Human habitat and its components. Lecture: Human Environment

Man is born with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He realizes his rights to life, to rest, to health protection, to a favorable environment, to work in conditions that meet safety and hygiene requirements in the process of life. They are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Life activity- This is everyday activity and recreation, a way of human existence.

In the life process, a person is inextricably linked with his environment, while at all times he has been and remains dependent on his environment. It is through it that he satisfies his needs for food, air, water, material resources, rest, etc.

Habitat- the environment surrounding a person, caused by a combination of factors (physical, chemical, biological, informational, social) that can have a direct or indirect, immediate or remote impact on a person’s life, his health and offspring.

Man and the environment are constantly in interaction, forming a constantly operating system “man - environment”. In the process of the evolutionary development of the World, the components of this system continuously changed. Man improved, the Earth's population increased, its level of urbanization increased, the social structure and social basis of human society changed. The habitat also changed: the territory of human-developed lands and its subsoil expanded, the natural environment experienced an ever-increasing influence of the human community; artificially created by man household, urban and industrial environments appeared.

Let us note that the natural environment is self-sufficient and can exist and develop without human participation, while all other types of habitat created by man cannot develop independently and without human participation are doomed to aging and destruction.

At the initial stage of its development, man interacted with the natural environment, which consists mainly of the biosphere, but also includes the Galaxy, Solar System, space and the bowels of the Earth.

Biosphere- the natural area of ​​distribution of life on Earth, including the lower layer of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the upper layer of the lithosphere, which have not experienced anthropogenic impact.

In the process of evolution, man, trying to most effectively satisfy his needs for food, material values, protection from climatic and weather influences, and increasing his sociability, continuously influenced the natural environment and, mainly, the biosphere. To achieve these goals

he transformed part of the biosphere into territories occupied by the technosphere.

Technosphere- a region of the biosphere that was transformed in the past by people through the direct or indirect influence of technical means in order to best suit human socio-economic needs.

The technosphere, created by man using technical means, represents territories occupied by cities and towns, industrial zones, and industrial enterprises. Technosphere conditions also include the conditions of people staying at economic facilities, in transport, at home, in the territories of cities and towns. The technosphere is not a self-developing environment, it is man-made and after its creation can only degrade.

2. BASICS OF INTERACTION IN THE SYSTEM “HUMAN - ENVIRONMENT”

In the life process, the interaction of a person with the environment and its components among themselves is based on the transfer between elements of the system of mass flows of substances and their compounds, energies of all types and information. In accordance with the law of conservation of life Yu.N. Kurazhkovsky: “Life can only exist in the process of movement of flows of matter, energy and information through a living body.”

A person needs these flows to satisfy his needs for food, water, air, solar energy, information about the environment, etc. At the same time, a person releases flows of mechanical and intellectual energy into his living space, flows of masses in the form of waste from the biological process, thermal energy flows, etc.

The exchange of flows of matter and energy is also characteristic of processes occurring without human participation. The natural environment ensures the flow of solar energy to our planet, which, in turn, creates flows of plant and animal masses in the biosphere, flows of abiotic substances (air, water, etc.), flows of energy of various types, including during natural phenomena in a natural environment.

The technosphere is characterized by flows of all types of raw materials and energy, a variety of product flows; waste streams (air emissions, discharges into water bodies, liquid and solid waste, various energy impacts). The latter arise in accordance with the law on the inevitability of waste and side effects of production: “In any economic cycle, waste and side effects are generated, they are not eliminated and can be transferred from one physical and chemical form to another or moved in space. The technosphere is also capable of spontaneously creating significant flows of mass and energy during explosions and fires, during the destruction of building structures, during transport accidents, etc.

The social environment consumes and generates all types of flows characteristic of a person as an individual; in addition, society creates information flows in the transfer of knowledge, management of society, and cooperation with other social formations. The social environment creates flows of all kinds aimed at transforming the natural and technogenic worlds, and creates negative phenomena in society associated with smoking, consumption of alcohol, drugs, etc.

