pollution, and the social and environmental impact of these solutions.

BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Built Environment means man-made environment taking into consideration the relationship
between ecology, environment, town/city, buildings and human beings.

Present age is known as the “Age of Shrinking Space, Shrinking Time and Rising Expectations.”

Sustainable built environment needs interdisciplinary contribution, i.e., contribution of Ecologists,

Horticulturists, Architects, Engineers, Consultants, Scientists and Technologists to create a desirable
ideal environment.

Important expectation from today’s design is that it should be energy saving and efficiency
improving.

ECOLOGY

Ecology (from the Greek words oikos, “house” or “place to live”, and logos, “study of”) is the study of
how organisms interact with one another and with their nonliving environment.

RESOURCE

From a human standpoint, a resource is anything obtained from the environment to meet human
needs and wants. Examples include food, water, shelter, manufactured goods, transportation,
communication, and recreation

ORGANISM

An organism is any form of life. The cell is the basic unit of life in organisms. Organisms may consist
of a single cell (bacteria, for instance) or many cells.

POPULATION

A population consists of a group of interacting individuals of same species that occupy a specific area
at the same time.

HABITAT

The place where a population (or an individual organism) normally lives is its habitat
Approximate Number of Species

Group Number of
Species

Higher Plants 2,70,000

Algae 40,000
Fungi 72,000
Bacteria (including cynobacteria) 4,000
Viruses 1,550
Mammals 4,650
Birds 9,700
Reptiles 7,150
Fish 26,959
Amphibians 4,780
Insects 10,25,000
Crustaceans 43,000
Molluscs 70,000
Nematodes and Worms 25,000
Protozoa 40,000
Others 1,10,000
The cosmos can be depicted as a hierarchy from subatomic particles up through galaxies. Life, or
biological entities, is at an intermediate level, ranging from cells through the biosphere.
Levels of organization of matter in nature.
A biomass pyramid. In most land food webs, biomass decreases from one feeding (trophic) level to
the next higher

Flow of biomass and energy through a food pyramid

 Top Level
Consumers

Tertiary
Consumers

Secondary
Consumers

Primary
Consumers

Producers Plants

A simplified scheme of a food web

S o i l a n d W a te r
N u tr i e n ts Decomposers
Break down (bacteria, fungi)
organic matter
for recycling

Producers
(plant and
Consumers
phytoplankton)
Feeding on
Dead Organisms
or the Organic Wastes of
Living Organisms

Consumers
Feeding on
Living Organisms

P ri m a ry Scavengers Detritus Feeders

Consumers (vultures, hyenas) (crabs, termites)
Feeding on
Producers
(rabbits,
Zooplankton)

Secondary
and Higher

Feeding relationships between producers,

Consumers Feeding on
Other Consumers
(foxes, turtles, hawks)

consumers, and decomposers

 Energy
Input
1,700,000
kilocalories Incoming solar energy
not harnessed
1,679,190
(98.8%)

Energy 20, 810

Transfers (1 . 2 % )

Producers

Transferred Energy losses as

Energy still in
to the next metabolic heat
organic wastes
trophic level and
and remains
as net export from
the ecosystem
4,245 3,368 13,197

Herbivores

720 383 2,265

Carnivores

90 21 272

Top carnivores

5 16

Decomposers,
detritivores
5,060
Annual energy flow (kcal/m²/yr)
Energy Output 20,810 + 1,679,190
for an aquatic ecosystem in Silver
1,700,000
Springs, Florida. Total Annual Energy Flow
(100%)

Types of Ecosystems

Natural Ecosystems

These systems operate by themselves under natural conditions without any major interference by
man. These are further divided into:

Terrestrial ecosystem include forest, grassland and desert etc.

Aquatic ecosystem may be distinguished as

- Fresh water, which may be lotic (running water as spring, stream or rivers)

or lentic (standing water as lakes, ponds, pools, ditch, puddles, swamp etc.

