An obligation to consider traditional knowledge (TK) in planning, resource, and land management, particularly in Sami areas, has been formalized through the Nature Diversity Act. However, current Norwegian legislation and guidelines contain few clarifications of what TK is, how to approach it, or how to appropriately include such data in assessment and planning processes. The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research has incorporated TK about land and resource use in several impact assessments (IAs), building on a methodological approach applied for a number of review assignments for the Finnmark Commission. While the experiences from reviews for the Commission and IAs concerning Sami land and resource use may represent a step towards incorporating TK in Norwegian planning processes, the approach to documentation, methodology, and ethics in this field is open for debate. The same can be said of the formal frameworks for IA and the willingness to incorporate TK in planning programs, in general.

In this study, we focus on the impact of tourism on Svalbard's cultural heritage within the context of natural and anthropogenic-induced formation processes. Established in northwest Svalbard, the cultural environment of London features the remnants of a marble mining settlement. This research covers the period from 1990 to 2014 and uses high-resolution remote sensing images in combination with ground-based surveys to: identify and map wear on vegetation caused by recent human activity, and analyse and assess changes in the state of the cultural environment. The number of visitors to London has risen from a few dozen in the mid-1990s to 1200-1300 annually. Our results show a gradual and ongoing deterioration of the vegetation cover. Worn and patchy vegetation is especially apparent along access trails to and in the vicinity of the most popular cultural heritage features. London as a cultural environment is changing, and our study has shown that visitors during the last 25 years have played a part in that transformation.

Svalbard's cultural heritage sites are important remnants of an international history in the High North. Cultural heritage in the Arctic is being impacted by climate and environmental change as well as increased human activity. Tourism is a potential cause of transformation in cultural heritage sites, such as increased wear and tear, creation of paths and traces as people walk through cultural environments. Cultural heritage management is therefore an increasingly challenging endeavor as management authorities must take under consideration multiple impacts and threats to cultural heritage sites in a changing environment. Based on research conducted in Svalbard from 2014 to 2016 on methods for long-term systematic cultural heritage monitoring, this paper will discuss dilemmas for a sustainable use and management of vulnerable cultural heritage sites in the Arctic.

The socioeconomic causes of land use change are complex. They are highly context dependent, but most often studied through case studies. Here, we use a quasi-experimental paired block design to investigate whether better access to wage income leads to more visible land use around 28 settlements in six regions of the circumpolar Arctic. We mapped visible land use on high-resolution satellite images taken both close to the settlements, and in a more remote area of extensive land use, and payed special attention to tracks of off-road vehicles (ORV). Despite considerable differences among regions, there was an overall positive relationship between better access to wage income and land use. Reindeer herding was also associated with more visible use, in particular ORV tracks. These results suggest that access to wage income in the mixed subsistence-cash communities of the Arctic could lead to more local use related to harvesting and reindeer herding.

What can remote sensing contribute to archaeological surveying in subarctic and arctic landscapes? The pros and cons of remote sensing data vary as do areas of utilization and methodological approaches. We assessed the applicability of remote sensing for archaeological surveying of northern landscapes using airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) and satellite and aerial images to map archaeological features as a basis for a) assessing the pros and cons of the different approaches and b) assessing the potential detection rate of remote sensing. Interpretation of images and a LiDAR-based bare-earth digital terrain model (DTM) was based on visual analyses aided by processing and visualizing techniques. 368 features were identified in the aerial images, 437 in the satellite images and 1186 in the DTM. LiDAR yielded the better result, especially for hunting pits. Image data proved suitable for dwellings and settlement sites. Feature characteristics proved a key factor for detectability, both in LiDAR and image data. This study has shown that LiDAR and remote sensing image data are highly applicable for archaeological surveying in northern landscapes. It showed that a multi-sensor approach contributes to high detection rates. Our results have improved the inventory of archaeological sites in a non-destructive and minimally invasive manner.