The main purpose of this essay is to investigate if Latvia´s pattern of trade has become more similar to the mature market economies, after Latvia´s independence 1991.Today, the intra-industry trade (IIT) dominates the trade of mature market economies. One of the pioneers of intra-industrial trade is Paul Krugman, who was the first to emphasize the importance "of scale and consumers' desire for variety" in explaining the basis for modern commerce. Customers get more variety and usually cheaper goods when the market gets bigger. I mainly use the modern trade theories to explain the trade pattern in Latvia. To measure how Latvia has developed its intra-industry trade, and thereby is approaching the mature market economies´ trade pattern, I use the Grubel-Lloyd index (GL-index).

Discharge of inadequately treated waste water containing nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen as well as organic matter and bacteria is associated with a risk of eutrophication and contamination. The Swedish government has decided upon several Environmental Quality Objectives aiming to reduce the emissions of nutrients to water bodies.In Sweden, there are between 675 000 to 1 000 000 on-site sewage systems. Recent studies have shown that the function of small sewage treatment plants is in many cases insufficient. To prevent this regular service and supervision by a professional is needed. The focus of this study are small sewage treatment plants which use a technique where mechanical, chemical and/or biological reduction of pollutants is being used in the same facility to reduce nutrients in household wastewater.The aim of the study is to investigate how different municipalities ensure that small sewage treatment plants fulfill the requirements and reduce pollutants as efficient as the manufacturers claim.

Urban density is not new, but rather one side of the continous processes of change underway in the city. During the urbanizing boom of the industrialization, when the cities grew bigger, the first spaces to be built on were vacant and planted areas in the interior of the district. The gardens that once were there were replaced by yardhouses. The idea of urban density is that a dense city means less distance between residential areas and workplaces, resulting in fewer shipments and travelers, which ultimately leads to lower energy consumption and lower emissions. Urban density may lead to shorter distances, but not necessarily. In the wake of urban density the greenstructures of the city is shattered. The possibilities for green areas to contribute to the health of the city and its inhabitants is dramatically reduced.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att för ett svenskt företags räkning analysera hur deras logistikstruktur för import av produkter från Kina till Sverige kan effektiviseras. Vi fick i uppdrag att analysera hur upprättandet av en eller flera hubbar och lager i Kina skulle påverka Företagets logistikstruktur ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. Företa-get kommer att vara anonymt i denna rapport på grund av konkurrensskäl och istället kallas för "Företaget".Vi utgår ifrån följande frågeställningar:Med hur mycket kan Företaget minska sin totala logistikkostnad för Företagets produkter från trading leverantörer genom att upprätta en eller flera hubbar i Kina? Hur mycket skulle logistikkostnaderna i Kina öka genom upprättandet av en eller flera hubbar? Med hur mycket kan Företaget minska sin lagerhållningskostnad i centrallag-ret i Tibro genom att upprätta en eller flera hubbar i Kina? Hur skulle de totala logistikkostnaderna påverkas om Företaget förlade delar av lagret i Kina? Rapporten är av undersökande karaktär där tyngdpunkten i rapporten ligger på hur nuläget ser ut genom insamlandet av data från både Företaget och dess leverantörer och samarbetspartners. Dessa data har analyserats med hjälp av en omfattande teori-del.I resultatet har två olika förbättringsalternativ tagits fram med olika karaktär.

Uppsala County has ambitious environmental aims for the planned residential area inÖstra Sala backe. In this thesis different energy sources have been evaluated todetermine which system that would be most favorable given currently availableinformation about the project. Planned energy usage has been divided into tap waterheating, space heating and power. Three base case scenarios were made with districtheating, small scale bio fuel and heat pump. Solar power and solar heating were thensimulated and the production from the two could individually be deducted from theenergy need in the base cases, constituting 9 different scenarios.

If one looks at physical planning in Sweden today one can see that while talking about densification of existing development, reduced emissions and careful use of important land, urban sprawl is a fact with development of sheer residential districts in the urban edges and shopping malls in each and every municipality. As sustainable development is an essential goal for physical planning to strive towards, it is worth questioning if the direction of today?s planning will lead to the goal. A sustainable development can be seen as an obvious to goal aim at. In reality the aim means a hard and complex work.

The world is currently facing a huge severe challenge in handling the issue of climate change. One of the ways to lower the green house gas emissions, which is seen as one of the main contributor to the climate crisis, is to use renewable technologies such as for example photovoltaic (PV) systems. PV-systems are also suitable for so called micro production, small scale energy production facilities, since it can be placed on practically any rooftop with the right solar conditions. In Sweden the usage of PV-systems has not yet gotten any wider spreading, even though the solar radiation conditions are very similar to countries that produce a lot of solar energy, as for example Germany. The aim of this paper is to describe non-adopter perceptions of PV-systems. The study holds a qualitative approach using deep interviews for data collection.

Coastal sediments are important carbon sinks, storing organic matter and thereby helping to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, they can also act as carbon sources if the deposited organic matter decomposes rapidly, contributing to increased greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Rapid decomposition partly depends on the degradability of the material itself. In this literature review, I examine which coastal plant species dominate different locations along the Swedish coast, based on coverage data from the ClimScape project (www.climscape.se). For the most dominant species, I investigated the type of organic matter they may contribute to the sediments and based on those results I qualitatively assessed which sites that may function as carbon sinks or sources.

