The term population originated from the Latin word populus, meaning people. In ecology, population is defined as a group of organism of a particular species, which breed among themselves or have the potential to do so and generally occupy a particular space.
Population growth thus can be defined as ‘the change in strength of population per unit area at a particular time’.
The strength obviously, varies from time to time as individuals are born; they die or migrate from one place to another.
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The rate of increase of population depends upon the birth rate, death rate, immigration or emigration and all these factors in one way or the other are related to the ecological conditions.
Prediction or forecasting about future population is very essential in order to assess the use and demand of the resources by the growing population and also to develop strategies on how to meet this demand.
For developing strategies the focus should be on the growing demand of modern life facility to reserve the remaining amount of fossil fuels to its fullest extent, to control rapid deforestation along with the logical assessment of future population growth and only then a clear picture can be obtained and proper measures can be taken.
This is vital for maintaining the economic growth rate, innovating proper scientific methods and engineering construction so as to avail alternate energy sources without polluting the environment.
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The simple but powerful mathematical tools thus developed are either exponential or logistic in function and can throw light on several environmental problems.