In this work I have tried to reconstruct the forest history within Särna-Idre forest common in northern Dalarna from the 19th century until present time. The Särna-Idre region has been an extensively used landscape for a long time. Pollen which indicates grazing has been found in samples orginating from the 10th century. Early travellers from the 18th and 19th centuries seem to have been passing trough a "used" landscape. Burned forests on naked ground are described as common. Also large areas are mentioned as undisturbed with lots of large trees, snags and dead wood.

The Swedish Transport Administration manage nearly 4,000 railway bridges in different condition and age around the country. These bridges is in constant need of maintenance and requires continuous inspections. This thesis is designed as a damage investigation on a single-track railway bridge south of Solvarbo in Säter municipality. The railway bridge is in operation and serves over 10,000 trains a year, everything from speed trains to freight trains. The bridge is built as a beam bridge, simply supported over a road.

Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) has for many years been used in products to reduce their flammability, mainly in electronic products, textiles and construction materials. In 2003, Sweden imported 300 tons of brominated flame retardants. Leakage of these compounds has polluted natural environments. Fishes has shown increased contents of these substances, especially fat fish, since brominated flame retardants tends to accumulate in fatty tissues. They are also regarded as persistent and that gives them the ability to travel long distances. What also is really scary is that increased levels of brominated flame retardants have been detected in human breast milk. The knowledge of the brominated flame retardants is limited and not so much research has been done in this field. There are many reasons though, to keep the research going. Partly their structural resemblance to well-known toxics as PCB, but also their ability to accumulate in biological systems and enrich in food chains. In which way they affect humans we really don?t know yet.

Boulognerskogen is a park in the central of Skövde that have had a health resort, paths for strolling, outdoor-bath, outdoor-sport areas and events. During the 1970:th there was a lack of interest for the park and very few visited it. By a motion from a resident in Skövde wich proposes that a city playground will be build in Boulognerskogen gave me an opportunity to investigate how the potential of the park can be used to create a funny and nice place to visit for children in company with adults. By a program that contains the main goals and design program for a city playground in Boulognerskogen, I wanted to present a proposal that could meet childrens needs to play and to use the conditions of the place to create places to play in, and where children in company with adults could be together. To reach this, I wanted to try different methods that could lead to a proposal that was well supported by children and adults, and wich was possible to use by the local authority in their further actions. The methods that I used was therefor an important part of the work. I have choosen to define the concept "city playground" as a greater playground situated in the center of the town that are suitable for outings and as a meetingplace, with a varation in playground attractions and promote children and adults to be together, aiming at younger children in the ages of 1-10 years in company with adults, but should also give space to activities of other groups.

Textiles are made in an unsustainable way and there is a need to find alternative ways and material to reduce the negative impacts on the environment, humans and animals. Problems like pollution, excessive water consumption and loss of soil fertility is a result of this lack of diversity. It is a necessity to find innovative alternatives in other fabrics due to the unsustainable use of cotton and polyester fibers. As in many other countries in the Western part of the world, in Sweden there is a rapid turnover and increased selling of clothes that result in increased textile waste. About 15 kilogram of textiles (net inflow) is consumed per person each year.

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 construction of buildings and paved surfaces changes the natural water balance.Precipitation generates surface runoff and storm water instead of infiltrating into the soil.Storm water has come to be considered as a major source of pollution in lakes and streams inthe vicinity of urban areas. Reduction of pollutants in storm water is a key action in order toprotect sensitive recipients and maintain high water quality. Storm water is traditionallytransported by storm sewers to the nearest recipient. In recent years the approach to stormwater management has changed; storm water should primarily be disposed of on site, throughlocal disposal of storm water, LOD. LOD is created by a combination of the function ofseveral smaller local facilities and the general sewer system.

