Urban forests are important for people to get at break and be able to relax in a stressful world. Several studies show that we feel better through being out in the forest and historically this was the normal environment for us. As a result of population growth and urbanization we tend to spend less time in nature nowadays than before. Due to this development urban forests have become a central role in our society as a place where people can fulfill their needs and interests. The management of the urban forest is therefore important, especially for municipalities that own forest which is supposed to be of benefit to local residents.Falköpings municipality owns approximately 260 hectares of forest in the popular and most visited recreational area along Mösseberg?s southern slope.

Handledare: Urban Ask.

The viscosity of air buildings is a hot topic within the construction performers, which the industry feel they have too little knowledge about. This study is mainly aimed against air density in apartment buildings and airflow measurement. The study consists of a theoretical reference, educational visit, interviews and a survey conducted among construction workers at Magistratshagen in Linkoping.Earlier requirement in terms of air leakage through the climate screen was removed and today there are only energy requirement for a dwelling in Boverkets Building Regulations. The difference between a passive and a typical air tight construction is that the passive house have a maximum requirement of 0.3 l /s m2 of air leakage through the building climate screen. The requirement imposed on passive houses is to minimize the supply of power and energy for heating the building.Air tight constructions have heavy demands on the performance and accuracy of everyone involved with the project. The client must specify their requirements and also be prepared to pay for any additional costs. The architect and building planners have to design the building with regard to air tightness. Finally, the construction workers are required to do a careful work in order to get all the connections in the building air tight.The study suggests that an air tight building is a closed system where no forced ventilation exists. There are no reasons not to build too tight as long as there is a functioning ventilation. In this study the authors ask themselves how an air tight building changes over time. No theoretical information has been found on these changes, but the respondents assume that air density decreases with time. The deterioration is mainly assumed to be caused by construction materials changes over time. The study shows that construction workers knowledge of air tight construction is mixed, which they themselves admit in the survey..

In the urban planning debate of today, two strategies for city development stand out as each other's opposites, urban sprawl and smart growth. This thesis concerns a development project of the latter kind and aims to give an alternative proposal to new buildings and a park in a Swedish city block. The term sprawl is used for new developments on virgin soil on the outskirts of cities leading to a city spreading, while smart growth stand for increased city density through development on re-used land within the city boundaries. The latter are often seen as more sustainable in many levels and are also shown to have positive effects on a number of city functions. At the same time smart growth has negative consequences on other aspects of the city such as public open spaces.

The out-of-town retail establishments are part of the dramatic structural changes in the retailing of food and groceries. There are however strong indications suggesting these establishments result in negative externalities concerning areas such as pollution and urban environment. The purpose of this study is to describe and, from an economic perspective, analyse the Swedish political regulations and planning policies concerning the out-of-town supermarkets. The analysis establishes that the current regulations regarding out-of-town retailing do not, due to the occurrence of market failures, produce an optimal situation. It might therefore be necessary to change the planning policies in a more restrictive direction.

The Go Down Arts Centre is a proposal for a new building to an existing organisation in Nairobi, Kenya. The proposal relates to the scale of the city by making a statement on a future urban path, and by welcoming the city in to the building. The proposal houses both activities affiliated to Go Down, such as studios and rehersal rooms, as well as opportunities for the visitor to meet and interact with the culture produced at Go Down, both in formal and informal settings. The building is closed to its surroundings, apart from a grand entrance towards the urban path. There, the city passes through the building to an inner courtyard, where the communication to all the rooms and activities takes place.

Through this thesis, we want to discuss how the marginalization of people, several precedent political, city planning- and engineering decisions resulted in a catastrophic outcome after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans 2005. We also put forward a case study of the Make It Right Foundation, to demonstrate how the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward are involved in the urban development of their community. We would like to draw attention to the power of citizens and how they can influence the urban development of a community after a trauma. This study also focuses on the mission of The Make It Right Foundation: which is to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward with firm concepts on sustainable development where all dimensions are accounted: ecological, social, cultural and economic. The empirical data was collected by a field study in New Orleans 2010-03-22 and semistructured interviews were made during the same days..

