RS: Resource Development Flashcards
Natural resources
Any naturally occurring parts of the environment that can be used by people to meet their needs.
Can be physical materials or flows of energy.
What are the two types of resources?
Stock or flow
Stock resources
Resources that can run out and can’t be replaced in the foreseeable future.
Flow resources
Resources that can be replenished, including resources:
- That will never run out and don’t rely on human input to manage them.
- That may require careful management by humans to ensure they are replenished.
Critical flow resources
Resources that may require careful management by humans to ensure they are replenished.
Why do companies have to evaluate resources to see if they are economically viable?
Stock resources can be expensive to extract and transport, but they can also be extremely valuable.
Resource
The entire supply of a material (including the parts that haven’t been found yet or aren’t economically viable to extract).
Reserve
The amount of the resource that it is economically viable to extract.
Possible resources
Resources that are thought to exist (eg. based on knowledge of local geology), but haven’t been sampled.
Inferred resources
Resources that have been identified (eg. from limited samples of local geology) but haven’t been measured.
Indicated reserve
The size of the reserve has been partly measured, and the measurements have been used to estimate the actual extent.
Measured reserve
The size of the reserve has been measured and is known accurately.
The extraction and sale of resources is mostly controlled by what?
TNCs
Hypothetical resources
Undiscovered materials that are reasonably expected to exist in known mining regions under known geological conditions.
Speculative resources
Undiscovered materials that may occur in known types of deposits in geological settings where no previous discoveries have yet been made.
What are the two types of possible resources?
Hypothetical resources and speculative resources.
What are stock resources also known as?
Non-renewable resources
What are flow resources also known as?
Renewable resources.
State and define the two types of renewable/flow resources:
Critical = resources that require careful management by humans to ensure they are replenished.
Non-critical = ‘everlasting’ resources such as tides, waves, running water, wind and solar power.
Non-renewable energy resources
Finite resources whose rate of formation is so slow that they cannot be replenished during a human lifespan.
Renewable energy resources.
Resources that yield a continuous flow that can be consumed within any given period of time without endangering future consumption.
Resource security
The ability of a country to safeguard a reliable and sustainable flow of resources to maintain living standards of its population, while ensuring ongoing economic and social development.
What are the stages of resource development?
- Exploration
- Exploitation
- Depletion
- Development
- Exhaustion
Exploration
Locating a potential new resource and evaluating whether it is viable to extract.
Exploitation
Extracting the resource, preparing it for use and transporting it to where it will be used.
Depletion
Resource begins to run out.
Development
Yield decreases and new methods of extraction may be developed to prolong the life of the resource.
Exhaustion
Resource becomes so limited that it is not physcially possible or economically viable.
Resource frontier
A place with abundant natural resources that are being exploited for the first time
Why do resource frontiers develop?
More accessible resources are depleted and increasing demand it economically viable to exploit new areas.
Resource peak
Period of highest production - point at which maximum amount of resource is being extracted each day.
Often when resource is cheaper.
Describe the Hubbert Curve/resource peak curve:
- Production increases as investment increases - easily accessed parts of reserve are extracted
- Resource peak - roughly when half the resource has been used
- Depletion of resource
- Exhaustion
How can new technology affect the Hubbert Curve?
- Second peak
- Slow down depletion
Allows hard-to-reach reserves to be exploited.
How can the use of stock resources be made sustainable?
- Use less of resource
- Increasing reuse/recycling - minimises new materials needed
- Finding new reserves/ways of extracting resources - eg. tech developments
- Finding alternatives to each resource
What are more sustainable - flow resources or stock resources?
Why?
Flow - can be replenished.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Undertaken before a new development is started/
Assesses potential environmental effects of development.
What are the 7 steps in an Environmental Impact Assessment?
- Outline development
- Describe existing environment
- Assess likely impacts - using Leopold Matrix
- Propose modifications to reduce impacts
- Publish environmnetal statement
- Decision made - under what conditions can the plan go ahead?
- Monitoring
