''Hügelland'' is a type of
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
consisting of low
rolling hills whose
topography or surface structure lies between that of a
lowland region (plains or river terraces) and that of a more rugged
hill range or low
mountain range. The term is German and has no exact equivalent in English, but is often translated as "hill country", "hilly terrain", "upland(s)" or "gently undulating" or "rolling country", or "rolling countryside". It is derived from ''Hügel'', a low hill or
hillock and appears frequently as a proper name for this type of terrain.
The term ''Hügelland'' is not unambiguously defined, even in German. For example, on the plains of
North Germany,
Poland or
Hungary it may be applied to terrain with a height variation of just 50 metres, whilst in the
Alpine Foreland or in the
Voralpen it might refer to terrain with a height difference of at least 100–200 metres.
On the other hand, some scholars prefer to define ''Hügelland'' by its height above sea level; for example, applying it to terrain between 200 and 500 metres above sea level.
Structure
Structurally and
geomorphologically, a ''Hügelland'' landscape has a significant proportion of less well-defined components. For example:
* It is topographically not as clearly defined a
mountain or
hill range,
* which is why it usually exhibits variable
erosion (the
aspects of its slopes facing all points of the compass) and
* why it rarely has series of parallel watercourses such as those typically created in hilly or mountainous terrain.
* Settlements may be located either in the valleys or on the heights (which offered
sunny sites in winter, sheltered
leeward
Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...
locations and, formerly, better defensive positions);
* Arable usage is equally diverse - depending on
soil type
A soil type is a taxonomic unit in soil science. All soils that share a certain set of well-defined properties form a distinctive soil type. Soil type is a technical term of soil classification, the science that deals with the systematic categoriz ...
, local climate and groundwater.
* The formation of the terrain often has geological causes that differ from those of hills and mountains:
Hills and mountains are caused by
folding along tectonic weaknesses or
fault lines, which are then followed by rivers. This results in a parallel pattern, which can be made even more regular through erosion. ''Hügelland'' rarely exhibits these properties.
When the gently rolling hills of a ''Hügelland'' are suitable for agriculture, their small-scale nature is further reinforced, which may result in a colourful succession of
mixed forest and open areas with
pastures,
meadows,
arable crop
Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...
s and
orchards, divided by
hedgerow
A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...
s along the tracks, lanes and
embankments. Mixed woodland, hedges, ponds and scattered settlements occur, giving the appearance of a mosaic from the air.
Regions named ''Hügelland''
The regions listed below have ''Hügelland'' as part of their proper name. Several also have alternative English-language names.
* Austria:
** Mattersburger Hügelland,
Burgenland
**
Oststeirisches Hügelland The East Styrian Hill Country or East Styrian Hills (german: Oststeirisches Hügelland or ''Oststeirisches Riedelland''), is a rolling, hill country region, known as ''Hügelland'', in the southeast of the Austrian state of Styria.
Geography
The ...
,
Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
* Germany:
** Aachener Hügelland,
North Rhine-Westphalia
**
Alzeyer Hügelland The Alzey Hills (german: Alzeyer Hügelland) form a region of low, rolling hills, or ''Hügelland'', 275 km² in area and up to , in Rhenish Hesse in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. From a natural region perspective they are part of ...
,
Rhineland-Palatinate
**
Angelner Hügelland,
Schleswig-Holstein
**
Mittelsächsisches Hügelland,
Saxony
**
Nordthüringer Hügelland,
Thuringia
** Ostbraunschweigisches Hügelland,
Lower Saxony
**
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Hügelland, Schleswig-Holstein
** Spalter Hügelland,
Bavaria
**
Unterbayerisches Hügelland, Bavaria
* Switzerland
**
Freiburger Hügelland
Other examples
* Austria:
** Upper Austria:
Innviertel,
Hausruckviertel
The Hausruckviertel (literally German for the ''Hausruck'' quarter or district) is an Austrian region belonging to the state of Upper Austria: it is one of four "quarters" of Upper Austria the others being Traunviertel, Mühlviertel, and Innvier ...
** Lower Austria:
Bucklige Welt, parts of
Mostviertel;
Weinviertel,
Wienerwaldsee
The Wienerwaldsee (English:''Vienna Forest Lake'') is a shallow reservoir, located 20 kilometres west of Vienna, Austria.
It is located just north of Austria's main motorway, the West Autobahn, between Tullnerbach and Neu-Purkersdorf. It was cre ...