All products will eventually end up as waste, which in a sustainable society has to be handled in an efficient and environment friendly way. This report focuses on waste fractions meant for combustion, often difficult to characterize. However, more homogeneous fractions that are treated biologically are also discussed.The study concerns the region of Borås, Sweden, where the waste plant Sobacken has provided a good starting point. On this site, fuel to the Energy-from-Waste plant of Borås Energi is prepared and the biological waste is treated through anaerobic digestion.One important part of the study has been to collect experience-based knowledge from the technical staff at Sobacken and Borås Energi. This information was compiled into an overview of wanted and unwanted fractions to the preparation plant and the boilers respectively.

The intention of this thesis is, from a basic statistical viewpoint, to capture the relationship between the price of electricity and a sample of factors influencing the price. The thesis also aims at investigating whether knowledge about the relationship is useful when investing on Nord Pool. Tested factors are temperature, import, price of emission rights as well as a number of hydrological factors. The investigated period stretches from year 2000 until week 32 year 2007. The relevance of each factor was also evaluated yearly as well as for shorter periods in order to get a more comprehensive view of the relationship.

Organic agriculture is financially promoted in Sweden by special environmental support and as consumers we are all encouraged to buy organic food. At the same time scholars at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences claim that organic farming does not provide any environmental benefits. The main criticism is that organic farming has lower yields than conventional, which means that more land is needed to produce the same amount of food as in conventional farming, leading to deforestation and loss of biodiversity. As for climate change, the critics claim that the significantly higher productivity in conventional crop production compared to organic, releases surplus land, which could be used for bio-fuel production and thereby replace the fossil fuels. The critics also claim that organic farming causes higher nutrient leaching than conventional.

If one looks at physical planning in Sweden today one can see that while talking about densification of existing development, reduced emissions and careful use of important land, urban sprawl is a fact with development of sheer residential districts in the urban edges and shopping malls in each and every municipality. As sustainable development is an essential goal for physical planning to strive towards, it is worth questioning if the direction of today?s planning will lead to the goal. A sustainable development can be seen as an obvious to goal aim at. In reality the aim means a hard and complex work.

This thesis project focuses on the need for better tools for analyzing competition for forest fuels in Sweden, in particular how policy measures may influence the market and involved actors in different regions of Sweden. Raw materials from the forest have for long constituted important inputs in the Swedish forest industry. Today some of these raw materials are increasingly used as inputs also in bioenergy production, largely driven by bioenergy promoting policies, and there are signs of increased competition for forest fuels which may have various and uncertain effects on the industries in question. The thesis project explores the possibilities to adapt previously used forest sector equilibrium models into a new model suitable for analysis of Swedish forest fuel markets, called the Swedish Forest Sector Trade Model (SFSTM). The approach takes into account regional differences in supply and demand for 23 types of products produced and/or used by eight types of producers, plus consumers, in five different regions (four Swedish and one international).

In the EU the amount of waste increased by 14 percent during the years 2000 to 2010. EU?s target to reduce waste generation runs parallel with the aim of increasing the efficiency and profitability aligned with energy recovery. In Sweden the energy recovery through incineration is increasing steadily, and 46 percent of the municipal solid waste (MSW) is treated by combustion. This report aims to examine the profitability of processing MSW into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from an economic-, energy- and environmental perspective.

Marknaden som handelsplats lever kvar i Sverige än idag. Flera marknader har stor popularitet och har blivit en mötesplats för många människor. I en av Sveriges största städer finns en sådan marknad. Marknadsplatsen har under längre tid dragits med nedläggningshot eftersom fastighetsägaren och staden har andra planer för området. Reaktionerna mot en eventuell nedläggning har varit stora och i denna uppsats har det undersökts ett annat alternativ, nämligen om marknaden kan omlokaliseras. Frågorna som har ställts är ?Vilka aspekter kan bidra till en lyckad omlokalisering?? och ?Hur skulle hyresgästen och brukarna påverkas??. Med brukarna avses de som nyttjar lokalen, det vill säga marknadens besökare och säljare. För att komma fram till ett resultat har kortare intervjuer hållits med 62 av marknadens brukare. Längre intervjuer har genomförts med marknadens ägare, fastighetsägaren och representant från staden. Litteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar har eftersökts i väletablerade databaser utifrån nyckelord i uppsatsens problemformulering. Teorierna som uppsatsens slutsatser grundats på handlar om människors behov, förändringars innebörd, risker med omlokalisering samt relevant lagrum. Slutsatsen är att brukarna kommer att följa med till en ny lokal och deras påverkan kommer att vara minimal om en mötesplats kan uppstå. Många av brukarna bor i närområdet och en ny lokals mest optimala placering är i samma område. Det är viktigt att lokalen är lättillgänglig oavsett färdsätt och att lokalhyran är relativt låg. Bra parkeringsmöjligheter är, enligt säljarna, viktigt. Nyckeln till marknadens framgång är ett stort och varierat utbud, och det är en förutsättning för framtidens marknad. Förändringen en omlokalisering innebär, är mildare än om marknaden tvingas lägga ner. För att förändringen ska kunna genomföras på bästa sätt bör marknadens ägare liksom flera brukare ändra inställning och arbeta aktivt för förändring. En förändring kan leda till en ännu bättre marknadsplats, om människor vågar se möjligheterna..