How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism
The Icelandic highlands are one of the few places left in Europe where tourists can experience pristine wilderness. During the past decades the highlands have, however, witnessed a rapid expansion in natural resource exploitation. This study attempts to evaluate the pristine condition of Icelandic w...
Published in: | Tourism Geographies |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Online Access: | https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1984699 https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 |
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ftulundlup:oai:lup.lub.lu.se:47ec935d-beb1-45c0-9a7f-681b562dc0d1 2023-05-15T16:46:52+02:00 How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism Olafsdottir, Rannveig Runnström, Micael 2011 https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1984699 https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 eng eng Routledge https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1984699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 wos:000291534100006 scopus:79958846689 Tourism Geographies; 13(2), pp 280-298 (2011) ISSN: 1461-6688 Physical Geography Wilderness assessment nature tourism proximity analysis viewshed analysis geographical information system (GIS) Iceland contributiontojournal/article info:eu-repo/semantics/article text 2011 ftulundlup https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 2023-02-01T23:32:43Z The Icelandic highlands are one of the few places left in Europe where tourists can experience pristine wilderness. During the past decades the highlands have, however, witnessed a rapid expansion in natural resource exploitation. This study attempts to evaluate the pristine condition of Icelandic wilderness by testing different methods of identifying and analysing wilderness with respect to nature-based tourism. The wilderness areas were mapped with respect to proximity to anthropogenic structures (proximity analysis) as well as what is actually visible in the landscape in relation to topography (viewshed analysis). When analysed with respect to proximity, result maps indicate that wilderness covers a little less than 34 percent of Iceland. When assessed at a national scale, results from the viewshed analysis show similar results. However, evaluation of the two methods tested indicates that the viewshed analysis gives a more dynamic image of the Icelandic wilderness areas, whereas the proximity analysis simply highlights static buffer zones relative to the network of anthropogenic features. It is concluded that a viewshed analysis provides a more qualitative result regarding the Icelandic wilderness resource at a local scale with respect to nature-based tourism. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Lund University Publications (LUP) Tourism Geographies 13 2 280 298 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Lund University Publications (LUP) |
op_collection_id |
ftulundlup |
language |
English |
topic |
Physical Geography Wilderness assessment nature tourism proximity analysis viewshed analysis geographical information system (GIS) Iceland |
spellingShingle |
Physical Geography Wilderness assessment nature tourism proximity analysis viewshed analysis geographical information system (GIS) Iceland Olafsdottir, Rannveig Runnström, Micael How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism |
topic_facet |
Physical Geography Wilderness assessment nature tourism proximity analysis viewshed analysis geographical information system (GIS) Iceland |
description |
The Icelandic highlands are one of the few places left in Europe where tourists can experience pristine wilderness. During the past decades the highlands have, however, witnessed a rapid expansion in natural resource exploitation. This study attempts to evaluate the pristine condition of Icelandic wilderness by testing different methods of identifying and analysing wilderness with respect to nature-based tourism. The wilderness areas were mapped with respect to proximity to anthropogenic structures (proximity analysis) as well as what is actually visible in the landscape in relation to topography (viewshed analysis). When analysed with respect to proximity, result maps indicate that wilderness covers a little less than 34 percent of Iceland. When assessed at a national scale, results from the viewshed analysis show similar results. However, evaluation of the two methods tested indicates that the viewshed analysis gives a more dynamic image of the Icelandic wilderness areas, whereas the proximity analysis simply highlights static buffer zones relative to the network of anthropogenic features. It is concluded that a viewshed analysis provides a more qualitative result regarding the Icelandic wilderness resource at a local scale with respect to nature-based tourism. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Olafsdottir, Rannveig Runnström, Micael |
author_facet |
Olafsdottir, Rannveig Runnström, Micael |
author_sort |
Olafsdottir, Rannveig |
title |
How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism |
title_short |
How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism |
title_full |
How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism |
title_fullStr |
How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism |
title_full_unstemmed |
How Wild is Iceland? Wilderness Quality with Respect to Nature-based Tourism |
title_sort |
how wild is iceland? wilderness quality with respect to nature-based tourism |
publisher |
Routledge |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1984699 https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Tourism Geographies; 13(2), pp 280-298 (2011) ISSN: 1461-6688 |
op_relation |
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1984699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 wos:000291534100006 scopus:79958846689 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2010.531043 |
container_title |
Tourism Geographies |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
280 |
op_container_end_page |
298 |
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1766036956782788608 |