Effects of climate change, urbanization and global homogenization are resulted in the degradation of land and losses of natural habitats. Ecological design integrates nature into urban environment by respecting natural ecological principles and processes and creating resilient urban biotopes which also can be used by local urban communities. The aim of the thesis is to answer the research questions: How ecological design principles can be applied for re-design of Toledo Riverfront (with requirements of the design competition)? and What is the ecological design in landscape architecture? I participated in the USA design competition with the aim to create a vision and redesign of Toledo Riverfront in Ohio State, USA. The site is located in the south point of Lake Erie. As a result of a long industrial activity, riverfront of Toledo had been transformed into inaccessible and abandoned brownfields. In my proposal I applied ecological design principles on three scales: the city of Toledo by reinforcing of ecological connection and creating green corridors along the river; the intermediate scale by suggesting public parks along the river front and on the fine level by proposing detailed design including remediation of the site and use of dredged material.

This thesis deals with urban planning in connection with social and spatial integration.It´s a study of a new planning project in Malmö in southern Sweden. It´s an interesting case because this new, fashionable area will be located next to areas facing socio-economical challanges and stagnation. By using two theoretical models I analyse how the visions for planning a city are formulated and applied when policy is going to be operated. My models are ?the balanced community? and ?the dual community? .The conclusion is that the focus for Malmö and Hyllie is going towards emphasing the creation of attractive but segregated districs in a city.

In this Bachelor thesis an animal bone material from Västergarn parish is analyzed and discussed. The purpose of this thesis is to gain more knowledge about the Viking Age/Early Medieval Västergarn. Västergarn has a few remains from former days which have been discussed throughout the years and are still a bit of a mystery for archaeologists. The main focus is to inquire into whether Västergarn was an urban, complex society or a rural settlement. This will be done by studying the animal husbandry from the property of Snauvalds 1:2.

The current state of knowledge indicates that there is more than one factor that initiates heartwood transition. This study supports its hypothesis on the theory that heartwood is formed by a fixed fraction of the annual growthring, 0,5 to 0,8 rings. To calculate heartwood volume modelings were carried out in four different pine stands with different spacings, 0,75, 1,25, 1,5 and three meters. The model indicates heartwood diameter (HWD) and is based on four explanatory variables, height (H), crown ratio (CR%), diameter breast height (DBH) and tree height (TH). The shifting plant spacing results in varying growth rate in the juvenile stage.

The review of Integrated green spaces in urban areas ? A case study of inner Brisbane highlight the significance of addressing characteristics, qualities and landscape values in our outdoor environment. The importance of green spaces to the wellbeing of people in the city and the ecological, social and cultural values they carry are widely recognised in the field of urban and regional planning. At the same time population growth, climate change and urban development put planners and scientists in a challenging position where new solutions must be put on the agenda in order to accomplish sustainability. Open space strategies, collaboration between stakeholders, public participation, learn from earlier failings and a ?value-led? approach facilitate the managing of open space. Brisbane is located in the fastest growing metropolitan region in Australia. The city´s open space landscapes offer cultural, geographical, recreational, social and scenic amenity assets, which make a major contribution to the regions identity they a wide world known for.

no abstract available.

Uganda is one country with fastest growing populations in the world and with more than 25% of the population living in poverty. There is a rapid rural urban migration with increasing demands for food for low income earners especially in these areas. One way to mitigate food insecurity is to increase milk and meat production efficiency, and thus reproductive performance of cows is crucial for good production. A well-documented strategy for improving dairy cow productivity through faster genetic improvement is to breed dairy cows using proven semen via artificial insemination (AI). AI has been used in Uganda for over 60 years but only less than 10 %, a small population of the country?s herd has been bred that way. The aims were to study knowledge, attitude and practices factors influencing cow fertility results on dairy farms around Kampala using AI and to propose ways of promoting increased use of AI in Uganda.

Denna studie har genomförts som en del i Mistra Urban Futures projekt Grön Produktion. Projektet vill utveckla stadsodlingsprojekt och affärsidéer och har beslutat att göra detta genom att titta på områdena utbildning och affärsmodeller. Denna studie riktar sig mot området utbildning och har undersökt hur utbildning skulle kunna öka urban matproduktion för att bidra till skapandet av en ny matproduktionsnäring och samtidigt öka städers ekologiska hållbarhet. Frågeställningar som behandlades var hur en utbildning av urbana matproducenter skulle kunna stärka och lyfta befintlig matproduktion i städer till en ny matnäring, vilka kunskaper som urbana jordbrukare har och önskar samt vilka kunskaper som marknaden önskar. För att besvara detta genomfördes kvalitativa intervjuer av olika aktörer inom den potentiella matproduktionsnäringen; kommunen, odlare, handeln och restaurangbranschen.