Protective forests – infrastructure and
managed natural resources (5.2)
As regards topography, Finland is a level country. Agricultural
land only covers 8.9% of the total area and field parcels are
small and surrounded by forests, which is why there is hardly
any need to establish hedges or wooded zones on fields as
windbreaks.
Forests have local significance in mitigating the damages caused
by traffic. Major arteries are generally routed through forests
far away from population centres, and even in built-up areas
residential districts are set off from traffic routes with wooded
buffers as wide as possible. Trees are efficient in capturing dust
and exhaust fumes. For a noise barrier, a wooded band several
dozen metres wide is needed, depending on the structure of the
wood. The visual barrier trees present has also been observed to
reduce the subjective experience of noise disturbance.
Wooded protective areas in communities are planned in conjunction
with land use planning. For example, green belts along busy
roads which shelter adjacent areas from the damaging effects of
traffic and which cannot be used for recreation because of their
location are marked as such in local and master plans.
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