In 2011, the Mapping Authority was able to report that Norway’s coastline had shrunk from around 85,000 kilometers to around 101,000 kilometers.

Today, it extends over 104,600 kilometers 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 of the Swedish Mapping Authority.

To put things into perspective: the circumference of the Earth at the equator is approximately 40,000 kilometers. This means that our coastline stretches two and a half times around the globe.

Norway itself is no more than 1,748 kilometers from north to south, so how can our coastline be so long?

– That’s how Norway is designed, with all these fjords, islands and generally a hilly coastline, explains Egger.

In fact, it is the islands that make up most of the coastline.

– In a 2010 project, we found that about 70 percent of the total coastal contour comes from the coastal contour around the islands, while the coastline along the mainland accounts for less than 30 percent.

The second longest coastline in the world

according to Great Norwegian Encyclopedia Norway has the second longest light line in the world. The oldest belongs to Canada.

the CIA The collection of information about the world also gives Norway second place – albeit with just 83.281 kilometres. According to the CIA, the islands make up most of the coastline, nearly 60,000 kilometers.

But how can the coastline of little Norway be longer than that of huge Russia? And what about Australia?

– Different countries may measure their coastline in different ways, says Egger.

In Norway, the majority of the population lives along the coast and maritime traffic is important.

– Much of the value base is created along the coast. Hence the need for the site to have fairly detailed cartography of the coastal contours.

Norway also has the means and resources to map the coastline, but other countries do not necessarily have the same resources.

“And maybe you don’t have the same needs either,” Egger said.

This applies to several large areas in the north, and Egger cites Russia as an example.

– Not many people live along the coast. There is also no ship traffic, so there is no need to map the outline of the coast in the same detail.

An endless coastline

No annual statistics are set for the length of the coastline, but Egger doesn’t think it will shrink any time soon.

– In the long term, sea level rise could be a factor in favor of a shorter duration.

What can happen, however, is that the coastline continues to expand.

It all depends on how you decide to measure it.

– In theory, the contour of the coastline can be measured up to the vicinity of a grain of sand. From a mathematical point of view, it is infinite. It just depends on what you are measuring.

When mapping the coastal contour, one has to deal with a definition. Then you need to decide on several things:

At present, Svalbard and Jan Mayen are also not part of the Norwegian coastline.

– So we can effectively say that the current length is wrong, says Egger.

– Why aren’t they included?

– That’s a good question to which I don’t really have an answer, except that we The land division i The Mapping Authority is responsible for mapping mainland Norway and the islands, while Svalbard is the responsibility of the Polar Institute. Whenever we talk about regional statistics, Svalbard is not included. It’s actually very strange.

The coastline is getting longer thanks to better measurement tools

It’s not just islands, fjords, and the area you’re counting on that affects the length of the coast.

– The main reason the coastline may be longer is that better methods have been used to measure the coastline, says Egger.

Until the 1990s, the Swedish National Cadastre Agency measured the coastline using paper maps.

– At 1:50,000 scale, you get a coastal contour of 57,000 kilometers.

The same maps were transferred digitally, and the Mapping Authority was then able to use digital tools to find out the coast. Then it went over 80,000 kilometers.

– Basically it was the same data, but the length measurement method was different.

In 2010, the Mapping Authority reviewed the material again and concluded that the Norwegian coast had “expanded” and was 101,000 km long.

– This is because even more detailed data had been obtained. Thus, in just 30 years, we have doubled the official area of ​​the coastline.