Mountainous country

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Countries or larger regions are referred to as mountain countries, the area of ​​which is predominantly occupied by mountains . They are mostly characterized by a small-scale geography, because the most important axes of the transport system have to be limited to the few main valleys. In contrast, a highland is a landscape within which there are only minor differences in altitude.

Use of language

The common usage of the term “mountainous country” means mainly countries with a large proportion of high mountains , while those with a large proportion of low mountain ranges tend to fall out of the term. In typical mountainous countries such as Switzerland , Austria , Slovakia , Macedonia or Greece, around 50–60% of the land area is 1000 m above sea level . In Turkey, too, around 70% of the country's area is 1000 m above sea level - Anatolia is itself a very large highland . In the case of the Caucasus country Armenia it is almost 90%, in the highlands of Tibet 100%. However, the altitude alone is not sufficient as a criterion, but must be linked to the aspects of steepness and evenness .

Term and name "Bergland"

Compared with the word "mountainous land", the term Bergland understood local, that is, it refers to smaller mountainous regions excluding the surrounding flat and hill country . Many such areas have the word "mountainous country" in their names, for example

In Czech, a mountainous region is called Vrchovina , but - according to the regional topography - it is more like a hilly region .

More comprehensive definition of the EU

How difficult the mountainous terrain is to work by the inhabitants does not only depend on the altitude. The definition of the term becomes more precise if one also takes into account the typical slopes and the height structure. The European Union commissioned such a study in 2002 in order to obtain a better basis for the issues of mountain farmers and regional funding. It was coordinated by the Regional Research Institute Nordregio and the Federal Institute for Mountain Farmer Issues and published at the end of 2004:

Classification according to altitude and steepness

The study divides the terrain according to the criteria of altitude , relief (roughness) and local differences in altitude , resulting in 5 classes for mountain areas :

  1. Regions below 300 m, provided that there are extreme local differences in altitude ( standard deviation in the 1 km grid over 50 m). Examples are areas in Scotland , along the Norwegian fjords and on Mediterranean cliffs .
  2. Altitude 300–1000 m, provided they either meet the above criteria or the terrain height varies by at least 300 m over a distance of 7 km.
  3. Altitude 1000–1500 m (mainly low mountain range ), all areas that meet the two above criteria or if their slope to the neighboring 1 km grid points is more than 5 ° (approx. 9%).
  4. Altitude 1500–2500 m ( high mountains ): the 3 above criteria as well as areas with more than 2 ° inclination (e.g. alpine pastures ).
  5. Altitude above 2500 m: is fully considered a mountain area, because there are no plateaus at this altitude (such as Tibet ) in Europe.

Occasionally, additional aspects were taken into account for the final definition of the area scenery.

Area shares of the mountainous municipalities in the EU

As a result of two years of work by numerous institutions, the study lists the following areas (in 1000 km²) or percentages (over 10%) as mountain areas ¹):

country total area Mountainous land area % the area
European Union 4,324.75 1,934.65 44.7
Slovenia 20.27 15.91 78.0
Greece 132.22 102.98 77.9
Austria 83.85 61.51 73.4
Slovakia 48.99 30.37 62.0
Italy 300.59 180.78 60.1
Spain 505.21 281.61 55.7
Bulgaria 101.74 54.18 53.3
Finland 326.76 166.08 50.8
Sweden 450.00 227.70 50.6
Cyprus 9.23 4.00 47.6
Portugal 92.36 36.14 39.1
Romania 238.40 90.24 37.9
Czech Republic 78.79 25.41 32.3
United Kingdom 245.49 62.56 25.5
France 637.90 142.12 22.3
Germany 356.77 52.59 14.7
Ireland 70.14 7.44 10.6

¹) the 2 columns on the right include the entire area of ​​the municipality , most of which are in mountainous areas

According to the same definition, Norway accounts for 91.3% and Switzerland for 90.7% mountain communities, which is not only related to the altitude and steepness but also to the size and structure of the communities.

If one takes into account that many of the municipalities reaching into the high mountains have the majority of their area in wide, flat valley sections, the above area proportions are reduced to approximately

  • 65–70% for Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia,
  • 55–60% for Slovakia and Italy.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Dax, Gerhard Hovorka: Trends in the regional development of mountain areas in Europe. (PDF) In: Ländlicher Raum, online trade journal of the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. 2005, accessed July 13, 2017 .