STAG 3072 Environmental Geology
Dr. Wan Zuhairi Wan Yaacob Program Geologi
ukm
Konsep Asas Geologi Sekitaran
Konsep asas Geologi Sekitaran (Coates, 1981)
• 1. Manusia adalah agen perubahan geologi
• 2. Bumi adalah unik
• 3. Bumi adalah sistem kepada sistem
• 4. Bumi adalah sistem tertutup
• 5. Proses geologi dan aktiviti manusia beroperasi dalam skala masa yang berbeza
• 6. Risiko dicirikan oleh hubungan manusia-planet
• 7. Kita amat bergantung kepada sumber bumi
• 8. Sumber bumi adalah terhad
• 9. Sumber bumi boleh diurus secara “mapan”
• 10. Pengurusan alam sekitar bermakna mengurus
• 1. Masalah utama alam sekitar akibat dari penambahan penduduk
• 2. Bumi adalah sistem tertutup
• 3. Bumi adalah habitat yang paling sesuai untuk kita dan sumber bumi adalah terhad
• 4. Proses fizikal bumi merubah landskap sepanjang masa geologi. Magnitud dan kekerapan proses ini bergantung
kepada faktor perubahan samada secara tabii/buatan
• 5.Proses bumi adalah merbahaya kepada manusia.
Bencana ini perlu dikenalpasti dan dielak dan kesan malapetaka ini dikurangkan.
LAPAN KONSEP ASAS GEOLOGI SEKITARAN (Keller, E.A. 1992 )
Mount St. Helens
"Vancouver!
Vancouver! This is it!"[
Konsep asas geologi sekitaran (samb.)
• 6. Perancangan guna-tanah dan guna-air mesti
dipertingkatkan supaya seimbang di antara pertimbangan ekonomi dan variable yang kurang jelas/nyata spt aestetika (i.e. nilai; kecantikan)
• 7. Kesan guna-tanah adalah berbentuk kumulatif; dgn itu kita ada tangggung jawab kepada generasi yang akan datang
• 8. Komponen penting untuk alam sekitar ialah faktor
geologi, pemahaman alam sekitar memerlukan pengetahuan yang luas tentang sains bumi dan disiplin yang berkaitan.
Fundamental concepts of Environmental Geology
(Keller, EA. 2000, eight edition)
• 1. Population growth
• The number one environmental problem is increase in human population.
• 2. Sustainability (mapan )
• Sustainability is the environmental objective
• 3. Systems
• Understanding the earth’s systems and their changes is
• 4. Limitation of resources
• The earth is the only suitable habitat we have, and its resources are limited
• 5. Uniformitarianism
• The physical processes modifying our landscape today have operated throughout much of geologic time. However, the magnitude and frequency of these processes are subject to natural and artificial induced change
• 6. Hazardous earth processes
• There have always been earth processes that are hazardous to people. These natural hazards must be recognized and avoided where possible and their threat to human life and property minimized.
• 7. Geology as a basic environmental science
• The fundamental component of every person’s environment is the geologic component, and understanding our
environment requires broad-based comprehension and appreciation of the earth sciences and related disciplines.
• 8. Our obligation to the future
• The effects of land use tend to be cumulative, and therefore we have an obligation to those who follow us.
1. Population growth
• Gareth Harden :
• Population increases; impact increases; more resources are needed.
• World population
• 1830 – 1930: Human population doubled from 1b-2b
• 2000 : 6.2 billion people on earth; 6.6 billion (2007); Malaysia (27 M)
• Population bomb: exponential growth-very dynamic process
•
Total environmental impact of population = product of impact per person x the population
World population clock (17 Jan 2008):
6,647,371,170
World 6,753,860,103
00:35 GMT (EST+5) Jan 15, 2009
World 6,794,279,293
08:30 UTC (EST+5) Jan 04, 2010
One family, one child policy in China
"Please for the sake of your country, use birth control.
200 million lives
Concept of exponential growth
• The present population is already over the comfortable carrying capacity for the planet.
