In the process laboratory of Metso minerals (Sala) AB, continuous tests have been made with a laboratory unit High-Rate thickener. The tests are made in order to compare three methods of thickening techniques of suspended solids. The three techniques are High-Rate thickening, conventional thickening and lamella thickening. The High-Rate and the conventional trials are based on a continuous method, while the lamella thickener is based on batch trials. Because the lamella thickener is based on batch trials and there were some optimization problems with the adding point of the flocculant at the continuous trials, it was not feasible to compare the lamella thickener with the other two thickener types.

The use of energy is an important question in today´s society, and a substantial part of the energy that is used today is used in our homes. To lower this usage is vital, and there are regulations in place both on the national and the local level, that say that new apartment blocks must be built to consume less energy, which in the end will lower the impact on the climate.One way to make the housing sector more environmentally sustainable, is to produce energy issions that are bad for the environment, for example to build wind turbines close to or even on the buildings, so called urban wind power. The scope for this report is to see if urban wind power could be a sustainable alternative for the residential area that Svenska Bostäder plans to build in Albano in Stockholm.There are extensive scientific theories regarding wind and wind power, and a literature study is made to investigate past knowledge in the area. Efforts have been made to find earlier trials with urban wind power and, both scientific research and trials where urban wind power actually has been installed. The theory chapter deals both with the wind itself and how electricity can be generated from wind.

Human existence and welfare depend on functional ecosystems. Ecosystems are critical to sustain life-support services for human well-being. One method that visualizes that humanity requires ecosystem services for resource consumption and assimilation of produced waste is ecological footprints. This study focuses on the ecosystem service carbon sequestering. A quantification of this ecosystem service showed the potential for accumulation of carbon in different ecosystems in Stockholm and Norrbotten County for the years of 1995 and 2004.

The sun is a huge energy source with great potential of providing energy to the heating of homes and other buildings in an environmentally sustainable manner. In order to provide buildings with energy from the sun it is necessary to transfer the energy supply over time to when the demand arises. By storing the heat in a seasonal storage, solar energy from the summer can be used in the winter when the demand for heating is greatest.Today's existing plants are mainly in Europe and particularly in Germany. These facilities are designed to supply heat demands greater than 400 MWh and covers about 40-50 % of this need which consists of energy for space heating and domestic hot water. How much of the heat demand that is covered, the solar fraction, is partly due to losses from the storage which in turn is connected to the surface area of the storage.

The Civil Engineering office in Skellefteå needs to develop the users' participation in the planning of parks and playgrounds. In order to get such a procedure to work one have to find a method that can work in the daily activity. My work aims to find such a method and to implement it in practice. Apart from helping the Parks departement to find an functional method I will also develop a deepened knowledge about users?participation wich can be very useful i my future profession. This work can be divided in three stages.

Considering water quality, landuse and reducion of wetland area in the watershed of Tidan, areas witch are in need of constructions to improve the water quality are identified. Constructions are suggested to be located within the smaller streams in the watershed, so that the water is treated before it reaches the stream Tidan..

Sweden's population holds today one of the highest life expectancies in the world and an increasing number of Swedes believe that they have good health. However, the problem still remains that there exists significant differences in health between different population groups and neighborhoods. Two neighborhoods that demonstrate high inequality in health status are Rinkeby and Danderyd in Stockholm County.    The purpose of this study was to examine why health differs between different neighborhoods and how residents experience the area and their health. To answer this purpose a combination of statistical data and qualitative interviews with residents in Danderyd and Rinkeby has been used with an additional literature review.      The study showed that the causes of health inequalities between these neighborhoods was primarily concerned with the factors of education, economic conditions, ethnicity, conditions of comfort and companionship and the surrounding residential environment. The population in Danderyd, made up largely of people with high education, good economic conditions and few foreign-born, while the majority of Rinkeby?s population consists of individuals with low education, poor economic conditions and a high proportion of inhabitants of foreign origin, which are determining factors leading to poorer health status among the population.

