Forest streams and the associated riparian zones are sensitive to disturbances and changes that occur within these riparian areas. Particularly sensitive are small streams of low order, which will have large impacts down-stream. The disturbances that occur in the riparian zones are reflected quickly in the stream. Driving with forestry machines in the riparian zone will have detrimental effects to the soil and water. Driving the machines will lead to changes in the mineral soil composition, resulting in the reduction of porosity, less infiltration, compaction, and an increased bulk density.

Stormwater in urban areas has been treated as a problem for a long time. The large proportion of impermeable surfaces inhibits the water from infiltrating in the ground to the same extent that it does in nature. This causes intensive surface flow during rain, which in turn causes inconveniences such as decreased accessability, floods and increased risk of desease spreading. Drainage through pipes is the traditional and usually functional metod for storm water disposal. That is as long as water flows are moderate. But precipitation varies naturally in amount and intensity and additional impermeable surfaces make some pipes insufficient for heavy or lasting precipitation.

A church in rural Vester Egede from the earliest Christian period in Denmark e.g. the early 1100, a baptismal font is found showing a woman breastfeeding two animals. She is said to be a typical early roman Luxuria, in mild appearance. However, what makes her unique is that she appears standing on the top of her head, her womb serving as font. The main question is how come that a baptismal font like this is to be found in a church, leading to the sub question, if this font really has a Christian origin or could it be rooted in Norse, pre-Christian tradition, alternatively is the font an expression of a syncretism between the two colliding cultures.

This essay examines the European Union?s (EU) ability to play a leading role as a global actor on the world stage in international relations. Specifically, this essay studies the EU?s role of negotiator in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.  This essay also analyzes explanations for this role. Research is based on case studies, with conclusions drawn using an inductive approach.

This master thesis was initiated with the aim to answer at what level of installed capacity of wind power in the northern parts of Sweden it would be beneficial to improve the transmission capacity from the northern Sweden. During the process of this work the aim has changed to try and create a model that can be used to analyze how well the hydro power installed in the northern Sweden can even out the quick changes in wind power production.To create a good model of all hydro power in northern Sweden is a very large job, unfortunately too large for a master thesis. This report therefore ends with an extensive analysis of the simplifications that have been made and their effects as well as a list of the future work that has to be done.The model that has been created have shown to be effective and produce good results. The conclusions that can be made is that the northern Swedish hydro power have very good possibilities to balance the wind power production. Only a few cases where water have been spilled even though there has been some free capacity has been discovered.

In this thesis, I have discussed which (herbacious) perennials that are sold most in the county of Norrbotten in the upper north of Sweden. Also discussed are the factors considering overwintering and factors that affect the chances of survival. The reason to the subject is that I m born and raised in Norrbotten and throughout the years I ve wondered why so many of the perennial flowerbeds look so similar. The purpose of the thesis is to give another approach to the composition of the garden by explaining some of the factors that controls the survival of plants. The information is gathered partly through interviews with plantshop personnel and partly by a literature study. The results of the interviews reveal that tradition and hardiness is the major reasons to the consumer s choice.

Goodwill accounting has for a long time been, and with the implementation of IFRS in 2005, has become an even bigger issue. Critics mean that reporting of goodwill impairments is subject to discretion that can be used by the managers. We have applied a study made by Carlin and Finch (2009) on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm during 2006-2012. Our study contains 50 of the 255 public companies at 2012-12-31. The purpose of the study is to investigate if companies use an opportunistic discount rate when testing for impairment in goodwill and if the relation between goodwill and net profit before taxes, goodwill intensity, is an incentive for opportunism.

