Chapter 1 · Question 1
What is a resource? Explain the main ways in which resources are classified.
Answer
Direct Answer
A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs when it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable. Resources are classified by origin into biotic and abiotic, by exhaustibility into renewable and non-renewable, by ownership into individual, community, national, and international, and by status of development into potential, developed, stock, and reserves.
Simple Explanation
A resource is any environmentally available thing that can meet human needs with accessible technology and acceptable economics. Classification is by origin (biotic/abiotic), exhaustibility (renewable/non-renewable), ownership, and development status.
Exam-Ready Structure
A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs, provided it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable.
Resources are classified in four main ways:
1. By origin:
• Biotic — obtained from living things (forests, animals, fish)
• Abiotic — non-living materials (rocks, metals, minerals)
2. By exhaustibility:
• Renewable — can be replenished (solar energy, wind, water, forests)
• Non-renewable — finite, form over geological time (coal, petroleum, minerals)
3. By ownership:
• Individual — owned privately (land, houses)
• Community — accessible to all in a community (grazing grounds, village ponds)
• National — owned by the nation (minerals, forests, rivers within boundaries)
• International — regulated by international bodies (ocean resources beyond exclusive economic zones)
4. By status of development:
• Potential — exist but not yet used (wind energy in some regions)
• Developed — surveyed and being used (coal, iron ore)
• Stock — exist but lack technology to use (hydrogen as fuel)
• Reserves — can be used with current technology but kept for future (water in dams)
Key Points
- A resource is anything available in the environment that can satisfy human needs when it is technologically accessible, economically feasible, and culturally acceptable.
- Resources are classified by origin into biotic and abiotic, by exhaustibility into renewable and non-renewable, by ownership into individual, community, national, and international, and by status of development into potential, developed, stock, and reserves.
Relevant Maps and Figures
Classification of Resources Diagram
diagram
Use this chart to remember the exact branches used when classifying resources in the textbook.
It is most useful for the origin and exhaustibility parts of the answer.
This classification chart is the cleanest visual summary of how the chapter groups resources by natural and human categories, then by renewable and non-renewable branches.
Answer Sources
- Classification of resources figurefigure | Contemporary India-II | Resources and Development | Classification of resources | Pages 1