The characteristic flows of mass, energy and information for various components of the “person + environment” system are as follows:

Main flows in the natural environment:

· solar radiation, radiation from stars and planets; cosmic rays, dust, asteroids;

· electric and magnetic fields of the Earth;

· cycles of substances in the biosphere, in ecosystems, in biogeocenoses;

· atmospheric, hydrosphere and lithospheric phenomena, including

· including spontaneous ones;

Main flows in the technosphere:

· flows of raw materials, energy;

· flows of products from economic sectors;

economic waste;

· information flows;

· traffic flows;

· light fluxes (artificial lighting);

· flows during man-made accidents;

Main flows in the social environment:

information flows (training, public administration, international

cooperation, etc.);

· human flows (demographic explosion, urbanization of the population);

· flows of drugs, alcohol, etc.;

Topic 1

SYSTEM "HUMAN - ENVIRONMENT". 2

LIFE SAFETY MANAGEMENT. ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY STANDARDS 11

MONITORING AS THE BASIS OF HUMAN LIFE SAFETY MANAGEMENT.. 23

THE ESSENCE OF EMERGENCY SITUATIONS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION... 28

NATURAL DISASTER. NATURAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC SOURCES OF IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT... 36

RISK CLASSIFICATION... 45

LEGAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORKS FOR LIFE SAFETY AND RISK MANAGEMENT 50

PROTECTION OF THE POPULATION FROM MODERN WEAPONS, DISASTERES, ACCIDENTS.. 57

1. CONCEPT OF THE SYSTEM “MAN - ENVIRONMENT”

Life safety is a state of the environment in which, with a certain probability, harm to human existence is excluded.

The solution to the problem of life safety is to provide comfortable living conditions for people at all stages of life, to protect people and their environment (industrial, natural, urban, residential) from the effects of harmful factors exceeding regulatory permissible levels.

Life activity– a complex biological process that occurs in the human body, allowing one to maintain health and performance. This is everyday activity (play, study, work) and rest, a way of human existence.

In the process of various active activities, a person interacts with the environment.

Habitat - human environment, caused by a combination of factors (physical, chemical, biological, informational, social) that can have a direct or indirect, immediate or remote impact on a person’s life, his health and offspring. The human body tolerates certain impacts painlessly only as long as they do not exceed the limits of a person’s adaptive capabilities. Exceeding these limits may result in injury or illness.

Man has faced dangers from the moment he appeared. At first these were natural hazards, but with the development of human society, man-made ones were added to them, i.e. born of technology.

Scientific and technological progress, along with benefits, has also brought innumerable disasters to both humans and the environment. The number of various diseases is increasing (one of the latest is “computer vision syndrome”), intense air pollution is occurring, the number of ozone “holes” is increasing, the greenhouse effect is in effect, climate change, warming, etc. are observed.

Man himself is a source of danger. By his actions or inaction, he can create a real threat to life and health for himself and others.

The ongoing negative changes in the human environment predetermine the need for a modern specialist to be sufficiently prepared to successfully solve emerging problems in ensuring the safety of workers and the population, in eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, accidents and catastrophes .

The natural environment is self-sufficient and can exist and develop without human participation, while all other habitats created by man cannot develop independently and without human participation are doomed to aging and destruction.

Biosphere - the natural area of ​​distribution of life on Earth, including the lower layer of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and the upper layer of the lithosphere, which have not experienced anthropogenic impact.

In the process of evolution, man, trying to most effectively satisfy his needs for food, material values, protection from climatic and weather influences, and increasing his sociability, continuously influenced the natural environment and, mainly, the biosphere. To achieve these goals, he transformed part of the biosphere into territories occupied by the technosphere.

Technosphere - a region of the biosphere that has been transformed in the past by humans through the direct or indirect influence of technological means to best suit human socio-economic needs.

