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| Types of Natural Resources |
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| The natural resources are classified in 3 ways, according to their |
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| a) chemical nature |
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| b) their abundances and availability |
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| c) their distribution. |
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| Chemical nature |
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| They are of 3 types: |
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| a) Inorganic resources including air, water and metallic minerals. |
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| b) Organic resources including plants, animals, microorganisms and fossil fuels. |
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| c) Mixed resources including soil, which is an inorganic as well as inorganic resource. |
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| Abundance and availability |
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| The resources are of the 2 types. They are: |
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| a) In exhaustible |
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| b) Exhaustible. |
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| a) In exhaustible resources |
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| These include air, clay, sand, tidal energy and precipitation. These are not likely to be exhausted by human race. |
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| b) Exhaustible resource |
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| These are likely to be finished by human use. They are further of 2 kinds renewable and non- renewable. |
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| Renewable resource |
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| The renewable resources can maintain themselves or can be replaced if managed wisely. These resources are constantly renewed in nature. The renewable resources are therefore not likely to be lost due to excessive and unwise use. |
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| Non-renewable resources |
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| These resources once used are lost forever, as they are not restored. |
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| They include metallic minerals and fossil fuels. At current rates of usage, all the industrial metals may lost for less than a century and those of petroleum and natural gas may exhaust in 15-20 years. |
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| Distribution |
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| With regards to distribution they are of 3 types. National, multi national and international. |
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| National resources |
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| These are confined to national boundaries. |
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| Examples: Minerals and lands. |
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| Multi national resources |
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| These are shared by more then one nation. |
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| Examples: Some rivers, certain lakes and migratory animals. |
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| International resources |
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| These are shared by all nations. |
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| Examples: Air and solar energy. |
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| Study of natural resources can be treated to have run parallel to course of human development as well as parallel to the course of evolution of science itself. The study of natural resources has been an inseparable part of acquiring knowledge, ever since man started acquiring knowledge. It is one of the widely studied fields with no boundaries of time and space. |
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| Study of natural resources is important at global level and national level. Initially we shall study global resources in a broad sense. |
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| Mainly, there are eleven different types of natural resources - each one with several subtypes. They are: |
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 Geological resources: Include resources like minerals, oils, gas, rocks, mountains, and valleys. |
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 Hydro geological resources: Include all the underground water, surface water (sea, river, stream, ponds) and ice. |
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 Atmospheric resources: Include air, its temperature, rainfall and its pattern, sunlight. |
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 Edaphic resources: Include different types of soils, their fertility and vast biological wealth in them. |
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 Forest resource: Include all types of forests and other naturally grown plant sources. |
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 Crop resources: include all cultivated crops and their potentialities. |
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 Marine and aquatic resources: Include plants, animals and mineral resources in marine and other aquatic ecosystem of world. |
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 Animal resources: Include vast animal resource that include all domesticated animals and animals that grow friendly with human society. |
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 Wildlife resources: Include all types of wild animals including those, which are not grown friendly with human society. |
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 Human resource: Include different types of human population, their distribution and potentialities. |
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 Microbial resource: Include different types of microbes, which are useful to mankind in many ways. |
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