Water in all its forms
Salty or fresh, liquid or solid, Norway is a country where water is omnipresent. Surrounded by the North Sea to the southwest, the Norwegian Sea to the west, the Barents Sea to the north and the Skagerrak shipping channel to the south, Norway has one of the longest coastlines in the world (nearly 25,150 km), not to mention 50,000 islands! While salinity levels in the open sea are high, they are much lower in the fjords, where freshwater from the glaciers flows in. Of the 19 main rivers and streams formed by rainwater, lakes, melting snow and glaciers, the longest is the Glomma, which stretches some 600 km from the south-east of Trøndelag (a county in the center of the country) to Fredrikstad, a port town south-east of the Oslo fjord.
Not so high mountains
The Scandinavian Alps make up 47% of Norway's topography. With the exception of the area around Oslo, the country is made up mainly of highlands and plateaus, such as the Hardangervidda in central southern Norway, or the Finnmark peneplain (Finnmarkvidda) that forms a large part of the northernmost part of the country. While altitude in Norway is almost always over 500 m, and there are more than 300 peaks over 2,000 m, Norway's highest mountain is only 2,469 m above sea level. Located in the Jotunheimen massif, one of 47 national parks, Galdhøpiggen is also Northern Europe's highest peak. Because of its latitude, and despite an average altitude of 460 m, a third of the terrain lies above the tree line.
Territorial Division
Norway is divided into five regions(Landsdeler) based on geographical and linguistic criteria: Sørlandet, Østlandet, Vestlandet, Trøndelag, and Nord-Norge. These regions are then divided into 15 counties(Fylker), which perform important administrative functions and act as intermediaries between the State and the municipalities(Kommuner). These fifteen fylker are : Akershus, Oslo, Vestland, Rogaland, Trøndelag, Innlandet, Agder, Østfold, Møre and Romsdal, Buskerud, Vestfold, Nordland, Telemark, Troms and Finnmark. At local level, Norway has 356 municipalities(kommuner), compared with 747 in 1930. Municipalities are responsible for a number of areas: primary education, ambulatory care, services for the elderly, municipal roads, economic development and other social services.
