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Abstract |
Tourism is growing industry and an important livelihood in northern Finland (Lapin matkailustrategia 2015 – 2018). Simultaneously, nature has an essential role in tourism.Many tourism resorts are located very close to protected areas and tourism in protected areas play an important role in the local economy (Huhtala 2007, Lapin matkailustrategia 2015 – 2018). While tourism has increased, the role of traditional livelihoods, like forestry and agriculture has decreased (Saarinen 2003, 2005). Simultaneously with tourism growth the metal mining industry and mineral exploration activities have increased notably in Finland(Kivinen et al. 2014). Although the growing mining industryhas potential to bring positive socio-economicdevelopment in northern peripheral areas, the ungovernable growth of mining may adversely affect tourism and nature protection, and have raised some concerns among local people. As competing land use interests related to mining, tourism, forestry and environmental protection are likely to increase in the future,there is a need for tools for reconciling different land use needs.Our aim is to develop a new GIS-basedapproach that simultaneously considers ecological, social and economic values. Method can be used in classifying sites by their suitability for different land uses and locating areas with possibly conflicting land uses. |
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