Phosphorus is the single most potent contributor to eutrophication of freshwater and has also been shown to contribute to the toxic algae blooms in the Baltic sea. The dynamics and paths of losses of phosphorus from arable lands are not fully understood. It is known that phosphorus can be lost directly from plant material to water. In studies where plant material has been subjected to several freeze-thaw cycles, large amounts of phosphorus have been lost. Most studies have been conducted under field conditions, with many factors effecting the measured losses of phosphorus, such as weather and type of soil. This study was performed in a controlled environment without the presence of soil. Instead of soil, small glass beads were mixed with the plant materials in vessels, to make possible homogeneous leaching with water through the mixture of glass beads and plant materials. In this study, clover, ryegrass and dry straw were cut to pieces, approximately 2 cm long.

South Africa has been among the top ten wine producing countries for at least 20 years. Even though the land under grapevines is decreasing globally it is still increasing in Africa. The awareness of environment has strengthen the last years and South African producers experience a high demand of environmentally friendly produced wine, especially from the European market. This demand was the driving force behind the development of the world unique sustainability certification, Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), which is inscribed in the South African legislation. What makes this certification unique is that consumers can trace their product all the way back to the farming practices owing to the identity number specified on the IPW Integrity & Sustainability seal on certified products.

Calculated and measured energy in residential buildings is going to differ. The reason to this may be due to many factors. In this study there is a study on how these factors affect the energy use in a building. To get an insight in what defines energy, there is first a description of energy supply both worldwide and used in Sweden, followed by a description of the energy balance. In this study energy will be studied in residential buildings only.

Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAH´s) were used widely within dry cleaning facilities and for metal degreasing until their toxicity was discovered. PCE is still used as dry cleaning liquid. Today CAH´s are found in soil environment at places where they have been used in the past. The CAH-concentration in trees growing on contaminated land has quite recently received attention as a cheap and effective way of assessing the extent of a CAH-contamination. The method has however, not been put into use in Sweden.The aim of the study has been to investigate whether the CAH-concentration in tree cores could be used to delineate the spread of CAH in a soil environment under Swedish conditions in different seasons.

The objective of this work was to introduce measures to reduce energy and water demand at Gävle Söder 17:10. To succeed, this energy audit has been made. The work is based on collected statistics from the property owner Norrporten, measurements, literature review and through consultation with experts in the field. Two models, one for each building, have been created in the simulation program BV2 to estimate the potential of energy measures based on the collected information. The models in BV2 have been verified against the statistics of the energy consumption.With the help of calculations and simulations, seven cost-effective measures have been identified.

The purpose of this study was to investigate young teenagers 13-16 reading habits and attitudes concerning todays modern teenage literature especially written for the young teenagers. The study also includes the readers apprehension of the literature and how the target group is reached. The study is based on results from questionnaires, interviews and by compiling summaries of literature relevant to this study. Earlier research has been compared with results from this study. Reflections made by teachers and librarians concerning the youths reading habits are an integral part of the study.

This report will show the energy usage of Hotel Princess in Sandviken, Sweden. When the hotel changed owner an examination of the hotels heating, ventilation and sanitary systems were done. The report showed flaws in the ventilation system, and is why the new owner wanted a closer look at the energy use of the hotel. The original building was built in the 1930s and two major extensions have been built, one in the 1950s and the most recent in the 1980s. An assumption made is that the building parts were built to the restrictions during the time. Activities on the hotel include sleep over, conference, night club, massage and swimming in the hotels pool section.

The energy use in a workshop company has been examined in this work in order to find areas for energy efficiency improvement. The combined oil and electricity heating in the company were compared with other alternative heating systems including cooling of the premises in following combinations:Ground source heat pump for heating and coolingDistrict heating and absorption coolingDistrict heating and low temperate surface water coolingEnergy use, operation costs and carbon dioxide emissions were calculated for the current heating systems and the three alternatives including cooling. The ground source heat pump for heating and cooling decreases bought energy with 34 MWh annually compared to current heating only. The district heating and low temperate surface water cooling has the largest reduction of operation cost and carbon dioxide. The operation cost decreases with 42 kSEK and the carbon dioxide with 43 metric ton CO2 annually.