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.

In June 2006 the Swedish government decided that the use of energy in buildings should be reduced by 20 percent until 2020, compared to the level of energy used in 1995. To contribute to this goal, the real estate company ?Eskilstuna Kommunfastigheter AB?, set up own goals for their buildings. In 2009, the goal for schools was to have a maximum energy use of 118 kWh/m2year for heating and hot water.The school ?Hållsta skola?, just south of Eskilstuna, exceeds the limit since it used 270 kWh in 2008.

In this report the importance of irrigation scheduling in dry climate is shown, how it can save water and energy; how this method can improve crop yield by supplying the right amount of water at the right time. It is shown how irrigation scheduling and irri-gation technology together increase the irrigation efficiency..

The management of water resources and waste water varies between the countries of the EU. For many years, a large part of the water in Europe has been contaminated by, among other things, insufficiently treated waste water and emissions from agriculture. The EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and the Urban Waste Water Directive 91/271/EEC are intended to harmonize fresh-water management and waste water management within the whole EU, aiming at safeguarding drinking water of good quality and a high quality of all water within the EU today and in the future. There are however some problems concerning the waste-water directive. One problem is the huge investment needed in Slovakia to fulfil the demands of the waste-water directive for waste-water management in larger communities (with more than 2000 inhabitants).

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to analyse if the UN today constructs the water issue as a security issue and to argue about in which way the organization in that case does so alternatively why it can be said that the UN doesn?t construct the water issue as a security issue.In order to reach this purpose the following questions will be answered:?Does the UN construct the water issue as a security issue today?-If yes, in which way?-If no, why can it be said that the organisation doesn?t?The methods used are qualitative literature studies of policy documents on water from the UN. The focus is to analyze the ideas about water and to apply my theory on the concept of security, which is Barry Buzan?s framework on security, to these ideas.The main results showed that the UN strongly constructs the water issue as an environmental security issue for environments and species and in relatively strong terms also constructs it as an environmental security issue for civilisations. In rare cases the organisation constructs it as a societal security issue, but the UN doesn?t construct the water issue as a military, political or economic security issue..

Fresh water has become more and more of a scarce commodity. Water scarcity isn't first and foremost a cause of drought and wasting, but a cause of inequality and mismanagement. This is not only a problem for developing countries, and there can also be variations within countries. The municipality of Gotland has a development program called Vision Gotland 2025, with goals for growth and sustainable development. The aim of this study is to examine whether the use and management of water resources on Gotland and Vision Gotland 2025 is conformed to the Water Framework Directive and the Ecosystem Approach in terms of sustainability.

AbstractThis study deals with preschool children's ideas about water in our body. Ten children with the age of four to five were interviewed individually, the interviews were qualitative. The children were also asked to draw their answers and answer questions about a picture that represented the excretory system. The results of my study show that children did not have any knowledge about the water being vital for us. Preschool children had no knowledge of why it is important to drink water.

Gunsta is situated about 10 km east of Uppsala. Today there are plans to establish 1000 new households in Gunsta before year 2030. The required energy for heating houses and water would be distributed via a district heating system, which also includes 200 existing residences. The annual required energy, according to this study, would be 16.2 GWh with a maximal peak effect of 6.9 MW. To meet this need, the study suggests a system with heat pumps to upgrade the 31?C water from a 1.8 kilometre deep borehole.

This paper is intended to provide a picture of which associations water can wake in the human mind from the perspectives of garden history as well as from that of environmental psychology. I hope to paint a fairly broad picture of our perception of water that can serve as a basis for discussion and as a starting point for different forms of design work in landscape architecture. The historical perspective emphasizes the importance of water as a condition for the emergence of gardens and in a wider perspective the importance of water in early cultures. Also, I describe a picture of how water has been used throughout the history of gardens from early Egypt to the baroque era. The garden history analyzed from an art historical perspective gives a picture of human associations to water, and the history behind these associations is presented. As a compliment to the art history approach, I have chosen to highlight our associations with water from the perspectives of environmental psychology and evolutionary science.

Water hardness indicates the concentration of calcium and magnesium ions in water. Water with high concentrations of these ions is described as hard water and water with low concentrations is described as soft water. Water that is too hard or too soft can lead to technical and economical problems. In collaboration with Midvatten AB, groundwater hardness in the Badelunda esker between Leksand and Avesta has been mapped, and an attempt has been made to explain the variations. For this purpose, different GIS programs, such as ArcView, ArcInfo, IDIRISI, and one geochemical modelling program, PHREEQC, has been used.

AbstractDrinking water is an important resource on Earth both for humans and animals. Although most of the surface is covered by water only a small quantity is available as drinking water. Our manner of living creates a lot of pollution which has an environmental impact. Groundwater has a protracted turnover time in the soil and it can take many years before the effects of human impact are detected. The Swedish environmental object is ?Good groundwater quality? which aims to provide a safe and sustainable supply of drinking water today and in the future.

The water company MittSverige Vatten (?MidSweden Water?) located in the Medelpad, Sweden was in need of a moreexclusive water carafe for restaurants and conference in the region. Current design solution was not able to cope with thedemand of a more exclusive setting and was not promoting the company in a good way. In the beginning of the projectit became clear thru an intense interview period that there was at least three directions for design solutions the companycould go for.? A carafe (exclusive settings)? A pitcher (conference and lunch servings)? A water dispenser type (serving of larger amounts of water during a certain brief periods of time.)It was decided to go for the exclusive one.Small pieces of rock from the last ice age turned out to be a vital component of the new design concept for the company..

Agricultural drainage is widely used to manage the amount of water in the ground in order to improve conditions for cultivation. However the effects of drainage companies on water regimes are considerable leading to runoff changes such as altered stream flows, peak flows and water levels. In a greater extent this could imply an increased risk for floods along affected watercourses. This study analyzes the extension of agricultural drainage within the drainage basin of Trosaån in Sweden by ArcGIS mapping. In a statistical analysis, historical variation in streamflow in relation to mean precipitation and mean temperature are investigated for the study area.

To guarantee protection of our drinking water, water catchment protections are established. These are divided into three different zones and in the first zone it is most likely that an activity, such as agriculture, will contaminate the water resource. Hence the activities are strongly regulated or banned. The EU communion is working towards a sustained water quality through several directives; Nitrate Directive, Waterframwork directives and Sustainable use of pesticide directive. The main purpose is to regulate the diffuse pollution from agriculture.This thesis is about how Denmark, Germany and France are working towards a sustainable agriculture within water protection areas.

The discharge from Lake Mälaren is regulated to keep the lake water level within limits set by a water decree. Despite this, in the year 2000 the lake water level rose above the upper limit. Studies conducted at the climate modeling unit Rossby Centre at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) indicate that the inflow to the lake may increase in the future. A flood in the area will, among other things, strike infrastructure and residential districts.The aim of this study was to investigate the water levels of Lake Mälaren in future climates. In addition to this possible future expansion of the lake discharge though the sluice gates in order to keep water levels below limits set by the water decree and to prevent flooding of the shoreline were discussed.