Patterns of change in two contrasting Norwegian agricultural landscapes

As in many parts of Europe, two opposing forces of change have shaped Norwegian agricultural landscapes during the last decades: intensification of cultivation in favourable areas and abandonment of marginal areas. The resulting landscape changes have a multitude of consequences; for agricultural production, landscape aesthetics, recreational and amenity values of the landscape, and for biodiversity. This paper uses agricultural statistics and aerial photographs to analyse and compare the patterns of change in one typical intensively cultivated area and one traditional mountain-farm landscape during the last half-century. Results show that further intensification of the intensively managed landscape has led to an increasingly homogeneous, large-scale landscape featuring fewer boundaries. In contrast, reduced management in the mountain–farm system has resulted in an increasingly heterogeneous, small-scale landscape. Some probable effects of past and future landscape changes are discussed.