| Geography and Climate |
Denmark is located in Northern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, on a peninsula north of Germany. Area comparatively slightly less than twice the size of Massachusetts. Total land boundary is 68 km, border country is Germany 68 km.
Denmark has a temperate climate; humid and overcast; mild, windy winters and cool summers.
Terrain consists of low and flat to gently rolling plains. Elevation extreme has a lowest point in Lammefjord -7 m and highest point in Ejer Bavnehoj 173 m. Natural resources are petroleum, natural gas, fish, salt, limestone, stone, gravel and sand. Land use: arable land: 60%, permanent crops: 0%, permanent pastures: 5%, forests and woodland: 10%, other: 25% (1993 est.).
Irrigated land: 4,350 sq km (1993 est.). Natural hazard is flooding, a threat in some areas of the country (e.g., parts of Jutland, along the southern coast of the island of Lolland) that are protected from the sea by a system of dikes.
Environment—current issues: air pollution, principally from vehicle and power plant emissions; nitrogen and phosphorus pollution of the North Sea; drinking and surface water becoming polluted from animal wastes and pesticides.
Geography—note: controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in Copenhagen.
Ref. Anonymous, 1999 |