Page 110 - SST Class 08
P. 110
Land, Soil
and Water Resources 13
q Land resource q Land use pattern of selected countries
q Soil q Water resource
Introduction All parts of the land are not habitable. Around
one-third of the land is not suitable for living or is
Human beings satisfy their needs by consuming
uninhabitable. About 30% land area of the world
various things available in the environment, some
supports 90% of the world population (over 600
of these are land, soil, water etc. They are essential crore people) while the remaining 70% land area
for survival on the earth and they have great utility
supports only 10% of population. Generally,
value. The utility of these elements depends on the
plains and fertile river valleys support a larger
needs and desires of the people living in the number of people as they are the most suitable for
particular region. Land is important because people
agriculture, irrigation, urbanisation, transportation,
perform their all activities on land while soil is
industrialisation and communication network. In
important in terms of growing crops and water is contrast thick forests, sandy deserts, rugged
essential for life.
mountains, snow-covered areas and low-lying
areas have sparse population.
LAND RESOURCE
Land Use
Land has a great importance in the life of human
beings because they live on it. About 29% of the Land is used for many purposes such as
agriculture, forestry, mining, building houses,
total surface area of our earth is covered with
land. Human fulfils his basic needs from land. For roads and railways etc. This variation in the
residential requirement, he is fully dependent on proportion of land put to different uses is known
as land use pattern . Land use in an area depends
land resources besides different activities like
grazing, mining, settlements, agriculture, industry, on the state of human development and the
transport, communication etc. all depend upon physical features such as relief of the land,
climate, slope of the land and soil etc. Besides
the availability of land.
these, some human factors like population
density, needs and aspirations of the people,
development of technology and cost also affect
the land use pattern of a region.
Info Bits
Info Bits
Plateau Plain Mountain
When a mass of rock debris and soil move down
Info Bits slope, it is called landslide.
Info Bits
The land surface is not same everywhere. We find The land use pattern varies with time and also from
plains, uplands, plateaus, hills and mountains at region to region. For example, we can still find that
various locations. in backward areas where technology has not
Contemporary Social Science-8
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