The technosphere, created by man using technical means, represents territories occupied by cities and towns, industrial zones, and industrial enterprises. Technosphere conditions also include the conditions of people staying at economic facilities, in transport, at home, in the territories of cities and towns. The technosphere is not a self-developing environment; it is man-made and after creation can only degrade.

In the process of life, a person continuously interacts not only with the natural environment and the technosphere, but also with people who form the so-called social environment. It is formed and used by a person for procreation, exchange of experience and knowledge, to satisfy his spiritual needs and accumulate intellectual values.

In recent years, since the end of the 19th century, the technosphere and social environment have been continuously developing, as evidenced by the ever-increasing proportion of territories on the earth's surface transformed by humans, the demographic explosion and urbanization of the population. The development of the technosphere occurs due to the transformation of the natural environment.

2. BASICS OF INTERACTION IN THE SYSTEM “HUMAN - ENVIRONMENT”

In the life process, the interaction of a person with the environment and its components among themselves is based on the transfer between elements of the system of mass flows of substances and their compounds, energies of all types and information. According to law of preservation of life Yu.N. Kurazhkovsky“Life can only exist in the process of movement of flows of matter, energy and information through a living body.”

A person needs these flows to satisfy his needs for food, water, air, solar energy, information about the environment, etc. At the same time, a person releases flows of mechanical and intellectual energy into his living space, flows of masses in the form of waste from the biological process, thermal energy flows, etc.

The exchange of flows of matter and energy is also characteristic of processes occurring without human participation. The natural environment ensures the flow of solar energy to our planet, which, in turn, creates flows of plant and animal masses in the biosphere, flows of abiotic substances (air, water, etc.), flows of energy of various types, including during natural phenomena in a natural environment.

The technosphere is characterized by flows of all types of raw materials and energy, a variety of product flows; waste streams (air emissions, discharges into water bodies, liquid and solid waste, various energy impacts). The latter arise in accordance with Law on the inevitability of waste and side effects of production:“In any economic cycle, waste and side effects are generated; they are not eliminated and can be transferred from one physical and chemical form to another or moved in space.” The technosphere is also capable of spontaneously creating significant flows of mass and energy during explosions and fires, during the destruction of building structures, during transport accidents, etc.

The social environment consumes and generates all types of flows characteristic of a person as an individual; in addition, society creates information flows in the transfer of knowledge, management of society, and cooperation with other social formations. The social environment creates flows of all kinds aimed at transforming the natural and technogenic worlds, and creates negative phenomena in society associated with smoking, consumption of alcohol, drugs, etc.

The characteristic flows of mass, energy and information for various components of the “person + environment” system are as follows:

Main flows in the natural environment:

- solar radiation, radiation from stars and planets;

Cosmic rays, dust, asteroids;

Electric and magnetic fields of the Earth;

Cycles of substances in the biosphere, in ecosystems, in biogeocenoses;

Atmospheric, hydrosphere and lithospheric phenomena, including natural ones;

Main flows in the technosphere:

- flows of raw materials, energy;

Flows of products from economic sectors;

Economic waste;

Information flows;

Traffic flows;

Light fluxes (artificial lighting);

Flows during man-made accidents;

Main flows in the social environment:

- information flows (training, public administration, international cooperation, etc.);

Human flows (demographic explosion, urbanization of the population);

Flows of drugs, alcohol, etc.;

The main flows consumed and released by humans in the process of life:

- flows of oxygen, water, food and other substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc.);

Energy flows (mechanical, thermal, solar, etc.);

Information flows;

Waste streams from life processes;

The human environment in the most general form is understood as “the totality of natural and artificial conditions in which a person realizes himself as a natural and social being.” The human environment consists of 2 interconnected parts: natural and social; natural is the entire planet Earth, social is society and social relations.

The classification of the human environment made by the famous domestic systematizer in the field of ecology N.F. Reimers is of the greatest interest. He identified four interrelated components of the environment: natural; the environment generated by agricultural technology, the so-called “second nature” - quasi-natural; artificial environment – ​​“third nature” or arte-nature; social environment (see table).

