286 
SYMPOSIUM PHOTO INTERPRETATION, DELFT 1962 
Fig. 1. The Skanör peninsula seen from S.S.W. in 1935, when the heath still covered a large 
area. Air photo by Sw. Air Force. 
All illustrations in this paper are published with permission of the Geogr. Survey Office of 
Sweden, 26/6/1962. 
as in the nineteenth century. The man-made heath was used as pasture land 
and turf was cut for fuel and to build walls. 
Considerable landscape changes over the last hundred years can be seen in 
fig. 2, which shows four editions of the topographic map from 1860 to 1958. 
Radical changes have occurred regarding vegetation, settlement and commu 
nications, as well as the coast line. There is no space here for a more thorough 
study of those changes as seen on the maps. Also, when studying maps, we must 
always ask ourselves how many of the differences may be real ones and what 
depends upon the draughtsman. This problem does not exist when comparing 
air photos. As all elements in the terrain are recorded without any subjective 
choice, air photographs are most suitable for comparative studies of changes 
in the landscape. 
The first vertical air photos of the peninsula were taken in the summer of 
1938 on scale 1 : 20,000. Thereafter it was photographed in 1955 (1 : 10,000), 
1959, 1960 and 1962, always during the spring, on scale 1 : 30,000. So there 
is a relatively good air photographic documentation of the area since 1938. Of 
the immense number of data recorded on the photos, we can freely choose 
those which will best illustrate the changes, and present the result in the form 
of maps. 
To begin with the forest (fig. 3), plantation undertakings were finished 
before 1938. Yet there is a significant increase in forest area since 1938. This 
fact depends partly upon the growing up of the plantations, but mostly upon 
spontaneous growth of mainly birch and pine which started immediately 
when grazing ceased. 
On the map horizontal hatching represents the forest area in 1938, including 
tree vegetation in bigger gardens. In 1960 the eastern and western forest areas 
are connected by a forest strip to the north of the road. New forests have also 
grown up close to the still remaining heath area along the western and eastern 
fences. However, now to a high degree exploited for summer cottages, mainly 
for Malmö citizens, the forests stand nearly as close as before.