landskap

Landskap is a term used in Swedish and Norwegian with several related meanings. In everyday language it refers to the landscape, the visible physical features of an area, including natural elements such as hills, rivers and vegetation as well as human-made features like fields, roads and buildings. The concept also encompasses the cultural and social associations people have with a place, making landscape a key topic in geography, art and heritage studies.

In Sweden, landskap denotes traditional cultural regions that have no current administrative function. There are 25 landskap, including Skåne, Småland, Uppland, Dalarna, Gotland and Västerbotten. The borders are historic, and landskap today are used mainly for cultural identity, heraldry, historical reference and statistical contexts. People may reference a landskap for regional pride, folklore or tourism branding.

In Norway, the term landscape (lands­kap) similarly refers to geographic regions used in descriptive and cultural contexts. There is no official administrative unit corresponding to landskap, though historic regional divisions are sometimes noted in cultural history and regional discourse.

In contemporary usage, landscape is also an English loanword used in art, geography and environmental planning. The concept distinguishes natural landscapes from cultural or urban landscapes and is central to discussions of sustainability, land use, planning and cultural heritage.