Austevoll – a changing coastal landscape

Abstract

A dynamic model of man-nature interactions is applied in order to understand the changing coastal landscape. Ecosystem dynamics, structural processes and individual and local preferences are integrated elements in the study's theoretical concept. Traditional land use of the fishing and farming system has created a mixed landscape with heathlands, bogs and forests. Any parts of the landscape were utilized, but as a rule productivity and ecological carrying capacity were maintained. Structural changes during the 1960–1970s (industrial fisheries) and 1980s (fish-farming) brought decline in agriculture, and landscape structure is now responding to these events. Many parts of the landscape are less intensively used than before, but some are being used more intensively than ever. If diversity of ecosystems and local resource bases are to be maintained in future, environmental considerations in landscape planning and management will have to be taken more seriously than they have been up to now.