The natural component of the human environment, according to N. F. Reimers, is the natural environment itself (“first nature”). It consists of factors of natural and anthroponatural origin that directly or indirectly affect humans. Among them he includes the energy state of the environment (thermal and wave, including magnetic and gravitational fields); chemical and dynamic nature; water component (humidity of the air, the earth's surface; chemical composition of water); the physical, chemical and mechanical nature of the earth’s surface (flat, hilly, mountainous, for example); the appearance and composition of the biological part of ecological systems (vegetation, animals, microbial populations) and their landscape combinations, population density and the mutual influence of people on the biological factor, etc. This environment is either slightly modified by humans or to the extent that it has not lost the most important property - self-healing and self-regulation.

In absolute terms, most of these territories are in the Russian Federation.

The environment of “second nature” (quasi-natural, from the Latin language “quasi” - as if) are elements of the natural environment, artificially transformed, modified with the help of agricultural technology. Unlike natural ones, they are not capable of systematically self-sustaining themselves for a long time. They are destroyed without constant human intervention. It includes arable and other lands transformed by humans (cultural landscapes), dirt roads, populated areas with natural characteristics and internal structure (with fences, buildings, various wind and thermal conditions, green stripes, ponds, etc.). N. F. Reimers also included domestic animals and indoor cultivated plants as “second nature”.

The human-created environment or “third nature” (arte-nature, from Latin - artificial) according to Reimers is the entire world artificially created by man, which has no analogues in natural nature and without constant maintenance and renewal by man is inevitably destroyed. It includes the asphalt and concrete of modern cities, living and working spaces, transport, the service sector, technological equipment, furniture, etc. The cultural and architectural environment is also called one of the elements of the artificial environment. Man is mainly surrounded by the artificial environment.

And the last element of a person’s environment is society and various social processes - the social environment. This environment has an increasingly greater influence on a person. It includes relationships between people, the psychological climate, the level of material security, healthcare, general cultural values, the degree of confidence in the future, and the like.

Thus, the human environment is formed by natural, quasi-natural, arte-natural and social, which are closely interconnected and none of them can be replaced by another. L.V. Maksimova offers another classification of the human environment, the originality of which lies in the study of the “living environment”.

Thanks to the highest level of organization of man, which he has achieved as a biosocial being, his relationship with the environment has significant features (Fig. 17.1).

Man as an ecological factor, unlike animals, not only uses natural resources, but, acting on it purposefully and consciously, dominates it, adapting conditions To to your needs. This is achieved due to the fact that humans, unlike plants and animals that use the energy of the Sun or organic matter accumulated in the process of photosynthesis for their needs, use various energy sources, including those inaccessible to other living organisms: the energy of fossil fuels, water flows, nuclear and thermonuclear. The power supply and technical equipment of man are steadily growing, and this allows him to inhabit a wide variety of living conditions and removes natural barriers limiting the size of human populations.

Rice. 17.1. Human habitat

Humanity is the only species on Earth that lives all over the world, which turns it into an environmental factor with a global distribution of influence. Thanks to its impact on all the main components of the biosphere, the influence of humanity reaches the most remote ecological zones of the planet. A sad example of this is, in particular, the discovery of dangerous pesticides in the livers of penguins and seals captured in Antarctica, where none of them had ever been used. Another feature of man as an environmental factor is the active, creative nature of his activities. The energy manipulated by people is used to change the environment. The ecological optimum of human existence based on its biological mechanisms is limited, and the possibility of widespread settlement is achieved not by people changing their own biology, but by creating a humanized environment.

The creation of an artificial environment around oneself also determines the specificity of a person as an object of environmental factors. This action is always mediated by the results of people's production activities. Natural ecosystems are being replaced by anthropogenic ecosystems, the absolutely dominant ecological factor of which is man. The human environment includes bionatural and socio-cultural components, or natural And artificial environment. In natural and artificial environments, man is presented as a social being.

