A couple of hundred years ago half of the earth?s surface was covered by forest. Today, only half remains and every year an area the size of Nepal is disappearing. Deforestation, together with the burning of fossil fuels, is also one of the reasons for the increasing greenhouse effect. Another relatively unknown problem for the world?s forests is the trade with illegally harvested timber.

The overall purpose of this essay is to study in which degree the democratic model that is called participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. To achieve what I set out to do I will focus on a central political area in which the Swedish municipalities has sovereignty versus the state, in other words in an area where they rule themselves. That political area will then represent how well the participant democracy works in the Swedish municipalities. The research questions then becomes:Does the participant democracy at Swedish Municipality level work in a satisfying way?Does the participant democracy in a large Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Does the participant democracy in a small Swedish Municipality in a central political area work?Are there similarities and differences between the municipalities?If so, how can that be explained?To answer these questions I will study documents regarding the planning and building area.

This paper describes a factor analysis applied at the data of the European Union structural indicators. These are the official indicators for wealth and economic development in the European Union with main use to evaluate the outcomes of the year 2000 Lisbon goals for making the European Union the world?s strongest economy by 2010. The purpose of the data is to serve for comparing and ?learning by doing?-policies, but have, due to size and format, so far been hard to use for a good compare between member countries.

Uppsala like many other Swedish cities is affected by heavy housing shortage, in terms of too few existing flats and residents within the city limits. Every semester thousands of new students are facing the same problems of finding themselves adequate accommodation. The waiting lists for flats and student-dorms are getting longer for each year, and the situation is just getting worse. Simultaneously, Uppsala?s ambition is to increase its population and expand as a Swedish metropolitan, according to the Swedish governmental environment goals. This paper investigates and analyses the possibilities of expanding a city?s population by building high-rise buildings.

The industrial sector accounts for a large share of greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce its negative impact on the environment is crucial in the quest for a sustainable future. In discussions of the industrial sector's impact on the environment guidelines have been highlighted as a tool to assist the industries in their efforts to change the relationship between the consumption of energy and production. This by improving energy efficiency and a shift to the best available technology. During the past 30 years the steel industry has reduced its energy consumption per ton of steel produced by 50 percent.

Som hjälpmedel inför projektering, byggande och fastighetsförvaltning finns ett antal verktyg för att kunna göra miljöbelastningsprofiler för byggnader. I denna rapport har två metoder använts för att göra en miljöbedömning av ett flerbostadshus. Metoderna är EcoEffect och Green Building Challenge. EcoEffect är en svensk miljövärderingsmetod för att mäta och värdera miljöpåverkan från en fastighet under en tänkt livscykel. I EcoEffect beskrivs miljöpåverkan som negativ påverkan på människors hälsa och ekosystem samt utarmning av naturresurser.Green Building Challenge är ett internationellt samarbete som startades 1996 med syfte att använda en gemensam värderingsstruktur för byggnader.

In conjunction with today?s increasing competition within the construction sector, more pressure is being placed on building contractors. Efficiency and improvements are necessary but without impairment to an ergonomic and safe construction site. This in is in order to reduce the construction costs and time but to retain the ability to deliver a high-quality contract.Various methods and prefabrication degrees are used, depending on the project's requirements and conditions. This analysis sets out to investigate and exhibit what qualifications are important when choosing a construction method for curtain walls.Advantages and disadvantages with each method have been analyzed and recommendations have been given to show when different methods are best suited.

SAMMANDRAGLerums kommun har en vision om att bli Sveriges ledande miljökommun till år 2025 eller tidigare. En stor del av arbetet, som kännetecknas av hållbarhet, kreativitet och inflytande, sker i Gråbo. Det är idag en ort som känns bortglömd och är lätt att passera utan vetskap om dess placering. Samhället har såväl synliga baksidor som är i behov av förbättring och förnyelse, som outnyttjade tillgångar som bör lyftas fram.Syftet med föreliggande arbete är att ta fram förslag på hur Gråbo kan förbättras både med avseende på hållbar samhällsutveckling samt estetiska och funktionsmässiga förbättringar av samhället.Arbetet påbörjades med en faktainsamling, som sedan låg till grund för en inventering på plats i Gråbo. Detta sammanställdes till en analys där tillgångar och problem presenterades med hjälp av Adobe Illustrator till flera kartor.

