While it may seem clear to many people what a mountain is, there has been long debate on this topic.
Work done by Martin Price in collaboration with the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre in 1999 led to the creation of the first map of the world's mountain regions defined by a set of globally-consistent objective criteria.
This map was based on a global database which records the average altitude of every square kilometre of the Earth's land surface. The criteria relate not just to altitude and slope, but also local relief.
This is particularly important in Europe, where many mountain start at low altitudes, yet have marked relief.
The characterisation of Europe's mountains is important in a policy context, particularly with regard to the expansion of the European Union and its post-2006 cohesion policy. Consequently, the CMS, working with the Scottish Agricultural College, undertook a preliminary characterisation of mountain areas of Europe, starting from the UNEP-WCMC map to determine the statistical reporting districts that are wholly or partially mountainous.
This work was done for Euromontana and presented at the 3rd European Mountain Convention, in Inverness on 16-18 May 2002.
Resources
- Preliminary report
- Final pilot presentation
Following this pilot study, the CMS was the scientific coordinator for a major study, led by Nordregio for the Directorate-General for Regional Policy of the European Commission: An analysis of mountain areas in the European Union and in the applicant countries.
The study had three main parts:
1) The delimitation of mountain areas, using a harmonised European definition;
2) An analysis of the socio-economic situation in the concerned zones, through the construction of a Europe-wide database and the definition of adequate indicators;
3) A review of mountain-related policies, with a view to formulating policy recommendations.
The study covered the European Union plus all of the candidate countries, Switzerland and Norway: a total of 29 countries.
The results of the study were integrated into the Third Cohesion Report, and may be used within the reform of the Structural Funds after 2006.
The final report can be downloaded from the DG Regional Policy link on the right of this page.