Ackerman's Population-Resource Regions PDF

Department of Geography B.Sc. (II Semester) Section - B Human Geography (Unit – III) Topic: Ackerman’s Population - Resource Region Introduction Population refers to the total number of persons inhabiting in a country...

Department of Geography B.Sc. (II Semester) Section - B Human Geography (Unit – III) Topic: Ackerman’s Population - Resource Region Introduction Population refers to the total number of persons inhabiting in a country or region while resource is something which human society attaches value to due to its usefulness. Population and resources have a strong relationship with one another. The growth and decline of population affects the availability of resources while the availability of resources affects the economic status of population. As we know that the world’s population is growing at an exponential rate. Worldwide every second, 2.6 people are being born. Due to this rapid birth rate, as of 2020, the human population exceeded seven billion people! The human population has not always been so large. Around 10,000 years ago before the invention of agriculture, it is estimated that the human population was only a few million people worldwide. After the invention of agriculture, the human population began to grow slowly until the 1900s, when a rapid increase in the human population began. With increases in technology and medical advancements, the human population was able to reach three billion in the 1960s. Since that time, the population has more than doubled and continues to increase. Due to this increase in the human population, there has been increased pressure on our existing resources that we rely on for survival. Therefore, we must stop this exponential growth of population to sustain on the earth. In this topic, we will discuss the concept of population – resource region given by Edward Augustus Ackerman, an American scholar. Population- Resource Regions A complex relation exists among man, resource base and technology. In this connection whole world can be divided into different population-resource regions which have some advantages and disadvantages over others. E.A. Ackerman (1970) has used three basic criteria for formulating the world’s regional scheme of population /resource ratio. These criteria were following -  Population factor  Resource factor  Technology factor 1 Among these three variables used in this scheme, the most critical is the magnitude and quality of available technology. Ackerman while using the three factors of population, resource and technology, emphasized more on technology. He suggested a five-fold classification of the world into population/resource regions on the basis of population resource ratios and the availability of technology. It was a pioneering effort made of Ackerman. (1) The United States of America Types:  These areas are the most developed areas of the world enjoying very high standard of living.  They witness rapid development in last one to two hundred years as they received massive in-migration from then technically very advance society. In fact at that time most of them belong to Brazilian type.  Original inhabitants of these lands were low in numbers, technically very backward and so they gave up quickly against migrants.  These lands were full of pristine natural resources and thus technological support gave them very high growth and prosperity.  In contrast to their physical resources the population pressure was very low and so there was always a good scope for the application of higher and higher technology.  Slowly they mastered in technology and now the area has so much technology and so many technical persons that they often export them.  Their prosperity, wealth and technical knowhow gave them unprecedented advantage in international arena to deal things in their favour.  They use resource of not only of their own land but also of other regions.  This unfortunate excessive materialistic attitude has done much harm to the nature.  Probably they are at the zenith of development using present technological knowhow and the gap between them and the next group is so high that it seems difficult that any new country will be added to this group in near future, instead it is more possible that some of them may slip down to lower group.  Example: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Parts of Russia etc. (2) The European Type:  This is the source area of massive out-migration to new lands which developed into United States type latter. 2   Here again technology is very advance but high population and limited physical resources has created high population pressure.  High living standard is maintained by constant technological upgradation, resource conservation and recycling, one of the best output practices along with export of technology, technical knowhow and export of finished goods. So their prosperity relies on a combination of advance technology, efficient resource utilization and conservation and on international trade and services.  Examples: The most of countries of Western, Southern and Eastern Europe and Soviet Central Asian republics, Singapore, South Korea and Japan belongs to this group. (3) Brazilian Types:  This is practically a transition stage were the pressure of population to physical resources is low and so these areas have high promises. They have ample physical resources but their technologies are poor and so their prosperity are average.  If they receive or develop good technology, sufficient social overhead capital, etc. then their resource exploitation efficiency will expand and it will bring them to a trajectory of higher prosperity like of European type.  If only population expand and not technology and quality of population, then such region may slip to the inferior category of China type.  Example: Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, interior Argentina, Central American Republics, Cuba, north Australian territory, etc. (4) Egyptian Types:  This is the least promising of all categories. State of technology is poor and excessive population has caused very high stress on physical resources. So, industrialization is low, agriculture which is the mainstay of economy is in dilapidated condition and high population is expanding at higher rate.  Many social issues like poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, illiteracy, etc. are very common. Probably rapid population growth is the biggest single problem here which if controlled then only this region has chance of moving towards European type of prosperity.  Examples: Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Albania, Greece, Haiti, Guatemala, China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, etc. 3 (5) Arctic - Desert Type:  This is the land of the future with many unexplored resources due to the lack of technological maturity.  Either uninhabited or a very few people reside there. So technological advancement may invite more human intervention in these areas of hostile geo-environmental conditions in future.  Examples: Covers the Antarctica, northern part of North America and Eurasia, the Amazon basin, the Sahara desert, deserts of Central Australia, Chile, Patagonia, etc. Conclusion The present classification is a useful general guide but offers little help for more specific cases of pressure of population on resources, which is extremely difficult to define in quantitative terms due to the dynamism of the variables involved. Human knowledge, which makes something resource, in combination with human numbers, their composition and their attitudes, decide the way resource are created and exploited. So in the complex population-resource relation human is at the centre of the theme. **************************** 4 Figure: Ackerman (1970) Classification of Population- Resource Region 5