This thesis is the result of the class Examensarbete, 15 credits of the mechanical engineering program at Halmstad University. The class represents the final part of the program with the aim to attain a Bachelor of Science. It´s a project made during the spring 2014 in collaboration with Alutrade AB and ScanBox Thermo Products AB.The assignment is to develop a new transportation trolley for ScanBox. The aim is to complement their range with a product that opens up to new markets. That set new demands for materials and also manufacturing- and assembly methods.

The guest harbor on Utö, Utö Gästhamn, is currently using electricity for heating all of the water used in the showers and taps. Because of the large amount of visitors, especially during the summer months, the hot water usage gets very high and that is also the case for the electrical bills. During the year of 2011 the cost of electricity for Utö Gästhamn reached a total of 257 500 kr. Out of these 257 500 kr approximately 142 000 kr, 55 % of the total cost, were because of the water heating.The report is the result of a cooperation with Skärgårdsstiftelsen, the Green Islands-project and Utö Gästhamn where the mutual goal is to dimension a solar energy system, to promote the sustainable development.Initially the different techniques for the solar energy system are researched. The techniques are plane solar collectors, evacuated tube collectors, pool collectors and photovoltaic cells.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the degree of influence of holes in the web of steel beams with long spanson weakening of their bearing capacity. Making holes in the web of the beam generally reduces the bearing capacity of the beam. However, it might be necessary seen from both an architectural perspective as well as from a building services perspective by creating an opportunity for building installations.The objective of this thesis is to examine how much an I-beam can be weakened without sacrificing safety and functionality. The investigation has been done by using Finite Element Method through commercial software.The regulation for structural design of building structures in Sweden used to be specified in the document known as BKR. But this was replaced by the European norm Eurocode back in May 2011.

Most of today?s concrete structures that are built on site are mainly constructed in a traditional fashion with a lot of artisanal operations. One step towards industrializing the in-situ construction of concrete is to use prefabricated reinforcement. Through this method there can be a lot of savings when each bar doesn?t have to be placed and fixed separately on site.

AbstractThe research project Liberation, supported by the European Commission under the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme (Fifth RTD Framework Programme) aimed at developing a decision support system for ecological risk assessment of contaminated sites has proposed a tiered system including the triad method. This method integrates contaminant chemistry and bioavailability analyses with observed ecotoxicological effects in soil and groundwater. In this study the triad method was used to perform a risk characterization of a former surface treatment and metal industry, now used for the student union buildings of the Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna, Sweden. On the site, high concentrations of copper, zinc and nickel have been detected in the soil in a preliminary investigation of contaminant levels with XRF. For performing the risk assessment of the site according to the triad method, contaminant bioavailability, soil metal concentrations and soil toxicity were determined and an ecological assessment was carried out on four selected soil samples (one reference soil and three samples with low (B), medium (C) and high (D) contaminant levels). Contaminant bioavailability was measured through leaching (ISO TC 190/S7) and biouptake tests (DGT).

The crucial factor for successful municipal climate work is that there are driving forces. Most importantly is that the senior officials and politicians in the municipality are dedicated to the cause considering that they have the power to influence and make a change. Besides proactive and committed individuals, it is necessary that the work is organized and anchored by clear and concrete documents and control systems. It is also important that the work is continuously monitored and evaluated. To collaborate with other municipalities, authorities or participate in various networks is another factor contributing to the improved climate work in the form of exchange of information, knowledge and experience.A major driving force for municipalities to improve themselves is the distribution of state aid and grants.

WSP building physics in Stockholm has certified the preschool Temmelburken in Bromma with the system of certification Miljöbyggnad. The rating of the building became BRONZE. In this thesis the preschool has been investigated with respect to the three areas: thermal climate, use of energy and improving of the level of certification. The thermal climate at the preschool has been investigated by a questionnaire survey and by measurements in order to do comparisons between the results from the two investigations as well as with the results of the simulations that WSP has done at the certification of the preschool. The differences between the results from the simulations and the questionnaire survey for winter as well as from the measurement performed with a comfort meter the 19th of March are concidered to be reasonably small since they give rise to the same rating according to Miljöbyggnad.   Operational data for the use of energy for the preschool have been obtained in order to do comparisons with simulations performed by WSP and Svenska Besiktningar AB. The comparison shows that the simulated values for the specific use of energy are lower than what the real specific use of energy would be for the preschool, since just the operational data for the heat energy is higher than the simulated values. At the investigation of the possibility of improving the level of certification it was found that the rating of the preschool can be raised from BRONZE to SILVER by improving the ratings of the ?thermal climate summer? and the ?daylight?.