In 2011, the Mapping Authority was able to announce that Norway’s coastline had grown from approximately 85,000 kilometers to approximately 101,000 kilometers. Now it has become 104,600 kilometers long, and it is not certain that it will stop there. – The coast is well mapped. But even more detailed methods can produce changes, says Martin Egger in the Swedish Mapping Authority. To put it in perspective: the Earth’s circumference at the equator is approximately 40,000 kilometers. This means that our coastline stretches around the globe two and a half times. Norway itself is no longer than 1,748 kilometers from north to south, so how can our coastline be so much longer? – That’s how Norway is designed, with all these fjords, islands and generally a rolling coastline, says Egger. In fact, it is the islands that make up most of the coastline. – In a project from 2010, we found that roughly 70 per cent of the total coastal contour comes from the coastal contour around the islands, while the coast along the mainland accounts for less than 30 per cent. The world’s second longest coastline According to Store norske lexikon, Norway has the world’s second longest coastline. The very longest belongs to Canada. The CIA’s The World Factbook also gives Norway second place – admittedly with only 83,281 kilometres. According to the CIA, the islands make up most of the coastline with almost 60,000 kilometres. But how can the coastline of little Norway be longer than the coastline of enormous Russia? Or how about Australia? – Different countries can measure their coastline in different ways, says Egger. In Norway, the majority of the population lives along the coast, and there is a lot of ship traffic. – Much of the value base is created along the coast. Therefore, the need for the site to have a fairly detailed coastal contour mapped. Norway also has the means and resources to map the coast, but the other countries do not necessarily have the same resources. – And you may not have the same needs either, says Egger. This applies to several large areas in the north, and Egger highlights Russia as an example. – Not many people live along the coast there. There is also no ship traffic, so the need to map the coastal contour in the same detail is not present. Norway is a small country compared to Canada and Russia. How can we have the world’s second longest coastline? Endless coastline There are no annual statistics on the length of the coastline, but Egger does not think it will get shorter anytime soon. – In the long term, rising sea levels may be a factor for a shorter length. What can happen, however, is that the coastline continues to grow. It all depends on how you decide to measure it. – In theory, you can measure the coastal contour as far as around a grain of sand. From a mathematical perspective, it is infinite. It just depends on what you measure. When mapping the coastal contour, one has to deal with a definition. Then there are several things you have to decide on: As of today, Svalbard and Jan Mayen are not part of Norway’s coastline either. – So you can actually say that the current length is wrong, says Egger. – Why aren’t they there? – That’s a good question, to which I don’t really have an answer, except that we in the Land Division of the Swedish Mapping Authority are responsible for mapping mainland Norway with the islands, while Svalbard is the responsibility of the Polar Institute. Every time we talk about area statistics, Svalbard is not included. It’s actually very strange. The coastline is getting longer with better measuring tools. It is not just islands, fjords and the area you count on that affects the length of the coast. – The main reason why the coastline can be longer is that better methods have been used to measure the coast, says Egger. Until the 1990s, the Swedish National Agency for Land Surveying measured the coastline using paper maps. – With a scale of 1:50,000, you ended up with a coastal contour of 57,000 kilometers. The same maps were transferred digitally, and then the Mapping Authority could use digital tools to meet the coast. Then it increased to over 80,000 kilometres. – Roughly speaking, it was the same data, but the method of how to measure the length was different. In 2010, the Mapping Authority went through the material once more, and concluded that Norway’s coast had “grown” and become 101,000 km long. – It was because even more detailed data had been obtained. So just in the 30 years, we have doubled the official coastal outline.
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That is why Norway’s coastline is longer than Russia’s – news Nordland
