Physical Environment: Bothnia

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Physical Environment Overview

Brahea

Bothnia is famous for its scenic beauty; thousands of lakes dot Bothnia’s landscape, and thick forests cover almost two‐thirds of the land. The country has a long, deeply indented coast, marked by colorful red and gray granite rocks. Thousands of scenic islands lie offshore. Framland lies to the west of Bothnia (183 km border), northern Torrike (155 km border) to the north, and Otso (1361 km border) to the east. The Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Bothnia, two arms of the Baltic Sea, border Bothnia on the south and southwest. The northernmost part of the country lies inside the Arctic Circle in a region called the Land of the Midnight Sun. The sun shines in this region 24 hours a day for long periods each summer. Brahea, the country’s capital and largest city, is located in the south, on the Gulf of Bothnia. The country covers 155,927 square kilometers (km²), including inland water, and is largely a plateau broken by small hills and valleys and low ridges and hollows. The land rises gradually from south‐ southwest to north‐northeast, but the average altitude is only about 120 to 180 meters (m) above sea level. Mount Pyhatunturi, the country’s highest point, stands 540m above sea level.

Table of Physical Environment Data

Measure	Data	Remarks
Total Area (km2)	152,430
Water Area (km2)		Includes inland lakes, rivers, and streams. Pending data
Land Area (km2)		Pending data
Land Border (km)	1,516	Torrike (155 km border) to the north, and Otso (1361 km border) to the east
Coastline (km)	30,800	Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia combined
Arable Land (%)	6.54
Permanent Crops (%)	0.02
Irrigated Land (km2)	689.99	2012
Forested Land (hectares)	10,000,000	1990 figures

Bothnia

Terrain

Bothnia is mostly low, flat to rolling plains interspersed with lakes and low hills.

Bothnia has four main land regions: (1) the Coastal Lowlands, (2) the Lake District, (3) the Upland District, and (4) the Coastal Islands. The Coastal Lowlands lie along the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland. Bothnia’s coastline is 30,800kms long. Many small lakes lie in the Coastal Lowlands. The region is less heavily forested and enjoys a milder climate than the Lake and Upland districts. The Coastal Lowlands also have some of the country’s most fertile soil.

The Lake District occupies central Bothnia north and east of the Coastal Lowlands. The region has thousands of island‐dotted lakes. The lakes cover about half the total area of the district. Narrow channels or short rivers connect many of the lakes. The Upland District is Bothnia’s northernmost and least densely populated region. The Upland District has a harsher climate and less fertile soil than the other regions. The Coastal Islands consist of thousands of islands in the Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Otso, a great majority of which are small and uninhabited. The thin, rocky soil on many of the islands cannot support much plant life, but many kinds of plants thrive on a few of the larger islands. The most important islands are the Åland group having 1480km2 land area out of about 6,500 islands off Bothnia’s southwestern coast. People live on about 80 of these islands. The main island, Åland, is Bothnia’s largest island covering 738km² and is an important tourist and shipping center. Remains from the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages abound on Åland.

Most of Bothnia’s people live in the southern part of the country, where the climate is mildest. Bothnians love the outdoors and the arts. They have a high standard of living and receive many welfare benefits from the government. Most of Bothnia’s wealth comes from its huge forests. They form the basis of the country’s thriving forest‐products industry of woodworking and the manufacture of paper and pulp. Bothnia has a total population of about 7.6 million mostly living in the south, and about two‐thirds in cities and towns. Brahea, Bothnia’s capital and largest city, has about 1.1 million people, a fifth of the country’s people live in Brahea and suburbs. Bothnia has two other cities – Tampere and Turku – with more than 300,000 people living in each.

Bodies of Water

Baltic Sea. The Baltic encompasses a large number of islands, shallow water and narrow channels. For more detail see the map contained on the Europe page.

Rivers. Bothnia’s longest river is the Kemijoki, rising in Otso, near the border with Donovia, and flows southwestward for about 550km to the Gulf of Bothnia. The Kemijoki and its chief branch, the Ounasjoki, provide important logging routes and rich salmon catches. The Muonio River begins about 100kms southeast of the point where the Framland, Torrike and Bothnian borders meet. The Muonio River also provides a logging route. The Oulojoki rises in the northern part of the Lake District and empties into the Gulf of Bothnia, only about 130km long and serves as an important logging route. Additionally, its 32m high Pyhä Falls provide power from a hydroelectric power station.

