Population Resource relationship

Population Resource Relationship

1. Population-Resource Relationship: Under Population, Optimum Population and Over Population Mithun Ray Department of Geography Malda College (University of Gour Banga) E-mail: [email protected]

2. Collection of people at a time of a place considered as population Resource means somethings that has utility to human beings

3. Population and resources have a strong relationship with one another The growth and decline of population affects the availability of resources. At the same time the availability of resources affects the trends seen in population.

4. Present human species had common ancestor but it is varied initial physical environment coupled with some sort of luck gave some human group higher pace of development than others. These differences further multiplied with the passage of time to make different human groups differently able in understanding and utilization of their environment. These different abilities with different human group to understand and exploit their environment have necessitated the need to compare human numbers with respect to local physical environment which owes to satisfy their needs now and also for the generations to come.

5. Concept of Optimum Population Population which produces maximum economic welfare -- Car-Saunders The ideal number of population that a country should have considering its resources. The optimum size of population is which along with the existing natural resources and a given state of technology, yields the highest income per capita in a country.

6. ---Prof. Dalton If M is zero, population is optimum, when M is positive, it is over population, when M is negative, it is under population. Therefore, optimum population is not fixed and a rigid one. It is rather variable and relative to resources and technology. Optimum population is not just an economic concept but qualitative in nature. Prof. Cannan has correctly remarked, “It is being perpetually altered by the progress of knowledge and other changes affecting the economic system. It is, thus, a dynamic concept. It may be higher or lower as different methods of production are used.”

7. Concept of Under Population Under population exists when a population is too small, therefore unable to fully utilise the available resource endowments. Under population is also characterised by a situation where the available resources are capable of supporting a much larger population with no reduction in living standards. The situation is found in regions of low technical development such as equatorial Congo, Amazon River basin or the rich Prairie region of North America.

8. Relative under population is more common than absolute under population . Indeed, absolute under population is rarely seen and may be found in completely secluded societies where, the degree of replacement of population is less than unity. Relative under population occurs due to insufficient resource development. In developed economies, rural under population is more visible, whereas in backward countries, under population is linked to high mortality rate.

9. Concept of Over Population The term ‘overpopulation’ means too great a population for a given region to support. There may be two causes: ( i ) population growth exceeds the existing resource base; (ii) existing resources have been depleted. The situation of overpopulation displays the following socio-economic characteristics: high unemployment, low incomes, low standards of living, high population density, malnutrition and famine.

10. Some authors distinguish absolute overpopulation (where the absolute limit of production has been attained but standards of living remain low) from relative overpopulation (where present production does not support the population but the production can be augmented).

11. https://www.i-study.co.uk/subscription/igcse-zone/igcse-geography/1-1-population-dynamics/

12. This Power Point Presentation (PPT) has been prepared only to deliver the lecture. The materials (Maps, Diagrams and Images) used in this presentation have been collected and compiled by the presenter from various academic blogs, research papers, books etc.

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