Research suggests that society's vulnerability to natural disasters along coasts could increase as a result of climate change, which is likely to lead to elevated sea levels and possibly an increase in the occurance of meteorological phenomena such as storms and tropical cyclones. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, both of which received considerable media attention, empirical data has indicated that coastal vegetation might be able to protect and reduce damages to coastal communities during tsunami events and tropical cyclones.The aim of the essay has been to study the function of coastal ecosystems as protection against tsunami waves and storms from a risk management perspective, meaning that I have, through an overview of scientific articles, compiled current research on how coastal ecosystems can attenuate storm surges and tsunami waves, and analysed how this knowledge can be put into practice in coastal communities from a risk management perspective, i.e. if coastal ecosystems are a viable risk reduction measure, are practically applicable, and if so, how they could be applied.There is empirical evidence suggesting that coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves, can reduce the strength of a tsunami wave, but full scientific consensus on this issue has not yet been reached. With regard to protection against storm surges, there is extensive scientific evidence that coastal vegetation can mitigate damages and reduce the height of a storm surge, although the wave has to traverse several kilometres inland through thick vegetation for the protection to be effective. A synthesis in the form of a figure regarding the many physical factors that influence wave development through coastal ecosystems has been created in an attempt to simplify and explain the phenomenon.The conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems can be justified from a risk management perspective, but planting new forest belts for the purpose of disaster mitigation is quite unrealistic and can rarely be sustainable, since, for protection to be effective, the forest belt must extend several kilometres inland from the coast, and would thus likely prove difficult to implement along coastal societies..

This qualitative study examines how emergency people are framed in Swedish evening-, and local newspapers during the forest fire in Va?stmanland, Sweden 2014. The study also includes if there is any difference between the framing due to the location of the newspaper. The study is based on qualitative text analysis. The theoretical basis is representation, framing theory, media image, media logic and a few conceptions from crisis communication theory.

Fire has historically been of great ecological importance in the boreal forests of Sweden. The forest fire regime has, however, varied between different parts of the country. The objective of this thesis is therefore to investigate the fire history in Fulufjället National Park and, on this basis, give suggestions for future fire management. The reconstruction of fire history was done by cross-dating fire scars in samples taken from living and dead Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Local fire chronologies were established at 17 points in the forests in and around Fulufjället National Park by cross-dating fire scars on 54 samples. The oldest year-ring dated from year 968.

This qualitative study examines how emergency people are framed in Swedish evening-, and local newspapers during the forest fire in Va?stmanland, Sweden 2014. The study also includes if there is any difference between the framing due to the location of the newspaper. The study is based on qualitative text analysis. The theoretical basis is representation, framing theory, media image, media logic and a few conceptions from crisis communication theory.

Nature conservation agreement (NCA) is a way to voluntarily protect and manage nature for limited time-periods. The agreement is settled between the government and a landowner. All public authorities can represent the government but it is only the Swedish Forest Administration who does that regularly (because it is the only authority with economic resources for that purpose). Therefore, NCAs are almost only used to protect forested nature. The government agencies have experienced NCAs for about ten years and it is now time to examine how they are applied in the forests. This study is based on a computerized questionnaire to the persons responsible for the LEKO-projekt.

The purpose of this work has been to investigate if there are any differences in the valuation process at infringements when highway and railway are built. The work has mainly been concentrated on the negotiation process in which The National Railway Department (Banverket) and The National Road Administration (Vägverket) try to get agreements with the land owners. The agreement includes compensation for infringement effects that affects the landowner?s property. The National Road Department uses the road law (Väglagen) when a highway shall be built.

F?rt?tningen av st?der skapar en utmaning f?r bevarandet av de t?tortsn?ra skogarna. V?rden som skapas av m?nniskans upplevelser i skogen kan sammanfattas i begreppet skogens sociala v?rden, som visat sig ha en stor betydelse f?r folkh?lsan. D? m?nga kommuner ?ger t?tortsn?ra skog, ?r det av intresse att studera hur de planerar f?r skogens sociala v?rden.

