Theory question 207
Environmental Hazards and Conservation(a) Explain the term natural environment (b) Highlight four advantages and four disadvantages of man's intervention with the natural environment
Show the model answer
Model answer
(a) The natural environment is everything around us not made by man: land/relief, rocks and soils, water, climate, plants and animals, and how they interact.
(b) Advantages: farmland and food production; minerals and energy for industry; land for settlement, roads and towns; water supply and HEP from dams; forest products; control of floods and erosion.
Disadvantages: deforestation and loss of wildlife; soil erosion and desertification; pollution of air, water and land; exhaustion of minerals; flooding from blocked drainage; climate change.
Explanation
Give four of each, clearly separated.