** South
Burgenland
** SE-
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
* Germany
**
Baden-Württemberg:
Jagst-
Ries,
Kraichgau
** Bavaria:
Haßlacherbergkette in North-
Upper Franconia,
Middle Franconia,
Upper Swabia
**
Brandenburg/
Saxony-Anhalt:
Fläming
**
Rhineland-Palatinate:
Rhenish Hesse
** Lower Saxony:
Lüneburg Heath
Lüneburg Heath (german: Lüneburger Heide) is a large area of heath, geest, and woodland in the northeastern part of the state of Lower Saxony in northern Germany. It forms part of the hinterland for the cities of Hamburg, Hanover and Bremen a ...
**
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern:
Baltic Uplands
The Baltic UplandsDickinson, Robert E. (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 614. . (german: Baltischer Landrücken or ''Nördlicher Landrücken'') is a chain of morainic hills about wide that bord ...
,
Feldberg Lake District
The Feldberg Lake District Nature Park (german: Naturpark Feldberger Seenlandschaft, ) lies in the southeast of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the district of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte. A large part of the nature park lies wit ...
,
Mecklenburg Switzerland
** North Rhine-Westphalia:
Baumberge and
Beckum Hills,
Münsterland
** Saxony:
Lower Lusatia,
North Saxony
** Schleswig-Holstein:
Holstein Switzerland,
Hütten Hills
The Hütten Hills (german: Hüttener Berge, da, Hytten Bjerge) are an area of upland, up to , roughly west of the town of Eckernförde in the county of Rendsburg-Eckernförde in the North German state of Schleswig-Holstein. They lie within the ...
* Italy:
** The
Langhe in the Piemont, between Turin and the Ligurian Alps
* Poland:
**
Pomeranian Lakeland
The Pomeranian Lakeland or Pomeranian Lake District ( pl, Pojezierze Pomorskie) is a lakeland in Farther Pomerania. It lies today in the east of the Polish Voivodeship of West Pomerania in northwest Poland.
The lakeland is located in the extreme ...
,
Prussian-,
Baltic Uplands
The Baltic UplandsDickinson, Robert E. (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 614. . (german: Baltischer Landrücken or ''Nördlicher Landrücken'') is a chain of morainic hills about wide that bord ...
**
Lower Silesia,
Lodz region
* Switzerland
** Parts of the
Jura
**
Swiss Plateau,
Napf
* Hungary, Rumania, Serbia
**
Göcsej,
Raabtal,
Balaton Lake Balaton is a lake in Hungary, the largest lake in Central Europe
Balaton may also refer to:
* 2242 Balaton, a main-belt asteroid
* Balaton (car), a Hungarian microcar
* Balaton (village), in Heves county, Hungary
* Balaton, Minnesota, a city ...
-South;
Buda Hills,
Zemplín
**
Slavonia,
Batschka,
Banat,
Siebenbürgen,
Dobruja
Similar concepts
An example of ''Hügelland'' outside Europe is
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
in Africa, whose character is expressed by its French name of ''
Pays de Mille Collines'' ("Land of a Thousand Hills").
[Mazuran, Dyan, Angela Raven-Roberts and Jane Parpart (eds.), ''Gender, Conflict and Peacekeeping'', Oxford: Rowman, 2005. p. 220.] In Sweden the term undulating hilly land ( sv, bergkullterräng) is used since
Sten Rudberg
Sten Rudberg (13 September 1917 – 22 October 1996) was a Swedish geologist and geomorphologist. He was the son of Gunnar Rudberg. Sten Rudberg was appointed chair professor of the Göteborg University in 1958 after incumbent professor Karl-Eri ...
coined the concept in 1960.
In the Swedish context this means hilly areas made up of crystalline rocks of the
Baltic Shield
The Baltic Shield (or Fennoscandian Shield) is a segment of the Earth's crust belonging to the East European Craton, representing a large part of Fennoscandia, northwestern Russia and the northern Baltic Sea. It is composed mostly of Archean and ...
that are often contrasted with
joint valley landscapes, the
Sub-Cambrian peneplain
The sub-Cambrian peneplain is an ancient, extremely flat, erosion surface (peneplain) that has been exhumed and exposed by erosion from under Cambrian strata over large swathes of Fennoscandia. Eastward, where this peneplain dips below Cambrian an ...
and plains with
residual hills.
[ In southern Sweden the undulating hilly lands are coterminous with the ]Sub-Mesozoic hilly peneplains
200px, An undulating hilly landscape in Halland.html"_;"title="Falkenberg_Municipality,_Halland">Falkenberg_Municipality,_Halland.
file:Dagsås_-_KMB_-_16000700002822.jpg.html" ;"title="Halland..html" ;"title="Halland.html" ;"title="Falkenberg Mu ...
, an ancient surface formed by weathering in warm and humid climates during the Mesozoic.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hugelland
Landforms