Climate change mitigation - State and impacts (Iceland)

Between 2000 and 2006, some 0.62 % of Iceland’s surface area changed its land-cover types. The most prominent changes occur in forests and semi-natural surfaces. The largest land-cover change is the retreat of glaciers in recent years because of global warming. Between 2000 and 2006, the glaciers shrank by 180 km² or 1.63 % which corresponds to an annual reduction of 0.27 % (1).

Figure 1. Spatial distribution of land-cover changes in Iceland between 2000 and 2006. The most obvious changes are due to melting (decrease) of the icecaps and spatial fluctuations of some of the glacial rivers (from 1).

References

(1) Corine Land Classification in Iceland 2000-2006. Report in Icelandic. http://www.lmi.is/Files/Skra_0038437.pdf