Land use - Drivers and pressures (Sweden)

c) What are the related key drivers (D) and pressures (P) at national level?

Population has decreased in sparsely populated municipalities

Population changes are an important motivating force in land use. A grouping of population centres by both size, category and municipality group indicates that population increases have occurred in population centres in major city municipalities, suburban municipalities, large cities and commuting municipalities, whereas populations have declined in sparsely populated municipalities, goods-producing municipalities and other smaller municipalities.

Agriculture discharges a great deal of nitrogen and phosphorus into water

The discharge of nitrogen from agriculture, industries, clearings and municipal sewage treatment plants, along with deposition of airborne nitrogen in lakes and the sea, leads to eutrophication of the sea. Agriculture is the largest source of discharges into water with respect to anthropogenic load. The biggest gross and net contributors of nitrogen and phosphorus are agriculture and forest land.

The tables below report estimated loads of nitrogen and phosphorus in water from Swedish sources in 2006, flow normalised for the 1985–2004 period. Gross refers to the supply of water in sub-watersheds (at the source), and net refers to load to the sea (after retention). Discharges from sewage treatment plants and industries directly to the coast lack retention and are included in both gross and net loads.