In Örebro, the car traffic share does not tend to decrease. The crowdedness on some of the bus routes is high at times. Investigations show that the residents of Örebro want a city centre whose street environment is more restrictive of car traffic and better for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. To decrease the car traffic share a rapid, convenient, clear, effective and environmental friendly public transport with high frequency and strong capacity in a short, direct and logical network is needed. A modern tramway fulfils these criteria.At first, this report describes factors that are important to take into consideration when planning a tramway.

 Through teaching, pupils are given the opportunity based on their personal experiences and current events to express and consider their views in relation to others who hold different views. As a result, pupils should be encouraged to get involved and participate in an open exchange of views on societal issues (Skolverket, 2011d, s. 189). To assess pupils orally in the subject of civics in primary education is an unexplored field, which makes this field relevant to explore. There are numerous researchers? who with the help of deliberative methods, formative feedback, formative assessment and studies regarding classroom climates whom all speak positive about using discussion/dialogue in education to upraise and develop learning among pupils.

Swedish energy policy aims to increase the use of energy from renewable sources and this should be done in a safe, environmentally and sustainable manner. According to the Energy Agency the use bio-fuel increased by 73% between 1990 - 2006. Stands with high share of slash are often located on areas with high productivity which often are located on soils with poor bearing capacity. This will increase traffic on susceptible soil leading to increased ground damage. To reduce the risk of ground damage at slash-forwarding, ground protection is needed.

Many companies have historically forced their interests through without any thoughts about the future needs of the humans and the society. In the last few years voices have been raised for a change, companies need to take their responsibility regarding sustainable development.The purpose of the report is to describe and explain possible relations between sustainabil-ity performance of companies and profitability, valuation, industry and size respectively.To be able to judge the sustainability performance of the companies Folksam (2006a) have been used. This is a solid investigation of the companies listed on the A- and O-lists of the Stockholm Stock Exchange by the end of 2005. The sustainability marks have been com-pared with the chosen key values for each hypothesis respectively. With this quantitative data as foundation, a quantitative approach and a deductive method have been used.In the first area of the investigation, profitability, the authors found correlation for the main hypothesis between sustainability performance and ?Return on Total Assets? through a statistical test.

Swedish energy policy aims to increase the use of energy from renewable sources and this should be done in a safe, environmentally and sustainable manner. According to the Energy Agency the use bio-fuel increased by 73% between 1990 - 2006. Stands with high share of slash are often located on areas with high productivity which often are located on soils with poor bearing capacity. This will increase traffic on susceptible soil leading to increased ground damage. To reduce the risk of ground damage at slash-forwarding, ground protection is needed.

The incineration of waste is steadily increasing in Sweden and so is the production ofashes. The bottom ash has for many years been used as construction material inlandfills. Now many of the nation's landfills are closed and there is a great need to findanother beneficial use for the ash. Bottom ash is a gravel-like material and with itsmaterial properties it can replace natural gravel in parts of roads and surfaceconstructions. Today this use is only approved within landfill areas where leachate iscollected and checked.

ABSTRACTThis pilot study examines the knowledge about tree root systems amongst five treeplanting professionals. The aim is to find out the professionals? collective knowledge ofthe nature of root systems of various trees used in green areas. Furthermore; to explorehow the professionals adapt landscaped green areas to the tree root properties in asustainable manner. Questions: Which tree species have special root properties toconsider and how do the professionals utilize this knowledge? And: How do theprofessionals in general adjust planting according to the root systems of trees in areas tocreate sustainable green environments?Interviews with the professionals were performed.

Since the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted in 1979 there has been evident progress in the area of women's rights in great parts of the world, although this progress is still foremost concentrated to the Westernhemisphere. In Argentina, the work with gender equality and women's rights set of strongly during the last decade. The country has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishmentand Eradication of Violence against Women "Convention of Belem Do Para" but still women and girls are victims of structural discrimination and serious impunity of their rights on a daily basis.The current situation proves that the positive changes within the context of international and national law do not necessary reach out to the population to the same extent. In the light of the lacking popular involvement and knowledge of their rights, a different type of solution is desirable. Therefore it would be of interest to examinate the role of Non Governmental Organisations (NGO:s) when it comes to implementing human rights in the society and ?the every day life?.