Morphometry and Land Use on the Mountains in Republic of Macedonia - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 66

Table 6.1 shows that five mountains are higher than 2,500 m (Korab, Shara,
Pelister, Jakupitsa and Nidze), while four mountains have relative altitude higher
than 2,000 m (Nidze, Jakupitsa, Korab and Shara). Shara and Korab have highest
mean altitude ( H sr ) and highest index of volume ( iV / P ) according to their over-
all area. It is interesting that Bistra Mountain is 11th in peak altitude, but 4th in
mean altitude and 5th in volume index, which is a consequence of its characteris-
tic morphology. Mean altitude of all high mountains is 1,248 m, which is 416 m
higher than mean altitude of Macedonia which is 830 m (Milevski, 2007 ). Average
volume index of 0.77 indicates generally high mountains with respect to their
area.

6.4 Basic Land-Use Characteristics

As already expected, analyses of CLC2000 data (compared and corrected by
Landsat ETM+ satellite imagery) indicate dominance of forests and scrubs on high
mountains (Table 6.2 ). However, most of the forests are broad leaf, partly degraded
and with unsuitable structure and density.
According to the data shown in Table 6.3 , on most of the 13 high mountains,
broad leaf forests prevail, except on Nidze Mountain, where coniferous occupied
significant area. On Korab, Shara and Galichitsa Mountain, instead of forests, scrubs
dominate, partly because of high altitude and partly as a result of forest cleansing
for mountain pasture widening. Osogovo Mountain is characterised with large agri-
cultural areas (274.9 km 2 or 28%), most of which is land principally occupied by

Table 6.2 General land-use types (according to the CLC2000) on the high mountain in the
Republic of Macedonia

Area (km 2 ) Area (%) Area (km 2 ) Area (%) CLC code Main type Subtype

Artificial 11.0 0.15 Industrial 1.9 0.03 121-124

Mine, dumps 3.9 0.05 131-133

Urban 5.2 0.07 112-142

Agriculture 916.0 12.18 Arable land 6.4 0.09 211-213

Permanent 3.2 0.04 221-222

Pastures 134.5 1.79 231

Heterogenic 772.0 10.27 241-244

Forests and
scrubs

6, 585.8 87.59 Broad leaf 3, 235.4 43.03 311

Coniferous 500.1 6.65 312

Mixed 461.7 6.14 313

Scrub 2, 361.0 31.40 321-324

Open space 27.7 0.37 331-335

Wetlands 2.3 0.03 Wetlands 2.3 0.03 411-412

Water bodies 3.6 0.05 Water bodies 3.6 0.05 511-512

Total 7, 518.7 100.00 - 7, 518.7 100.00 -