A study on landscape and the historical geography of two areas - Oskarshamn and Forsmark

This is a project that forms a part of the environmental impact assessment work that is done for examining potential locations for a plant for a deep repository for spent nuclear fuel. Both areas are located on the East Coast of Sweden. A number of scientific studies are carried out in this project. Fields that are included studies for the EIA and the safety assessment include geology, quaternary geology, limnology, biology and other natural sciences that focus on vegetation and the terrestrial as well as the aquatic environment. For further information see the SKB web-site.

The study that is carried out at the department of Human geography at Stockholm university is basically a study of the historical land-use, the changes in settlement and how people have been working and using the landscape.

The methods used include historical maps, cadastral material and in a later phase interviews and field-work. In the first phase that ends the summer 2004 the bulk of the historical material is probed and analysed. A big effort is put into the creation of GIS-data sets that can be used for further analyses. The work during spring 2004 will result in a preliminary report that deal with historical land-use, population, settlement from medieval times to the present and both detailed and general descriptions and investigations of the historical geography of the areas.

Both the investigated areas are located by the Baltic, but are very different both physically, especially with the land upheaval in the north, and historically with a different land-use system, ownership structure and distribution of settlement.

 

 

The investigated area in Forsmark in the north of Uppland consists of 6 parishes, about 1000 km2.

 

The investigated area in Oskarshamn in Småland consists of 3 parishes, about 1000 km2.

The project

This page will be updated and include some general findings.

November 2003 – The general method for handling the large number of digital maps, both economic maps from the 20th Century and older historical maps have been decided and developed by Ola Hall and Stefan Ene.

December 2003 – A preliminary study by Johan Berg, Ola Hall and Ulf Jansson of cadastral maps in the historical archive in Gävle (Lantmäteriet) The scanning of printed maps have started.

January 2004 – The work of creating digital versions of modern and historical maps is under way (Therese Fast, Annett Heerklotz, Anne Philipson) as well as gathering other historical sources on settlement and population (Annika Björklund). The general structure of the report has been decided.

 

Staff

The first phase of the project involves a number of people for shorter or longer times

Ulf Jansson (Ph.D.) – project leader, general description and responsible for the report

Ola Hall (Ph.D.) – GIS, methods and organisation of data

Stefan Ene (director of Geo Processing Unit) – GIS, methods, support and presentation

Johan Berg (Ph.D)– Historical geography, responsible for the cadastral material, settlement, people and production.

Research assistants

Therese Fast – GIS and historical landscape

Anne Philipson – GIS and historical landscape

Annika Björklund – Historical geography

Annett Heerklotz (intern) – GIS

 

If you have any questions related to the project feel free to contact Ulf Jansson.

Back to the web page of the Department of Human geography at Stockholm University.

Updated 2004-01-15