- Marine water such as ocean (deep bodies) or sea or estuary (shallow ones)

Artificial (Man-engineered) Ecosystem

These are maintained artificially by man where, by addition of energy and planned manipulations,
natural balance is disturbed regularly. For example, croplands like maize, wheat, rice fields etc.,
where man tries to control the biotic community as well as the physico-chemical environment, are
man-engineered ecosystems. There is recognition of some other ecosystem, known as space
ecosystem.
Biogeographic Zones of India

Zone 1: The Trans-Himalayas

Zone 2: The Himalayas

Zone 3: The Indian Desert

Zone 4: The Semi-Arid

Zone 5: The Western Ghats

Zone 6: The Deccan Peninsula

Zone 7: The Gangetic Plain

Zone 8: North East India

Zone 9: The Islands

Zone 10: The Coast

Biodiversity Depletion
• Habitat destruction
• Habitat degradation
Air Pollution • Extinction
• Global climate change
• Stratospheric ozone
depletion
• Urban air pollution Food Supply Problems
• Acid deposition • Overgrazing
• Outdoor pollutants • Farmland loss
• Indoor pollutants and degradation
• Noise • Wetlands loss
and degradation
Major • Overfishing
Environmental • Coastal pollution
Problems • Soil erosion
• Soil salinization
• Soil waterlogging
Water Pollution • Water shortages
• Sediment • Groundwater
• Nutrient overload depletion
• Toxic chemicals • Loss of biodiversity
• Infectious agents • Poor nutrition
• Oxygen depletion
• Pesticides Waste Production
• Oil spills • Solid waste
• Excess heat • Hazardous waste

Major environmental and resource problems

Concept map of carbon cycle
Amounts of ozone in the troposphere and stratosphere, including comments on the beneficial and
harmful roles it plays in each region

In one of the most significant scientific studies of past climates, an ice core 2083 m long was
recovered by the Soviets at Vostok in East Antarctica. Careful analysis of the hydrogen isotope ratios
and gaseous concentrations in this Vostok ice core have provided a continuous 160,000-year record.
Subsequent ice core studies at Vostok have extended the data back 220,000 years. Figure shows the
remarkable correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations and
Antarctic surface temperature from the Vostok core. During glacial periods, the greenhouse gases
CO2 and CH4 are low; during the warmer interglacial period, they are high. What is less clear,
however, is whether CO2 and CH4 changes caused temperature to change, or vice versa.
Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations (ppmv) and Antarctic temperature change (oC) over the
past 220,000 years. Temperatures are referred to current Vostok surface temperature
Thirty percent of the solar radiation striking the Earth is immediately reflected back into space; 51%
is absorbed and radiated into space as heat. The remaining energy creates wind and drives the water
cycle, photosynthesis, and other processes.
Global average energy flows between space, the atmosphere, and the earth’s surface. Units are
watts per square meter of surface area

Radiative forcing, ΔF, perturbs the balance between incoming solar energy absorbed, Qabs, and
outgoing radiant energy, Qrad, (a) the balanced system before perturbation; (b) the balanced system
after radiative forcing is added
A portion of the electromagnetic spectrum
2003-2004 mean annual clear sky and total sky albedo
Albedo - Percentage of reflected sun light in relation to the various surface conditions of the earth

Albedo

The albedo of an object is a measure of how strongly it reflects light from light sources such as the
Sun. It is therefore a more specific form of the term reflectivity. Albedo is defined as the ratio of
total-reflected to incident electromagnetic radiation. It is a unitless measure indicative of a surface's
or body's diffuse reflectivity. The word is derived from Latin albedo "whiteness", in turn from albus
"white", and was introduced into optics by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his 1760 work Photometria.
The range of possible values is from 0 (dark) to 1 (bright).

The albedo is an important concept in climatology and astronomy, as well as in computer graphics
and computer vision. In climatology it is sometimes expressed as a percentage. Its value depends on
the frequency of radiation considered: unqualified, it usually refers to some appropriate average
across the spectrum of visible light. In general, the albedo depends on the direction and directional
distribution of incoming radiation. Exceptions are Lambertian surfaces, which scatter radiation in all
directions in a cosine function, so their albedo does not depend on the incoming distribution. In
realistic cases, a bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) is required to characterize the
scattering properties of a surface accurately, although albedos are a very useful first approximation.

Terrestrial albedo

Albedos of typical materials in visible light range from up to 0.9 for fresh snow, to about 0.04 for
charcoal, one of the darkest substances. Deeply shadowed cavities can achieve an effective albedo
approaching the zero of a blackbody. When seen from a distance, the ocean surface has a low
albedo, as do most forests, while desert areas have some of the highest albedos among landforms.
Most land areas are in an albedo range of 0.1 to 0.4. The average albedo of the Earth is about 0.3.
This is far higher than for the ocean primarily because of the contribution of clouds.

Human activities have changed the albedo (via forest clearance and farming, for example) of various
areas around the globe. However, quantification of this effect on the global scale is difficult.