Factors of the natural and artificial environment have a constant influence on humans. The results of the action of natural factors, which differ in different areas of the inhabited part of the planet, throughout the history of mankind are currently manifested in the ecological differentiation of the population of the globe, dividing it into races and adaptive types (see § 15.4). Social factors determine education and natural change economic and cultural types communities of people. They represent a complex of economy and culture that characterizes peoples who differ in origin, but live in similar natural resource conditions and are at the same socio-economic level.

Currently, economic and cultural types of human communities coexist on the planet, different in time of emergence, labor productivity, well-being and demographic indicators of the population. In a limited number, the “appropriating” type is preserved with a predominance of the economic role of hunting, fishing, and gathering (pygmy hunters in Zaire, the Aeta and Kubu tribes living in the forests of Southeast Asia, certain groups of Indians in the Amazon River basin). Economic and cultural types are quite widely represented, the economic basis of which is hand (hoe) or plow (arable) farming and cattle breeding. In connection with the scientific and technological revolution, economic and cultural types with highly developed commercial agriculture and animal husbandry emerged in industrialized countries.

The formation of economic and cultural types depends on the natural habitat of people. This dependence was strongest in the early stages of the development of human society. However, even then, and especially in later periods of human development, the dependence of the formation of economic and cultural types on natural conditions was mediated by the level of socio-economic development of the people. At all stages of history, society actively adapts nature to its own needs. The instrument of such adaptation, the link between the natural and humanized environment, is the labor activity of people, during which a person creates an economic and cultural environment on which the lifestyle, health indicators, morbidity structure,

The human environment is an interweaving of interacting natural and anthropogenic environmental factors, the set of which varies in different natural-geographical and economic regions of the planet. In such conditions, a single integral criterion of environmental quality from the point of view of its suitability for human habitation. According to the Charter of the World Health Organization, adopted in 1968, this criterion is health status of the population. In studies of human ecology, the term “health” is used in a broad sense as an indicator of complete physical and mental well-being.

The main line of development of human ecology is currently aimed at solving problems of environmental management, developing ways of rational environmental management, and optimizing living conditions for people in various anthropoecological systems.

The environment surrounding modern humans includes the natural environment, the built environment, the human-made environment, and the social environment. Every day, living in the city, walking, working, studying, a person satisfies a wide range of needs. In the system of human needs (biological, psychological, ethnic, social, labor, economic), we can highlight needs related to the ecology of the living environment. Among them are the comfort and safety of the natural environment, environmentally friendly housing, the provision of sources of information (works of art, attractive landscapes) and others.

Natural or biological needs are a group of needs that provide the possibility of a person’s physical existence in a comfortable environment - this is the need for space, good air, water, etc., the presence of a suitable, familiar environment for a person. The greening of biological needs is associated with the need to create an eco-friendly, clean urban environment and maintain the good condition of natural and artificial nature in the city. But in modern large cities it is hardly possible to talk about the presence of a sufficient volume and quality of the environment necessary for every person. As industrial production grew, more and more diverse products and goods were produced, and at the same time, environmental pollution increased sharply. The urban environment surrounding a person did not correspond to the historically developed sensory influences that people needed: cities without any signs of beauty, slums, dirt, standard gray houses, polluted air, harsh noise, etc. But still, we can confidently state that as a result Industrialization and spontaneous urbanization, the human environment gradually became “aggressive” for the senses, which had been evolutionarily adapted over many millions of years to the natural environment. In essence, man has relatively recently found himself in an urban environment. Naturally, during this time, the basic mechanisms of perception were unable to adapt to the changed visual environment and changes in air, water, and soil. This did not pass without a trace: it is known that people living in polluted areas of the city are more prone to various diseases. The most common are cardiovascular and endocrine disorders, but there is a whole complex of various diseases, the cause of which is a general decrease in immunity.

