Geoenvironment Management and Sustainability - Sustainable Practices in Geoenvironmental Engineering - page 25

Energy

Water and
sanitation

Health

WEHAB

Biodiversity

Agriculture

Water and other renewable resources;
Hydrocarbon, minerals, and other
non-renewable resources;
Goods and services;
Life support

Wastes and pollution
Pollution of water resources
Health threats
Resources depletion
Ecosystem degradation
Loss of biodiversity

Forest
ecosystem

Aquatic ecosystem

Geoenvironment
Ecosphere

Agro and soil
ecosystems

Terrestrial ecosystem

Other ecosystems

FIGURE 1.12
The continuous cycle of interaction among industry-production, WEHAB, and the geoenvironment, from a
geoenvironmental perspective.

1.5.1 Renewable and Nonrenewable Geoenvironment Natural Resources

Sustainable development in itself may in all probability be a chimera—a non-attainable
goal and an illusion. However, this should not deny the fact that proper environmental
management and conservation measures are needed if we are to strive to meet the goals
and objectives of sustainability. This includes resource conservation and management and
preservation of diversity. Failure to do so will result in the diminution of the capability
of the geoenvironment to provide the basis for life support. The case of renewable and
nonrenewable geoenvironmental natural resources is a good demonstration of this point.
Following the spirit of the systems dynamics model predictions of Meadows et al . (1972),
the chart shown in Figure 1.13 speculates on the status of the global population at some
future time under conditions identiied in Figure 1.13's caption. The curve identiied as A
shows the status of population based on current depletion rate of nonrenewable geoenvi-
ronmental natural resources in relation to some future time. The abscissa on the diagram
shows “years at some future time,” and the ordinate gives a qualitative appreciation of the
growth or decline of the parameter under consideration. The curve identiied as B is the
speculative quantity of nonrenewable resources available assuming that the depletion rate
of the nonrenewable geoenvironmental natural resources remains the same, i.e., constant
in proportion to the population at hand. We consider the principal nonrenewable geoen-
vironmental natural resources to consist of fossil fuels, minerals, and geological building
materials (stone, gravel, sand, and soil).