GeoGenetics > Courses > The Danish landscape

Course: The Danish landscape - genesis, architecture and exploitation

Go to Greenland or Iceland today - and you will see what Denmark and southern Scandinavia looked like during the last ice age. A walk near a glacier will reveal a wealth of different landforms - generated by either ice, wind or water.

Variations in climate may have moved the glacier forward or backward - at the same time moving enormous amounts of sediments like stones, pebbles, sand and clay around. Thus the ice and meltwater created landscapes consisting of hills, valleys and plains. Here the action of rivers, wind and water reshuffle the glacial debris.

In Denmark the landscape has been the backbone of life for thousands of years. Farming, resources, groundwater and today's environmental problems are all linked to the different characteristics of the landscape and its materials.

Our course intends to give you an understanding of the landscape, its shape and internal architecture. What is it made of and how it was formed under various climate conditions over the last 150.000 years. You will learn to analyze and evaluate different landscapes in a natural resource context.

By looking at the different strata in a geological profile you will be familiar with how to differentiate between e.g. the presence of a fast-running river or a glacial lake - and put this knowledge into a climate or biological relation.

You will also become familiar with how to set up a digital topographic model in a Geographical Information System as well as getting to know other analytical tools.

For a detailed description of the course go to SIS.

Digital topographical model of Mols Bjerge, Eastern Jutland