Romanova, Kurakova – Natural Resources of the World. Study Guide
Romanova and Kurakov’s textbook – Natural Resources of the World. This is the first textbook on the world’s natural resources. It covers the most relevant concepts in resource studies, patterns of natural resource potential distribution, the availability of natural resources in the modern economy, and issues of environmental protection and rational nature management.
The current stage of global economic development is characterized by ever-increasing consumption of natural resources, a sharp increase in the complexity of the interaction between nature and society, and the intensification and expansion of specific natural-anthropogenic processes arising from technological impacts on nature. Therefore, studying the natural resource potential of the world as a whole, individual continents, and countries, analyzing the economic management systems that have developed in various socioeconomic structures of the modern global community, and developing concepts for the rational and optimal development of natural resources is of great importance. Failure to take into account or ignore the principles of scientifically sound nature management leads to numerous crises in nature and the economy, which are so characteristic of many regions of the world.
The analysis of natural resources and the development of ideas about their rational use presupposes the sequential implementation of the following stages of scientific research:
- 1) study of individual types of natural resources in the study region, their qualitative and quantitative accounting (inventory) based on the latest assessment methods; mapping of identified natural resources;
- 2) determination of the natural resource potential (NRP) of the territory, i.e., the totality of natural resources acting as means of production or consumer goods within the boundaries of natural-territorial complexes (landscapes) (NTC);
- 3) economic assessment of the natural resource potential of NTCs or landscapes;
- 4) establishment of priority areas for the economic development of the NRP of the territory; development of a plan for the most rational development of NRP, i.e., economically efficient and environmentally safe, preventing the development of negative natural-anthropogenic processes and environmental degradation;
- 5) organization of protection of individual natural objects and measures for the restoration and expanded reproduction of natural resources. Thus, the range of tasks facing researchers is very complex and extensive. Solving these problems requires the participation of specialists from various fields—physical and economic geographers, economists, and others. Physical-geographical research is necessary in the first, second, and partially in the fourth and fifth stages of the study, while economic-geographical research is necessary in the third and partially in the fourth and fifth stages. A comprehensive, scientifically sound solution to the problem of rational use of a territory’s natural resource potential is possible only through integrated physical and economic-geographical work. None of the above research stages can be excluded from the overall framework.
This textbook by Romanova and Kurakova – Natural Resources of the World. This textbook examines only physical-geographical approaches and assessments of the natural resources of the continents and landmasses of the globe as a whole, as well as the main consequences arising in the natural environment during the current development of natural resource potential.
One of the central problems studied by modern science is the problem of providing the population of the globe and individual countries with the necessary natural resources now, in the near future, and in the long term. This problem is becoming especially relevant as the shortage and depletion of many natural resources increases. Energy, food, and raw material crises have emerged in several regions of the planet.
The analysis and assessment of natural resources has long been a fruitful subject in geographical science. These issues are also given considerable attention in the training of geographers.
The course “Natural Resources of the World” is an integral part of one of the core subjects taught in varying volumes in the geography and economics departments of universities and in the natural sciences departments of pedagogical institutes: “Physical Geography of Continents and Oceans.” At a number of universities across the country, “Natural Resources of the World” is included as a standalone course in the curricula and taught in geography departments.
The problem of assessing natural resource potential, its distribution, and economic development is so complex and multifaceted that it is impossible to fully address it within a single course. In this textbook, these issues are limited to an examination of global and large-scale (continental) patterns of formation and spatial distribution of the main types of natural resources (mineral, water, land, etc.), determining the volumes of their potential and current economic extraction, and identifying the most obvious consequences of their development in the natural environment. Thus, the course “Natural Resources of the World” is devoted primarily to the physical and geographical aspects of studying the natural resource potential of the globe’s landmass.
This textbook by Romanova and Kurakova – Natural Resources of the World – is the result of many years of lecturing on this subject at the Geography Department of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The first part of the textbook contains a global overview of the planet’s most important natural resources and regional overviews of the continents of the Northern Hemisphere; the second part is devoted to overviews of the natural resources of the continents of the Southern Hemisphere and the World Ocean.
The natural resources of the territory of the former USSR are covered in specialized courses, and therefore this territory is not covered in this textbook. However, when analyzing global patterns of natural resource formation and development (section “World Overview”), the territory of the former USSR is included as an independent macroregion in accordance with the divisions adopted in official international reference publications prior to 1991 and referenced in the text of the textbook.
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