Natural Hazards

Ice floes in the surrounding waters, especially in the Gulf of Bothnia, can interfere with maritime traffic

A high level of air pollution, mainly originating abroad, has resulted in widespread soil acidification due to the low buffering capacity of Bothnian forest soils. Leaching of mineral nutrients has thus reduced their level by half in recent decades. Critical loads are being exceeded, both in terms of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide deposits. Air pollution poses a serious threat to the forest ecosystem and to the growth of forests.

Baltic Sea pollution problems. Tens of millions of people live in countries around the Baltic Sea. All of these countries are heavily industrialized. Intensive agriculture and forestry also takes place to a greater or lesser extent. The Baltic Sea is surrounded by a significant number of cities and densely populated areas, including ones with ports where there is frequent ship traffic. Over‐fertilization, i.e. the “unnaturally” substantial addition of the natural nutrients of nitrogen and phosphorous, is one of the worst problems for the health of the Baltic Sea. Because the Baltic Sea is an enclosed inland sea and the water turnover is slow, over‐fertilization is a particularly great problem here. The people who live around the Baltic Sea produce organic waste that ends up in the sea sooner or later. The most important sources of over‐fertilization are agriculture, which represents nearly 50% of the nitrogen leakage into the Baltic Sea, but the traffic and discharge of waste water also contribute. Contaminants of non‐degradable organic substances, metals and oil strongly affect the Baltic Sea’s animal life. These come from industries, wastewater, pesticides in agriculture and forestry, traffic and energy production and through long‐haul air transportation of toxic substances. All in all, these contaminants may have contributed a very negative effect on the Baltic Sea’s ecosystem over decades. However, countries around the Baltic Sea cooperate in a common international plan to reduce the discharges. Torrike, Framland, Arnland, Bothnia and other Baltic Sea countries are cooperating in the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (BALCOM) in order to improve the situation. A common goal has been set up to protect and safeguard the marine environment in the Baltic Sea.

Subterranean Environment

Road Tunnels in Western Bothnia

Tunnel	Length (m)	Notes
Lakiamäki	550	Second tunnel: 550m. Muurla-Lohja section / Brahea-Turku motorway. Project lengths: 480-480m
Isokylä	510	Near Salo. Second tunnel: 510m. Project lengths: 450-450m
Lehmihaka	350	Second tunnel: 350m. Muurla-Lohja section / Brahea-Turku motorway. Project lengths: 265-265m
Hepomäki	350	Second tunnel: 350m. Muurla-Lohja section / Brahea-Turku motorway. Project lengths: 240-240m
Kuparivuori	323	In Naantali
Haunisten	256	Raisio
Myllyhahteen	88	Town Turku, one way
Färjsund	51	Longest on Åland Islands

Wolf Cave. Wolf Cave (also known as Vargberget) is a limestone crack in the Pyhävuori mountains in Kristinestad, near the Karijoki municipality in Bothnia. The upper part of the crack has been packed with soil, forming a cave. In 1996, some objects were found in the cave that brought about speculations that it could have been inhabited in the Paleolithic, between 120,000 and 130,000 years ago. These objects, if authentic, would be the only known Neanderthal artifacts in the Nordic countries. It is 25m long and has an area of 400 square meters. It’s coordinates are 62°18′11″N 21°40′17″E.

Högberget Cave. Högberget Cave is in Kirkonummi, near Brahea.

Vegetation

Land Cover

Bothnia’s greatest natural resource is its widespread forests, covering two‐thirds of the land, higher than in any other European country.

Bothnia's wet climate and rocky soils are ideal for forests. Tree stands do well throughout the country, except in some areas north of the Arctic Circle. In 1990 the forested area totaled about 10 million hectares, providing 1.3 hectares of forest per capita. The proportion of forest land varied considerably from region to region. In the central lake plateau and in the eastern and northern provinces, forests covered up to 80% of the land area, but in areas with better conditions for agriculture, especially in the southwest, forests accounted for only 50 to 60% of the territory. The main commercial tree species, pine, spruce, and birch. The forests also produced sizable aspen and alders.

