The Tasks of Rational Utilization of Land Resources

A review of the use of energy and mass budget studies of natural landscapes discusses some limitations of the approach, related partly to a lack of detailed knowledge about the structure of landscape and the inadequacy of the balance technique for describing indirect linkages within the landscape and the impact of outside regulatory influences. The various balance equations for describing the mass and energy exchange in landscape are described and systematized. The use of heat-balance and plant-mass balance relationships for a classification of natural areal complexes is illustrated with reference to the north-facing and south-facing sides of a gully, the gully bottom and the surrounding watershed area in a meadow-steppe landscape of the Central Chenozem Region. Other possible applications of the balance technique in mass and energy research are suggested. (For background, see A Survey Course: The Energy and Mass Budget at the Surface of the Earth, by David H. Miller. Association of American Geographers, Commission on College Geography, Publication No. 7, 1968.)