Abstract Spiritual gardening, historical perspective and epistemology, - how do these concepts connect? A review of the ideologies of four pragmatic growers. The purpose of this thesis is: ? to present an alternative forthcoming perspective on knowledge, that may be of significance for future theories and knowledge about growing and gardening. ? to lift experiences with Nature Spirits into an academic context, that permits us a closer look at the phenomenon. ? to contribute to an academic platform connecting humanistic and natural sciences. The intention of this text is to bridge the differences between the strictly rational traditions of knowledge and those more experience based ones. The thesis wants to show that much can be won if feeling based and mental reflections once again are approached as equal sources of knowledge. The aim is to give an orientation about the subject of Nature Spirits. The interesting fact is not whether (that) one can talk to nature, but how one does it and that more can be understood about nature and the reality that the established sciences study. The form for this study of literature is a describing presentation; to put names on and give wording to the phenomena of Nature Spirits and Plantdevas. The sources of literature are four pragmatic practitioners of spiritual gardening who have written extensively about their own work.

A distributed hydrological rainfall-runoff model has been developed using a GIS integrated with a dynamic programming module (PCRaster). The model has been developed within the framework of the EU-project TWINBAS at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and is intended for use in WATSHMAN ? a tool for watershed management developed at IVL. The model simulates runoff from a catchment based on daily mean values of temperature and precipitation. The GIS input data consist of maps with soil type, land-use, lakes, rivers and a digital elevation model.

Racial discrimination is a highly topical and burning issue, of special interest in working life. Most researchers agree on that discrimination is a problem in the Swedish labour market. To counteract the ongoing discrimination, a new Anti-Discrimination Act was founded in 1999. The Racial Discrimination Act although appears to be ineffective on the basis of legal usage. Of all the legal cases about racial discrimination in the labour market, there has only been one sentence of guilty stated by the Swedish Labour Court.

Children's need of a good environment of playing outdoor at schoolyards is, both from a perspective of commonly public's health and from the children themselves, indisputable. Children who have a good and varying playground develop physically, psychologically and socially. As an instrument of pedagogic a playground also is valuable for example in teaching the round, periodical successions and understanding of democratic processes. The conception playground means here in my work the environment outdoor for children at schools up to about twelve years old. What is a good playground then? How is it possible for a landscape architect to contribute improvements? The purpose of my work has been to enlarge my knowledge about playgrounds, understand more of the profession as a landscape architect and apply a perspective of children in the planning. To sum up, the shaping of playgrounds has great importance for the activities of the children and if the teachers make use of it, the teaching. A good playground gives the delight, the excitement and the curiosity free spaces and stimulates new challenges.

The past and ongoing structural change in Swedish agriculture has led to an increasing number of large-scale farms. The biological factors associated with large-scale farming operations may cause increasing variability, risk and reduced yields due to sub-optimal timing and management of field operations. The theory of economies of scale suggests that largescale production may benefit from lower costs due to scale efficiencies. Thus, large-scale farms may face cost reductions in terms of long term inputs factors, e.g. agricultural machinery.

Wildlife contributes with many benefits to humans but also brings economic costs. From being eradicated in Scandinavia the grey wolf (Canis lupus) is returning to South-Western Sweden and people are not used to its presence. In Scandinavia carnivores have to co-occur with humans in a landscape used for many different interests. Consequences of wolf establishments are e.g. competition for moose, depredation on sheep and attacks on hunting dogs.

Forestry and reindeer husbandry are entitled to use the same land for their operations. For this reason, conflicts occasionally arise between them. Soil scarification is a forestry operation which has a negative effect on the occurrence of reindeer lichen. Reindeer lichens are of crucial importance to reindeers and reindeer husbandry, especially in the winter when reindeers primarily feed on different lichen species (Cladina spp. and Cetraria spp.).

Few rectory gardens are today remaining in their former design and the cultural heritage that they represent are disappearing. Since 1987-88 the parishes are no longer bound to keep housing for their priests, which means that they, for economical reasons, are starting to sell their rectories. With this in mind, a group of people, growing up in rectories in Småland and Öland between the 1930th and 1950th, formed an interest group to save the memory of their rectory gardens. On the basis of their memories, they have written a couple of descriptions of the rectories, which describe the gardens content, design and the life they once lived there. With this compilation of the 14 rectory gardens I want to keep the memory of them and create a ground for future work in this field. Historically the rectory gardens played an important roll as patterns and examples in the countryside.