1.2 Types of Natural Resources

The world of resources is huge, so geographers sort it into families. The same resource can belong to several families at once, depending on the question we are asking. We will use three handy ways of classifying: by use, by origin, and by renewability.

A. Classifying by use

When we ask “What is this resource for?”, three groups appear.

Three Kinds by Use

• Essential resources, the ones life simply cannot do without: air, water and soil. They are needed by every living thing, every single day.
• Material resources, the raw materials from which we make things: wood, cotton, metals, stone, clay. These become furniture, clothes, tools and buildings.
• Energy resources, the ones we burn or harness for power: coal, petroleum, natural gas, sunlight, wind, flowing water. These run our vehicles, factories and homes.

A single object can cross these lines, water is an essential resource for drinking, an energy resource when it spins a hydro turbine, and a material resource in industries that use it to make products.

B. Classifying by origin

When we ask “Where did this resource come from, living things or non-living things?”, two groups appear.

Type	Comes from	Examples
Biotic resources	The living world (the biosphere)	Forests, crops, animals, fish, coal and petroleum (formed from ancient living things)
Abiotic resources	The non-living world	Air, water, soil, minerals, metals, sunlight

Think About It Coal and petroleum are dug out of rock like minerals, yet geographers call them biotic. Why? (Hint: think about what they were made from, millions of years ago.)

C. Classifying by renewability

This is the most important classification for thinking about the future, because it asks: “If we use this up, can Nature replace it?”

Renewable vs Non-Renewable

• Renewable resources can be replaced by natural processes within a human lifetime, if we do not use them faster than they regrow. Examples: solar energy, wind, flowing water, forests, soil fertility.
• Non-renewable resources take millions of years to form, so on a human timescale they are effectively finite, once used, they are gone. Examples: coal, petroleum, natural gas, and metallic minerals.

There is an important catch hidden in the word “if”. A renewable resource can still be destroyed if we are careless. A forest regrows, but only if we cut it slower than it grows; groundwater refills, but only if we pump it slower than the rain replaces it. Renewable does not mean unlimited.

	Renewable	Non-renewable
Forms in	Hours to decades	Millions of years
Risk	Can be exhausted if overused	Will certainly run out one day
Examples	Sun, wind, water, forests	Coal, oil, gas, minerals
Wise strategy	Use within the rate of renewal	Use sparingly; find substitutes

Putting the three lenses together

Take petroleum as a test case. By use it is an energy resource; by origin it is biotic (formed from ancient sea organisms); by renewability it is non-renewable. One resource, three labels, each answering a different question.

Let’s Explore Copy this table and fill in all three labels (use / origin / renewability) for each resource.

Resource	By use	By origin	By renewability
Sunlight	?	?	?
Iron ore	?	?	?
Teak wood	?	?	?
Natural gas	?	?	?

Remember This Use → essential / material / energy. Origin → biotic / abiotic. Renewability → renewable / non-renewable. The same resource usually carries one label from each row.

Now that we can name and sort resources, the next question is geographical: why are they not spread evenly across the world? That is where we go next.