Scope of Environmental Studies with reference to Nepal

The scope of environmental studies is very wide and it deals with many areas like

i) Conservation of natural resources,

ii) ecological aspects,

iii) pollution of the surrounding natural resources,

iv) controlling the pollution,

v) social issues connected to it, and

vi) impacts of human population on the environment.

Applied ecology or application of ecology

Applied ecology deals with the special field of ecology, which concerns mainly with welfare of human society. Ecology has a great practical application in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, biological surveys, pest control, range management, fishery biology, conservation, etc.

1. Agriculture: Advice of an ecologist is essential for the cultivation of crop successively, because crop plant reacts with their environment and in certain climate and edaphic conditions the crops grow very well.

2. Horticulture: A gardener should be a plant ecologist, so that he may recognize various economically important plants and may grow under suitable ecological conditions.

3. Forestry or forest management: Financial, commercial and labor matter and other forest related things have ecological aspects. Selection of site and species for forestry, there planting, their protection from fungal diseases and insect pests etc. require ecological knowledge.

4. Range management: Through range management on the basis of ecological studies we convert wasteland in grazing grounds, for animals like cows, etc.

5. Management of fresh water bodies: The main aim of fresh water bodies management is to make maximum uses of this water. For this we should understand the ecological life cycle of economically important species. A wall-managed river is that which is used for human beings in different ways and in which weeds have not been developed. In unmanaged river normally either due to pollution or noxious weeds, water dry earlier.

6. Soil conservation: Due to soil erosion every year a large part of fertile soil get decayed and due to this reason large areas are changing into desert. To check this soil erosion, soil conservation is done.

7. Landscaping: For correct spacing, siting or orienting of trees in gardens along roads etc. require well acquaintance with principles of ecology. These ecological principles include suitable space and growth or trees.