In connection with drastic changes in the natural environment, many studies have arisen aimed at studying the state of the environment and the health of residents in a particular country, city, or region. But, as a rule, it is forgotten that a city dweller spends most of his time indoors (up to 90% of the time) and the quality of the environment inside various buildings and structures turns out to be more important for human health and well-being. The concentration of pollutants indoors is often significantly higher than in outdoor air. A resident of a modern city sees most of all flat surfaces - building facades, squares, streets and right angles - the intersections of these planes. In nature, planes connected by right angles are very rare. In apartments and offices there is a continuation of such landscapes, which cannot but affect the mood and well-being of the people who are constantly there.

The habitat is inextricably linked with the concept of “biosphere”. This term was introduced by the Australian geologist Suess in 175. The biosphere is the natural area of ​​distribution of life on Earth, including the lower layer of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the upper layer of the lithosphere. The name of the Russian scientist V.I. Vernadsky is associated with the creation of the doctrine of the biosphere and its transition to the noosphere. The main thing in the doctrine of the noosphere is the unity of the biosphere and humanity. According to Vernadsky, in the era of the noosphere, a person can and should “think and act in a new aspect, not only in the aspect of an individual, family, state, but also in a planetary aspect.” In the life cycle, a person and his environment form a constantly operating system "man - environment".

Habitat is the environment surrounding a person, currently determined by a combination of factors (physical, chemical, biological, social) that can have a direct or indirect, immediate or remote impact on human activity, his health and offspring. Acting in this system, a person continuously solves at least two main tasks:

• - meets its needs for food, water and air;
• - creates and uses protection from negative influences, both from the environment and from its own kind.

Individual properties or elements of the environment are called environmental factors. Environmental factors are diverse. They can be necessary or, conversely, harmful to living beings, promote or hinder survival and reproduction. Environmental factors have different natures and specific actions. Environmental factors are divided into abiotic (all properties of inanimate nature that directly or indirectly affect living organisms) and biotic (these are forms of influence of living beings on each other). Negative impacts inherent in the environment have existed as long as the World has existed. Sources of natural negative impacts are natural phenomena in the biosphere: climate change, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and the like. The constant struggle for one's existence forced man to find and improve means of protection against the natural negative influences of the environment. Unfortunately, the emergence of housing, fire and other means of protection, improvement of methods of obtaining food - all this not only protected people from natural negative influences, but also influenced the living environment. Over the course of many centuries, the human environment has slowly changed its appearance and, as a result, the types and levels of negative impacts have changed little. This continued until the middle of the 19th century - the beginning of the active growth of human impact on the environment. In the 20th century, zones of increased biosphere pollution arose on Earth, which led to partial, and in some cases, complete regional degradation. These changes were largely facilitated by:

• - high rates of population growth on Earth (demographic explosion) and its urbanization;
• - growth in consumption and concentration of energy resources;
• - intensive development of industrial and agricultural production;
• - mass use of means of transport;
• - increased costs for military purposes and a number of other processes.

Man and his environment (natural, industrial, urban, household and others) constantly interact with each other in the process of life. At the same time, life can only exist in the process of movement of flows of matter, energy and information through a living body. Man and his environment interact harmoniously and develop only in conditions where the flows of energy, matter and information are within limits that are favorably perceived by man and the natural environment. Any excess of the usual flow levels is accompanied by negative impacts on humans and the natural environment. Under natural conditions, such impacts are observed during climate change and natural phenomena. In the technosphere, negative impacts are caused by its elements (machines, structures, etc.) and human actions. By changing the value of any flow from the minimum significant to the maximum possible, you can go through a number of characteristic states of interaction in the “person - environment” system: comfortable (optimal), acceptable (leading to discomfort without a negative impact on human health), dangerous (causing with prolonged exposure degradation of the natural environment) and extremely dangerous (lethal outcome and destruction of the natural environment).

Of the four characteristic states of human interaction with the environment, only the first two (comfortable and acceptable) correspond to the positive conditions of everyday life, while the other two (dangerous and extremely dangerous) are unacceptable for human life processes, conservation and development of the natural environment.