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Apart from land and water resources, the natural
calamity too comes in the way of sustainable
development. Drought and desertification exercise
major control on agricultural production and other
developmental activities. Advance preparedness is,
therefore, needed for combating drought. For
controlling desertification comprehensive anti-
desertification programmes need to be developed.
Lastly, rapid industrialization and deforestation
have led to building up of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere which has resulted in global warming.
CO2 concentration has increased from 280ppm
during 1850 to 350 ppm at present. Similarly, the
concentration of methane (CH4) has increased
from 0.85 ppm during 1850 to 1.7 ppm at present.
Besides, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) with very long
residence time (over 100 years) and nitrous oxide
(N20) have further added to environmental
problem. The increase in the concentration of
green house gases have resulted in the average
increase in temperature of 0.5°K. Even with the
adoption of revised Montreal Protocol regulation
0.5°K, the global mean temperature rise is likely to
reach 3°K which can result in the rise of sea level
by 18-20 cm, leading to recession of shoreline by
27-30m, change in rainfall pattern particularly in the
tropical regions, fall in food production by about
15.0 per cent and 10.0 per cent depletion of ozone
(Rao, 1991).
2. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable development of natural resources
refers to maintaining a fragile balance between
productivity functions and conservation practice
through identification and monitoring of problem
areas, and calls for application of alternate
agriculture practices, crop rotation, use of bio-
fertilizers, energy - efficient farming methods and
reclamation of unutilized and under-utilized lands.
Although the importance of the role of holistic and
systemic approaches to solutions for large scale
and complex socio-economic problems has been
emphasized for many years, it does not appear to
have been seriously advocated or experimented for
management of natural resources. The sustainable
development paradigm is built on the premise that
neither of the two objectives-economic development
and environmental protection - can be ignored and
that an acceptable balance must be achieved
between the two (Haimes, 1992).
The Word Commission on Environment and
Development (WECD, 1987) defines sustainable
development as that which meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. Since the
unsustainable patterns of production and
consumption in the industrialized society and
developing countries have led to environmental
degradation, the Governments of the different
countries have made the commitment to foster
sustainable development at the Earth Summit of
1992 in Reo de Janeiro. Agenda 21 of the summit
addresses these issues in detail and identifies the
action items for sustainable development. One of
the issues which is addressed in the agenda is the
conservation and management of resources for
development. It could be achieved by planning and
management of land resources, combating
deforestation and conservation of biodiversity,
combating desertification and drought, protection of
the quality and supply of fresh water, protection of
the oceans and coastal areas, rational use and
development of their living resources, and
protection of the atmosphere from pollution. It is
amply clear from the foregoing that the
environmental degradation process unless detected
early and action taken to arrest / mitigate, may lead
to further deterioration.
3. SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability refers to the qualitative and
quantitative continuity in the use of a resource. It
implies a state of equilibrium between human
activities as influenced by social behavior, acquired
knowledge and applied technology, on one hand
and the food production on the other (Farshad and
Zinck, 1993). Sustainability attempts not only to
address global issues, such as resource
degradation, deforestation and ozone layer
depletion, but also local issues, such as
maintenance of eco-and socio-eco-systems or a
combination of these. Sustainability could be
defined in elementary terms by (Gallopin, 1996) :
V (Ot+1) > V (Ot)
Where V is a value function of the outputs of the
system.
There are several perspectives of sustainability,
namely economic, ecological, social and an
optimum mix of ecological and economic
perspective. From ecological view point,
sustainability may be defined as "an increasing
trend in production over time per unit consumption
of the non-renewable or limiting resources or per
unit degradation of soil and environmental
characteristic". The dominantly economically-
oriented perspective puts more emphasis on
economic aspects. Natural resources are either
disregarded or only marginally taken into account
(Ikerd, 1990). The role of such factors of production '
as the availability of natural resources and
environmental services, but also that of
environmental impacts as products of economic
activity are neglected.
Intemational Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998 157