The classic example of albedo effect is the snow-temperature feedback. If a snow-covered area
warms and the snow melts, the albedo decreases, more sunlight is absorbed, and the temperature
tends to increase. The converse is true: if snow forms, a cooling cycle happens. The intensity of the
albedo effect depends on the size of the change in albedo and the amount of insolation; for this
reason it can be potentially very large in the tropics.

The Earth's surface albedo is regularly estimated via Earth observation satellite sensors such as
NASA's MODIS instruments onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. As the total amount of reflected
radiation cannot be directly measured by satellite, a mathematical model of the BRDF is used to
translate a sample set of satellite reflectance measurements into estimates of directional-
hemispherical reflectance and bi-hemispherical reflectance.

The Earth's average surface temperature due to its albedo and the greenhouse effect is currently
about 15°C. For the frozen (more reflective) planet the average temperature is below -40°C (If only
all continents being completely covered by glaciers - the mean temperature is about 0°C. The
simulation for (more absorptive) aquaplanet shows the average temperature close to 27°C.

It has been shown that for many applications involving terrestrial albedo, the albedo at a particular
solar zenith angle θi can reasonably be approximated by the proportionate sum of two terms: the
directional-hemispherical reflectance at that solar zenith angle, , and the bi-hemispherical
reflectance, , the proportion concerned being defined as the proportion of diffuse illumination
D.

Astronomical albedo

The albedos of planets, satellites and asteroids can be used to infer much about their properties. The
study of albedos, their dependence on wavelength, lighting angle ("phase angle"), and variation in
time comprises a major part of the astronomical field of photometry. For small and far objects that
cannot be resolved by telescopes, much of what we know comes from the study of their albedos. For
example, the absolute albedo can indicate the surface ice content of outer solar system objects, the
variation of albedo with phase angle gives information about regolith properties, while unusually
high radar albedo is indicative of high metallic content in asteroids.

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has one of the highest known albedos of any body in the Solar system,
with 99% of EM radiation reflected. Another notable high albedo body is Eris, with an albedo of 0.86.
Many small objects in the outer solar system and asteroid belt have low albedos down to about
0.05. A typical comet nucleus has an albedo of 0.04. Such a dark surface is thought to be indicative of
a primitive and heavily space weathered surface containing some organic compounds.

The overall albedo of the Moon is around 0.12, but it is strongly directional and non-Lambertian,
displaying also a strong opposition effect. While such reflectance properties are different from those
of any terrestrial terrains, they are typical of the regolith surfaces of airless solar system bodies.

Two common albedos that are used in astronomy are the (V-band) geometric albedo (measuring
brightness when illumination comes from directly behind the observer) and the Bond albedo
(measuring total proportion of electromagnetic energy reflected). Their values can differ
significantly, which is a common source of confusion.

In detailed studies, the directional reflectance properties of astronomical bodies are often expressed
in terms of the five Hapke parameters which semi-empirically describe the variation of albedo with
phase angle, including a characterization of the opposition effect of regolith surfaces.

The correlation between astronomical (geometric) albedo, absolute magnitude and diameter is:

where A is the astronomical albedo, D is the diameter in kilometres, and H is the absolute
magnitude.
Reflectivity of smooth water at 20 C (refractive index=1.333)

This picture shows glaciers in the Himalayan mountains of Bhutan. The glaciers have been melting
over the past few decades. This makes lakes form nearby. This picture was taken by an instrument
aboard NASA’s Terra satellite
Resources

From a human standpoint, a resource is anything obtained from the environment to meet human
needs and wants. Examples include food, water, shelter, manufactured goods, transportation,
communication, and recreation. On our short human time scale, we classify the material resources
we get from the environment as perpetual, renewable, or nonrenewable.

Solar energy is called a perpetual resource because on a human time scale it is renewed continuously.
It is expected to last at least 6 billion years as the sun completes its life cycle

Major types of material resources. This scheme is not fixed; renewable resources can become
nonrenewable if used for a prolonged period at a faster rate than they are renewed by natural
processes.
Raw materials snakes: (a) in order of world production by quantity, (b) in order of economic value

World, US, and Canadian reserves of Various Metals (in Thousands of Metric Tons)a
Approximate annual per capita consumption of mineral resources by Americans

Relative sizes of small particles

Individuals matter: what you can do to reduce your annual emissions of CO2
 Define Objectives

Systems Identify and inventory Variables

Measurement Obtain baseline data on variables

Make statistical analysis of

relationships among variables
Data
Analysis Determine significant interactions

Construct mathematical model

System describing interaction among
variables
Modeling

Run the model on a computer,

System with values entered for different
Simulation variables

Evaluate best ways to achieve

System objectives
Optimization

Major stages of systems analysis