Anders Bryn

Abstract

This article presents vegetation mapping in Norway, with special emphasis on the mainoperational survey mapping system used by the Norwegian Institute of Land Inventory. A vegetationmap prepared with this system is used to predict regrowth of forest following the abandonmentof land use in a mountainous area of south-eastern Norway. Logging, outfield foddercollection and domestic grazing connected to summer dairy farming have been markedly reducedin the last few decades. Possible effects of changed climate on the upper potential forest-limitsare also predicted. The results make it clear that a large area in the sub-alpine summer dairy farmlandscape is exposed to regrowth after abandonment of land use. Forest advance often attributedto climate change is also shown to be the product of regrowth due to reduced land use. A preliminaryeffort is made to separate the effects of present regrowth from future climate change, as ameans of understanding the processes underpinning landscape changes.

Keywords: vegetation mapping, regrowth and climate scenarios, mountainous areas, land-use changes, summer dairy farming, Norway, forest-limit

Anders Bryn, Norwegian Institute of Land Inventory (NIJOS) Post office box 115 1430 Ås, Norway