In Sweden today so-called "prescribed nature conservation burning" is performed due to the change in silvicultural law, certification and an increased knowledge regarding the field of fire in the forest landscape. The aim is to re-create structures and qualities made by the fire regimes of the past, though on a much smaller geographical scale. The structures and qualities to be re-created are for example broad leaf stands, trees with large diameter, heterogeneous stands regarding variables such as age and diameter. If we increase our knowledge of the constitution of forests characterized by fire, then we will be able to set goals for what achievements to reach both on landscape scale and stand scale. The aim of this paper is to try to describe how a stand from the past was composed regarding mainly the spatial arrangement and compare it with the stand of today in the same place. This to be done by using relict material, that is stumps and dead standing trees.

Tropisk regnskog i Sydostasien är ett av de områden som hyser störst biodiversitet i världen, av vilken stora ytor är hotat. Ön Borneo drabbades av en katastrof åren 1982-1983 efter att väderfenomenet El Niño orsakat torka med vidsträckta skogsbränder som följd. Detta lämnade stora ytor av Borneos skogar i ett undermåligt, sekundärt tillstånd. På grund av detta startades INIKEA projektet med syfte att rehabilitera skogar i regionen kring Tawau vid östkusten av delstaten Sabah i Malaysia. I denna studie undersökte jag resultatet av rehabiliteringsarbetet på krontaket i tre olika skogstyper genom att ta hemisfäriska foton med en digital systemkamera (DSLR).

This study was carried out at the request of the Swedish forest company Sveaskog which is an important producer of logging residues (branches and tops) intended for energy production. The company wanted to increase the average dry content to 60 percent in their delivered logging residues. At the time when this study was initiated, the dry content in the chipped logging residues originating from the Bergslagen district was at 52 percent. The aim of the study was to find out how windrows of logging residues could be arranged in order to help obtain desired properties such as increased dry content. Sveaskog had developed a system for evaluation of windrows and a standardized form was utilized to describe different properties of the windrows.

Individual trees can act as carriers of meaning. When a person attributes deep meanings to a specific tree, a relationship between the person and the tree is created. To avoid conflicts between users and planners, increased awareness is required of how important individual trees may be to a person. The objective of this study was to elucidate persons? relationships with individual urban trees.

Like many small-time companies there is a need to improve the flow of materials at HSP-Gripen AB. The company develops and manufactures hydraulic-powered grapples for the machine- and forest industry. By mapping the material flow in the current production and gathering necessary data, suggestions on how different parts of the production could be controlled is presented in this dissertation. This has been achieved by the study of relevant scientific literature. The suggested ways of controlling the production consist of 2-bin systems, hybrid material flow system as well as a cyclic product-planning.

The government procurement legislation ? i.e. the Swedish procurement law, the EC procurement directives and the WTO?s Government Procurement Agreement ? applies on public procurement. Such a procurement exists when the contractor meets the conditions stated in the directives that the organ is to be considered as a contracting auhtority.

In this paper discourse analysis on the Ethiopian National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification is made. The aim is to describe how the overall image/picture of desertification, its causes, and effects and of possible solutions are presented in the NAP. The result of this analysis shows that the main cause of desertification is human activities mainly due to the poorly developed socio-economic situation in the dryland areas. It is indicated that an excessive dependency of the rural population on the natural resources, particularly land, is the major cause of land degradation and this deterioration of land is said to have been caused by the rapid population growth, overgrazing, forest clearing as well as past government and institutional failures. In addition it is indicated that the effect of desertification usually involves ecological changes that sap land of its ability to sustain agriculture and human habitation, therefore the most serious threat to human welfare.

This study was conducted in the "Kåtaberget" forest reserve in Västerbotten in the summer of 1999. In the summer of 1995, a prescribed burning was performed in the reserve. In some places where coarse dry woody debris (logs and stumps) was present, the fire consumed the wood, as well as parts of the humus layer, creating deep-burned patches. The low intensity ground fire also created dead woody debris by burning off living trees with open fire scars, as well as standing dead trees. In this study, the post-fire tree seedling establishment was examined, with special attention given to the former presence of woody debris. The study also includes a survey of the areal extent of deep-burned patches, as well as an examination of tree seedling establishment in these patches, compared to other burnt ground.