The Swedish Government has decided that Wind power should have a higher contribution to the electricity generation in Sweden. Their goal is that, by 2015, the yearly production by Wind power should generate 10 TWh. In year of 2006, the 760 wind mills in Sweden generated only 0,936 TWh. Despite good wind conditions in a large extend of Sweden's land- and coast areas, the slow rate of new wind mills establishments will likely result in unattainable goals. The major problem for new establishments of wind mills is the extensive and complicated permission process. An expert group of environmental studies (Expertgruppen för miljöstudier) was commissioned by the Government to make a report concerning the problems with the expansion of wind power in Sweden.

During the past years fire has been identified as an important factor for nature conservation in the forest landscape. To accurately quantify the size of a burnt area is obviously important, but also to quantify the degree of fire damage to the tree canopy. Such data are important for assessing the conservation value, and to support planning and management of the burned area in the future. I have examined how to estimate the status of tree crowns after fire from interpretation of aerial photographs. This is possible because fire changes the structure of tree crowns and this influences the colours in aerial photographs by spectral reflection. Included in the study are four areas, three of which burned in 2005 and one in 2006.

The numbers of natural disasters caused by extreme weather are increasing through out the world. A large majority of the research concerning the climate shows that this is a trend that can be expected to continue. At the same time the urbanisation is increasing more than ever and for the first time in history more than fifty percent of the population lives in a city. How we build these cities will have a crucial importance for our adaption to the new climate. In Sweden, our capacity for an adaption are high because of our economic situation as well as our rather well built society.

Use of lighting is crucial to make public urban places available during dark hours. Landscape architects participate in planning of lighting, but during our education there is very little taught on the subject. Through this study we approach the subject of lighting by looking into lighting methods for urban plant materials during winter. In this thesis we look into ways to emphasize the visible characters and experiences of urban plants during winter season using light. Target audience are landscape architect students and landscape architects without knowledge of lighting. The part of the thesis that describe basic conditions for, and visual characters of plants can be useful to lighting designers without knowledge in this subject. Working methods used were the following: ? Pre-study about light and lighting techniques through literature and dialogues. ? Compiling important visual winter plant characters through photography and literature. ? Outdoor light experiments with plants.