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Chapter 7
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IntroductionWhen traveling where we live, most of us see cities and industries, roads and bridges. Outside the cities we see fields, forests, and water. This landscape, or almost all of it, is in one way or the other man-made and artificial. In our minds we might recreate a picture of the same area, 50, 100, or even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago. The changes that have to be reconstructed for such a picture mean removing the most far-reaching impact man and society have had on the environment. We may ask if this impact is constructive or destructive. Certainly the answer to such a question has varied much over time and depends on what aspect of the landscape change is discussed, and the values of the individual. We need to establish criteria to evaluate answers to this question. Biodiversity is one such criterion. In general, space intrusion and biotope destruction is the main reason for reduction of biodiversity. Wildlife has suffered because of landscape changes. But it is not one-dimensional. Some types of cultivated landscapes are richer in biodiversity than native forest. Some urban areas provide good and varying biotopes for plants and many animals with easy access to food and shelter. The answer has also varied over time. During a period, the romantic, "wild" landscape, with dramatic water falls and mountains, was the ideal. Later the "economic" landscape, even one with smoke rising from chimneys, became a sign of human success and a good life. Today it is clear that the comparatively untouched, "virgin" landscape has a large value. Mountains and coasts, bird reserves and wetlands, and large forests are increasingly protected not only because they are the last traces of a virgin landscape but also because they constitute a resource for genetics, recreation, and tourism. In this chapter we will describe the major aspects of landscape changes in the Baltic Sea basin over a long period, from the non-populated landscape which man inhabited after deglaciation until today. With a very small population in the region, the impact was initially small but it grew as the number of people that required food and shelter increased. The largest impacts are the result of development during the last 150 years when industrialization and urbanization changed society and our lives completely. Still, it was not until 1950-70 that these changes had full impact. In the last wave of urbanization cities expanded dramatically as did transport and traffic. Even agriculture is today largely industrialized. Deforestation, drainage, and building infrastructure
have been singled out as key categories of spatial intrusion of man
over the centuries. They represent impact on the landscape, the
waterscape, and the built environment. Their environmental consequences
may be described as biotope depletion, erosion, and pollution. Though
many values have been lost in the world we have created, it is still
often beautiful, but not sustainable. Authors of this chapter are: |
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