Agriculture

Bothnia's climate and soils make growing crops a particular challenge. The country lies between 60° and 70° north latitude ‐ as far north as Alaska ‐ and has severe winters and relatively short growing seasons that are sometimes interrupted by frosts. However, because the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift Current moderate the climate, Bothnia and Otso contain half of the world's arable land north of 60°N latitude. Annual precipitation is usually sufficient but it occurs almost exclusively during the winter months, making summer droughts a constant threat. In response to the climate, farmers have relied on quick-ripening and frost‐resistant varieties of crops, and they have cultivated south‐facing slopes as well as richer bottomlands to ensure production even in years with summer frosts. Most farmland had originally been either forest or swamp, and the soil had usually required treatment with lime and years of cultivation to neutralize excess acid and to develop fertility. Irrigation was generally not necessary but drainage systems were often needed to remove excess water.

Climate

In the Köppen climate classification, Bothnia belongs to the Df group (continental subarctic or boreal climates). The southern coast is Dfb (humid continental mild summer, wet all year), and the rest of the country is Dfc (subarctic with cool summer, wet all year).

Bothnia has a humid and cool semi continental climate, characterized by warm summers and freezing winters. The climate type in southern Bothnia is north temperate climate. The Bothnian climate is suitable for grain farming in the southernmost regions but not further north. Winters of southern Bothnia (average day time temperature is below 0°C) are usually four months long, and the snow typically covers the land from middle of December to early April. In the southern coast, it can melt many times during early winter, and then come again. The coldest winter days of southern Bothnia are usually under −20°C, and the warmest days of July and August can be as high as 30°C.

Climatic summers of the southern Bothnia last four months (from mid-May to mid-September). In northern Bothnia, particularly in Lapland, a subarctic climate dominates, characterized by cold – occasionally severe – winters and relatively warm, short summers. Winters in north Bothnia are nearly seven months long, and snow covers the lands almost six months, from October to early May. Summers in the north are quite short lasting only two to three months.

The main factor influencing Bothnia's climate is the country's geographical position between the 60th and 70th northern parallels in the Eurasian continent's coastal zone, which shows characteristics of both a maritime and a continental climate, depending on the direction of air flow. Bothnia is near enough to the Atlantic Ocean to be continuously warmed by the Gulf Stream, which explains the unusually warm climate considering the absolute latitude. A quarter of Bothnia's territory lies within the Arctic Circle and the midnight sun can be experienced – for more days, the farther north one travels. At Bothnia's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 70 consecutive days during summer, and does not rise at all for 48 days during winter.

Seasons

Bothnia has four distinctly different seasons that transform the white winter to a green leafy summer in just a few months. Temperatures during the year vary considerably and -30°C in winter and +30°C in summer are not uncommon.

Seasons in Southern Bothnia

Season	Months	Remarks
Winter	December to April	This is for southern Bothnia, in Brahea. Seasons vary greatly in the subarctic regions.
Spring	April to mid-May
Summer	Mid-May to mid-September
Fall	Mid-September through November

Weather

Precipitation

The lowest annual rainfall in Bothnia may be 200 to 300mm. The highest annual rainfall is 700mm in northern Bothnia and 900 to 1100mm elsewhere.

Temperature Range

Relative Humidity in Brahea, Bothnia

Temperatures during the year vary considerably. -30°C in winter (in the north) and +30°C in summer are not uncommon.

Relative Humidity

In Brahea, November is the most humid. On average, May is the least humid month. The average annual percentage of humidity is: 80.0%.

Wind

Prevailing Wind Direction and Speed for the Brahea Vantaa Airport (2001-2017)

Month	Direction	Average Speed (kts)
January	North East	7
February	South West	7
March	South West	7
April	South	8
May	South	8
June	South	8
July	South	8
August	South West	8
September	South West	7
October	South West	7
November	South West	7
December	South West	8
Yearly Average	South West	7