• The role of education is paramount; greatest hope for population control
• Pessimistic scientists:
• Population growth will take care of itself thru disease and catastrophes (famine lack of food)
• Optimistic scientists:
• Hope we will find better ways to control the population of the world within the limits of our available resources,
space and other environmental needs.
1. Population growth (cont…)
BUBONIC PLAGUE (BLACK DEATH)
A disease spread by rats that causes fever, swellings on the body and usually death
25-30m
Bacterial disease plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis
1340
• The World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development in 1987:
“Sustainable Development is a form of progress that ensures human development and that „meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs ”
2. Sustainability
+ Respecting the limits of environment, resources
& biodiversity
+ Sustainable economy (opportunity for all) + Polluter pays principle + Efficient resourceuse + tax (landfill tax; waste tax) + Policy based on strong
scientific evidence + good governance + ensuring a strong, healthy & just society +Sistem sosial,
• A system:
– Any defined part of the universe that we select for study
• Eg. A planet; a volcano; an ocean basin, river
• The Earth as a system
– A system with 4 parts
• Atmosphere (air); hydrosphere (water); biosphere (life); lithosphere (rock,soil); others:-
humanosphere; oxysphere; cryosphere
• Responsible for the surface features of the earth
• Any change in magnitude/frequency of processes in one part causes changes in the other parts.
• “Principle of environmental unity”
3. Systems
KYOTO UNIVERSITY JAPAN
Mountain uplift
2. Precipitation (affect local hydrosphere)
Ocean 1 * Steeper slope (affect
lithosphere)
*erosion
*rate/types of sediments Produced – types of rocks
created wind
“Principle of environmental unity”
3. Biosphere – types of
animals/plants with new
environment
(Everything affects everything else)
atmosphere
• Earth is not static; rather, it is dynamic
• Material and energy are constantly changing
• OPEN system
• True with respect to energy
– earth receives energy from the sun and radiates energy back into space
• Exchange of matter
– Meteors fall to earth, and small amount of earth material escapes into space as gas
• Earth’s material is recycled within the
3. Systems (cont…)
EARTH & ITS SYSTEMS
• Earth Universe system
– Sun
• source of earth’s energy
• Seasons: winter, summer, spring, autumn
– Moon: tides
• Atmosphere
– 79% N2; 20% O2; 1% Argon, other gases (CO2)
• Hydrosphere
– Oceon, atmosphere, gwater, rivers, lakes, swamps,
glaciers
• Biosphere
– Organisms
• Lithosphere / astenosphere
• Cryosphere
• FEEDBACK -- system response
– Two types of feedback
• NEGATIVE feedback: inducing the system to approach steady state (GOOD)
– Eg. Erosion to river system steady state
• POSITIVE feedback: vicious cycle
3. Systems (cont…)
+ve?
-ve?
Growth Rate
• Exponential growth (slow to fast)
• 2 important measures:
– (1) the Growth Rate (%)
– (2) Doubling time
Doubling time
• Time for the quantity of whatever is being measured to double
• Rule of thumb: 70 ÷ growth rate
• For example, given Canada's net
population growth of 0.9% in the year 2006, dividing 70 by 0.9 gives an
approximate doubling time of 78 years.
Thus if the growth rate remains constant,
Canada's population will double from its
current 33 million to 66 million by 2084.
• Predicting changes in systems
– INPUT OUTPUT ANALYSIS
• Method for analyzing change in open systems
• 3 types of change:--
• INPUT = OUTPUT
– Steady state; not net change occurs – EG: (1) University students
(2) Incoming solar radiation = outgoing radiation
• INPUT<OUTPUT
– Use of resources such as fossil fuels or groundwater – Fuel or water completely used up
• INPUT>OUTPUT
3. Systems (cont…)
3. Systems (cont…)
• AVERAGE RESIDENCE TIME (ART)
– is a measure of the time it takes for the total stock or supply of the material to be cycled through a system.
