Nordicity () is the degree of

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

ernness. The concept was developed by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Louis-Edmond Hamelin Louis-Edmond Hamelin, (21 March 1923 – February 11, 2020) was a Canadian geographer, professor, and author born in Saint-Didace, Quebec, Canada, best known for his studies of Northern Canada. Hamelin created the Centre for Northern Studie ...

in the 1960s based on previous work done in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Hamelin's system defined northern territories – like northern Canada – not by literal

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

, but as a continuum based on a number of natural and human factors. Hamelin developed an index he called ''Valeurs polaires'' (French for "polar values") or VAPO, where the North Pole had a VAPO of 1000. The nordicity index had 10 natural and human components: #

# summer heat # annual cold # types of ice #total

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

#natural

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characte ...

cover #accessibility by means other than air # air service #

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

# degree of economic activity Each component was graded on the scale of 0–100 where 100 represented extreme nordicity, with the VAPO representing the sum of these ten components. Hamelin proposed that areas with a VAPO of more than 200 should be considered "the North". He subdivided

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

into ''Extreme North'', ''Far North'', ''Middle North'', and ''Near North'' () based on their VAPO. Using the VAPO, most of Canada outside the Southern

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

and the Lower Mainland, the

Prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

, the

Quebec City-Windsor Corridor Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, and most of the Maritimes exhibits some degree of nordicity

His ''Extreme North'' included the northern portion of Canada's Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Arctic Archipelago. The rest of the archipelago and

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

zone as well as parts of the

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

were included in the ''Far North''. The

Canadian government The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-in ...

uses a set system for measuring nordicity, which is used for determining a number of regulations in fields such as environmental protection, infrastructure, and many others. Northern Canada, apropos, is normally divided into three areas. The ''Middle North'' covering the northern parts of most provinces, as well as parts of the territories is largely populated by those of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an descent and has significant resource extraction despite its low population. The ''Far North'' covers the northern part of the continent and the southern Arctic Archipelago. The ''Extreme North'' covers the northernmost islands and is largely uninhabitable. Other countries have their own systems of measuring nordicity. The idea of nordicity and the changing conceptions of what is the north has also recently become a subject for historians.

References

*Amanda Graham.
Indexing the Canadian North: Broadening the Definition
, ''The Northern Review'' #6 (Winter 1990): 21–37. ISSN 0835-3433. *Louis-Edmond Hamelin. ''Canadian Nordicity: It's Your North, Too''. Montreal: Harvest House, 1979. *Chuck McNiven and Henry Puderer,
Delineation of Canada's North: An Examination of the North–South Relationship in Canada
'. Geography Division, Statistics Canada, January 2000. Catalogue no. 2F0138MIE, no. 2000–3. ISSN 1481-174X.

External links

Louis-Edmond Hamelin's Site
{{Arctic topics Northern Canada Geography of the Arctic Culture of the Arctic

See also

References

External links