Industrial and Agricultural Sectors: Impact and Sustainability
Industrial Sites Worldwide
Factors of Industrial Location
Factors explaining the location of industries in a region include natural resources, the labor market, and the market itself.
- Availability of Resources: Historically, the availability of resources conditioned the location of industries. This has been overcome thanks to the emergence and development of transport systems, such as ships and rail.
- Workforce: Industries have tended to be located near residential centers. The creation of industrial centers has been a factor in attracting labor and urban growth.
- Market: Proximity or ease of access between product and consumer is crucial.
Socioeconomic and political capital, as well as human and political decisions, are also important.
Four key elements in modern industrial location are:
- The technological revolution
- Increased commuting processes, liberalization, and deregulation of markets
- Growth of industrial dynamism in developing countries
- Increased globalization processes
The Change Towards Sustainable Industry
The management of industrial waste causes pollution of the atmosphere, rivers, and lakes. Industrial production has a decisive influence on the balances that govern the planet.
The design of new, less polluting industrial processes is a slow process. There are significant global research efforts to design factories that use new technologies and are able to generate no emissions and have no impact on the environment. This will be achieved when designing products that do not require metals or pollutants and are structured in closed cycles that allow complete recovery. These are known as clean industries.
Industrial Landscapes
New forms of industrial land use and industrial landscapes include industrial estates, technology parks, and technopoles.
- Industrial Estates: These represent an attempt to territorially organize industrial production. They are located in metropolitan or urban peripheries, and their development is tied to the road network and the widespread use of the automobile.
- Technology Parks: These aim to attract leading technology companies in an easy-to-access area, especially equipped with infrastructure, and located in a regional context favorable for the development of research and the exchange of information. They tend to be located near universities and well-equipped urban and economically developed areas.
- Technopoles: These focus on technological innovation through the installation of public or private centers dedicated to research, technological development, and higher education.
Population and Agricultural Activities
Agricultural activities account for 45% of the workforce worldwide. In many developing countries, people work directly with livestock or agriculture. In some cases, such as Nepal (Asia) or Nigeria (Africa), the percentage of the agricultural population can reach over 70%. In developed countries, only a small proportion of the population is employed in agriculture and livestock. In Western Europe, it is less than 10% of the global population, 2% in Canada, and less than 1% in the United States.
The weight of agriculture in the world economy is limited: it represents 5% of the total.
- Irrigated agriculture: not watered in South Asia
- Farming: practiced in developing countries with exotic products such as cocoa, pineapple and coffee.
The Green Revolution
Agriculture based on the use of advanced technological resources began to spread in the mid-twentieth century, in the process known as the Green Revolution (GR). For four decades, food production continuously exceeded demand. The GR was based on obtaining highly productive varieties (mainly grains) and applying mechanical and chemical technology to the field.
The GR showed uneven success because it focused on cereal production, leaving out other parts of the agricultural spectrum (such as tubers, vegetables, legumes, fruits, or nuts). Other drawbacks included dependence on the widespread use of artificial fertilizers, and new varieties were more vulnerable to diseases and pests.
Impact on the Natural Environment of Agriculture
The Earth has a limited capacity to produce food. The main factors that limit production are the loss of soil and the use of poor farming techniques that destroy it.
Agricultural production strategies have been developed without considering the capacity of the environment or environmental sustainability criteria. Environmental factors are taking a leading role because the very sustainability of the Earth is at stake.
The introduction of ecological variables in farming practices is required to ensure that resource use is sustainable.