– ART = Total size of the stock
the average rate transfer through the system
– Example:
• If a reservoir holds 100 million cubic meters (m3) of water and both the average input and output are 1m3/sec.
Size of stock/pool
average rate of transfer through the system
Masa purata yang diambil oleh bahan-bahan untuk bergerak dalam satu kitaran sistem
4. Limitation of resources
• Two fundamental truths
– 1. the earth is indeed the only place to live that is now accessible to us
– 2. our resources are limited, and while
some resources are renewable, many are
not.
• Two major views on natural resources
– 1. finding resources is not so much a problem as is finding ways to use them
• Efficient and intelligent use of materials
• We know more about extracting minerals than we did in the past
– Find new resources faster
– Mining lower grade of minerals
Old computer into gold
Smelting plant in Japan
– 2. A finite
definite limitresources cannot support an exponential growth of people forever. And we are in a resource crisis due to:--
• Improvements in medical technology contributing to over population
• Ever increasing gross national product based on obsolescence (design not to last long) and waste.
• The finite nature of the minerals
• Increased risk of damage to the environment as a result of overpopulation, waste, deforestation,
burning of fossil fuels, overuse of resources (water, energy, soil, minerals, animals, forests)
Sumber
• Sumber mineral tak pernah habis tetapi economically depleted
• Kos mengekstrak dan penggunaan mineral yang tinggal melebihi nilai ekonomi mineral berkenaan.
• Ada 6 pilihan untuk mengatasi masalah sumber:--
• Cari lagi (Carigali atau galicari) “petronas carigali”
• Recycle atau reuse
• Waste less
•
Economically depleted = apabila 80% dari
kandungan mineral tersebut telah diekstrak keluar dan digunakan. Kos bertambah untuk
mengeluarkan dan memproses mineral yang masih tinggal (20%)
Recycling
Ingot – solid piece of metal shaped like a brick
Wrong method of recycling !!! ????
“Kecurian kabel bukan saja dilakukan golongan penagih tetapi orang awam yang mampu mengaut pendapatan lumayan hasil jualan tembaga yang diperolehi dari kabel berkenaan,”katanya.
Difahamkan, harga pasaran bagi tembaga yang dijual kini dikatakan mencecah RM18 hingga RM20 sekilo menyebabkan pihak berkenaan sanggup berdepan risiko bagi mendapatkannya. “
5. Uniformitarianism
• The “present is the key to the past”
• James Hutton
• 1785
• Fundamental concept of earth sciences
• The process that we observe today also operated in the past
• The “present is the key to the future”
• Effects of human activity on natural earth processes
6. Hazardous earth processes
• People lives in dangerous area
• Earth processes cause loss of life/property damage
• Flooding; earthquakes; volcanic; landslides;
mudflows
• Earth scientists identified potentially hazardous processes make info
available to planners/decision makers
avoiding/minimizing the threat to human
life/property
7. Geology as a basic environmental science
• All geology can be considered environmental
• Be aware of contribution from other fields:
– Biology, chemistry, env law, architecture, and engineering, economic, etc.
• Strong interdisciplinary interest
• Most projects are complex
• Physical; biological; human use & interest
• Physical factors -- geography; geologic processes;
hydrologic processes; rock and soil types; climatology
• Biologic factors – nature of plant and animal; changes in biologic condition
• Human use and interest factors – land use, economics, aesthetics
Example
• The planning, construction, and operation of sanitary landfill site:--
– Physical factors:
• Physical location, topographic; soil type & hydrologic condition
– Biologic processes:
• Decay of organic refuse; contamination to biologic realm;
– Human interests:
8. Our obligation to the future
• Prehistoric people: minimum impact
• Hunted Game !!!
• “Memburu dan kadang-kadang diburu”
• Agriculture / land-use / infrastructure development – maximum impact
• The effects of land use tend to be
cumulative, and therefore we have an obligation to those who follow us
(sustainable development).
TAMAT
