Land use - State and impacts (Norway)

Urban areas

Urban settlements make up about 1 per cent of the area of Norway, but are home to four fifths of the population. In 2008, the number of people living in urban settlements rose by 57300 or about 1.5 per cent from the year before.From 1990 to 2009, the population in urban settlements increased by more than 800 000. In the same period, the population in sparsely populated areas decreased by 126 000.

The total land area of the urban settlements now amounts to 2 340 square kilometres: an increase of 6 square kilometres or 0.3 per cent from 2008 to 2009. Infrastructure, buildings and roads make up about 30 per cent of the total area of urban settlements.

In 2000 urban land totalled 262900 hectares. The mean urban land take that year, as percentage of urban land in 2000 was 0.63 per cent. Urban land take between 2000 and 2006 totalled 9925 hectares, or1654hectares per year.

Figure based on Corine land cover Changes 2006 compiled by the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute. Data are indicative but inaccurate. Data are therefore not authoritative, but should be used and interpreted as approximations that are to some extent comparable to related approximations collected using similar methods in other European countries.

Agriculture

About three per cent of mainland Norway is cultivated as compared with 11 per cent for the world as a whole. Some of the land resources available for agriculture are not in use, either temporarily or on a permanent basis. Agricultural areas that are permanently abandoned generally become overgrown with forest. The last national statistics based on the detailed land resource survey of agricultural areas was completed in 2006, when the total agricultural area was 10903 km2 and the undeveloped reserve was 12342 km2. The last agricultural survey – completed in 1989 – also showed that 7.4 per cent of the land developed for agriculture was currently not in use.

Forests

37 to 39 per cent of Norway’s area is forested. Of this,almost halfis productive forest (forest with an annual productive capacity of at least 1 m3/ha). This equals about 23 per cent of the total land area of Norway. Conifers and birch dominate. Almost half of this forested area is managed in combination with pastures. The annual felling volume has been relatively stable for the last 80 years, while the growing stock of forest and the annual increase of new forest have doubled during this period. In the last 20 years, the annual planted area and the area of seeding forest have more than halved, and the building of woodland roads has been reduced to a tenth.

Forest conservation conflicts have been discussed repeatedly by the Norwegian Parliament. A scheme involving voluntary conservation
was launched in 2000 and has enjoyed wide political support, also from forest owners. Since 2003 nearly all new processes to conserve forest on private land have been in form of voluntary conservation. Under the voluntary conservation scheme an area of something in excess of 500 km2 has been conserved

The shore zone

The building activity within 100 metres of the coastline and inland water courses is decreasing, but there are considerable variations between counties and municipalities.

Despite a reduction in construction activities, the accessible areas within the coastal zone are still shrinking. During the last 10 years, the accessible areas for outdoor recreation in the coastal zone have gone down by 2.1 per cent on a national scale. In the south of Norway this figure is 3.7 per cent in the same period. However, during the last two years the yearly decrease of accessible areas has declined.

In July 2009, a new Planning and Building Act entered into force. The new law includes a paragraph on prohibition against construction activities in the coastal zone and along water courses. This differs from the old law, where water courses were not included.

Access to green areas

Most people have satisfactory access to open areas in Norway. For the country as a whole, 80 per cent of the population has safe access to playgrounds and recreation areas. In towns and urban settlements with a population of 20 000 or more, 73 per cent of the population has access to such areas. However, access to open areas tends to be less good in larger settlements.

• Read more about access to green areas inNorway

Wilderness-like areas

A rough indicator of wilderness areas shows that the indicator area was reduced with 4.12 per cent during the period 1988 to 2003 and with another 0.53 per cent during the period 2003 to 2008 (all percentages based on the 1988 area). The average yearly decrease was 0.27 per cent during the first period but is now reduced to 0.11 per cent.

• Read more about areas without major infrastructure development