Why and how Geographers classify natural resources.

According to FANIRAN and OJO 1980, defined natural resources as anything in the natural environment that can be used by man like forest, water, soil and minerals. Natural resource those that exist without any action of human kind. This includes all valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. On the earth it includes sunlight, atmosphere, water and land (all minerals along with vegetation and animal life). Natural resource can be part of our natural heritage or protected in nature reverse example, waterfall, forest and oceans. Also natural resource can be defined as those commodities that are considered valuable in their natural form. This mean that the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification and not creation. For instance, though gardening or farming cannot be considered as natural resource activities, mining or soil extraction.

According to BURPEE.G. AND K. WILLSON (2002) Natural resources is any asset that we can from our environment; water, soil, plants, wind, animals, minerals, the energy of the sun and many others.

According to RAMADA (1980), a resources can be defined as a form of energy and / or matter which is essential for the functioning of the organisms, populations and ecosystem, thus land, water, air, minerals, forest, wildlife as well as human being are resources.

Generally, natural resources refers to all that provide the product that essential for human life, example food, clothing, possession and machinery and others. Features of the physical environment that enable man to realize his initiative starting soil water.

Natural resources depends on the following concepts,

Human activity, existence of knowledge or skills among respective population that allow extraction and use of the natural elements such as minerals like gold and silver, forest and oceans, knowledge and skill helps man to create the new technology that will simplify extraction of natural resources.

Needs, existence of demands of the materials or services produced by that environmental elements. Those needs may be economic, political or socio-cultural aspects. The extent to which a resource may be satisfy man’s requirements is a function of resources themselves.

 Natural resources are classified by Geographers like FANIRAN and OJO, 1980, by considering the following aspects;

Natural resources have different characteristics, means natural resources differs interns of their characteristics, so they cannot be grouped as one type of natural resources. So through different classification of natural resources emerged such as, classification according to their level of development, according to distribution, due to their origin and due to their renewability.

Geographers classify natural resources simply because natural resources are of many types, Such as renewable and non-renewable resources, they classify them based on their capacity to reuse them, example of renewable resources includes HEP, wind energy, solar energy, tidal energy, soil and plants. Also examples of non-renewable resources includes, geothermal energy, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas, firewood, oil shales and variety of non-fuel minerals both metallic and non-metallic minerals.

Also there are biotic and abiotic resource based on the origin of natural resources, examples abiotic are coal and petroleum which comes from decay of the organic matter, examples of abiotic are land, fresh water, air, heavy metal like gold and silver.

Natural resources are not properly grouped, this made Geographers to classify them, for many millions of years ago natural resources were not grouped in one category. So due to this Geographers decided to classify them simply there were no clear data that specify types of natural resources. This made majority of Geographers to come up and group them into different categories such as according to their origin, level of development which constitute potential resources, actual resources, reverse resources, stock resources and flow resources. Also other Geographers classify base on their renewability which are renewable and non –renewable.

Another reasons for classification aimed at simplifying the process of learning, this made the Geographers to classify natural resources which make people easy to understanding the concept of natural resource. Simply natural resources are of different forms, So they classify to help the majority to have clear understanding that natural resource are of many types such as renewable and non-renewable resource, also classification according to their mode of origin which are abiotic and biotic. This enable people to understand the concept of natural resource easy.

Natural resource differs in terms of accurse (time); Geographers saw that are other resources which takes so many years to form like millions of years like coal and other takes short time like forest, here we have stock resources and flow resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, water, air, and forest, where coal takes so many years to form compare to forest, water and air.

Geographer classified natural resources into different categories such as according to their origin, level of development and the renewability. Also OJO and FANIRAN (1980) classify natural resources a; A product, which are soil, minerals, forest and air, A process; for example prevailing wind, insolation and flowing water, A feature; such as water fall, coral reefs, sand beaches as well as scenery.

Classification of natural resources according to source of origin, can be divided into the following types;

Biotic resources, these are natural resources comes from living organic materials such as forest and animals, and include the materials can be obtained them. Biotic natural resources includes fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum which are formed from organic matters that has decayed.

Abiotic resources, these are resources come from non-living and non-organic materials. Example of these resources are land, fresh water, air, heavy metals like gold, iron, copper and silver also forest. All resources come from non-living and non-organic materials are abiotic resources.

Classification of natural resources according to their stage of development includes the following types;

Potential resources, these are resources that exist in a region and may be used in the future. For example, if a country has petroleum in sedimentary rocks, it a potential resource until it is actually drilled out of the rock and put to use. We need advanced technology to use these resources in future, example uranium and petroleum.

Actual resources, these are resources that have been surveyed their quantity and quality has been determined and they are current being used. The development of actual resources is dependent on technology. Example of actual resources includes Coal, water, petrol and Hydro-electric power (HEP). The value of each such resource depends on its utility and other factors.

Stock resources, these resources have taken millions of years to form and so they are finite (can be exhausted), that’s why we call them non-renewable, they are not going to replenished in the near future example minerals and land. And these resources are fixed in supply, also are termed as time span formation (long).

Flows resources, these are resources which are naturally regenerate to provide new supply units, within a human time span. Also is defined as a resources which is neither renewable nor non-renewable, and must be used where it occurs and replenishes itself. Flow resources can only be natural resources, human have no influence on the process aside from collecting the resources. Flow resources can only be natural resources .Human have no influence on the process aside from collecting the resources. Flow environment do not have the negative side effect of environmental harm. Example of flow resources include solar radiation, running water, tides, geothermal, land fill, gas, and winds.

Reverse resources, this is the part of an actual resources that can be developed profitably in the future. Also reverse resources promotes upcycling of textile left lovers and creates supply chain transparency with online platform.

Natural resource are also classified based on their renewability as follows;

Renewable natural resources; are material that regenerate in nature as faster than they are exploited by society. This are resources that can be replenished, they can be used over and over again they are supply are not depleted. Example of renewable resources include sunlight, air, soil, plant, wind, waves. They are available continuously and their quantity is not noticeable affected by human consumption. However renewable resources do not have a rapid recovery rate and are susceptible to depletion if they over used.

Non- renewable resources; These are resources that exist infinite amount or are generation in nature so slowly that for all practical purposes supply infinite, or these form extremely slowly and do not naturally form in the environment. Examples of the non-renewable resources including minerals such as silver, gold, iron, coal and natural gas, oil shales, nuclear fuel such as uranium and thorium and variety of non-fuel, mineral both metallic and non-metallic. Also the non-renewable resources .These are resources that can only be use once within human life span and will eventually run out.

Conclusively, natural resources have several benefits to human life both economic, social, and cultural aspects. In economic natural resources is a source of raw material in industry, source of government income, enhance growth of national economy through exportation of different minerals. Also availability of natural resources enhance and contribute to the development of infrastructure construction such as roads and railway. Socially and culturally natural resource are important because it improve living standard of people, sources of medicine, source of decoration like coral reef and limestone. Therefore we should continue protect and preserve our available natural resources for present and future generation.