This thesis was carried out to give some background information to a report of SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) for the Swedish National Rail Administration (Banverket). The requested information was to provide basic data for an environmental impact assessment of the construction of the tunnel through Hallandsås. The aim with the thesis work was to discuss and quantify the leaching of nitrate and the emission of nitrous oxide from the soil at the groundwater level established through the tunnel project. The nitrogen related processes that could be affected were described and discussed. The different areas where a decreased groundwater level can cause changes in the nitrogen processes are the wet and moist areas.

This essay examines the criteria for a peaceful cemetery. First there is a short history of the Swedish funeral place. After that follows the definitions of a peaceful place according to environmental psychology. From these definitions an analysis method is constructed for identifying a peaceful cemetery. The analysis method contains six criteria, shape of the entrances, existence of sound, vegetation character, the cemetery?s demarcation, the cemetery?s management and what feeling the cemetery mediates.The analysis method is put into practice on three cemeteries, Överklinten cemetery, Stockholm forest cemetery and the old cemetery in Malmö.

Landscape architecture is a visual profession, but other senses also affect our interpretation of a place. Sounds can give us a lot of information about an environment, and they are often perceived as positive. Despite this, research about outdoor sounds most often focus on the reduction of unwanted sounds ? noise ? but the absence of noise does not result in a good soundscape. To accomplish this, sounds we appreciate are needed.

To render outdoor scenes with lots of vegetation in real time is a big challenge. This problem has important applications in the areas of visualization and simulation. Some progress has been made the last years, but a previously unsolved difficulty has been to combine high rendering quality with abundant variation in scenes. I present a method to mathematically generate and render vegetation in real time, with implementation in the scene graph Gizmo3D. The most important quality of the method is its ability to render scenes with many unique specimens with very low aliasing.

On commission of the County administrative board in Värmland County a method was developed for analysis of the occurrence of artificial land use at lakes and watercourses. With artificial land use is meant land significantly affected by man. Two bases have been used to carry out the analysis. In one of the analysis the vegetation database and in the other GSD¹-Marktäckedata (land cover data) was used (this method has been used by County administrative board in Jönköping County).The analysis comprises all watercourses within Alsterälven river basin. The digital water bodies are created by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute on the basis of GSD-Översiktskartan (general map).

There are several thousands shallow bays along the Swedish east coast. Most of them are disturbed by different human activities, and undisturbed bays can be considered as quite unique. In the sheltered shallow bays water warms up more rapidly than adjacent water favoring the growth of vegetation, which in turns is beneficial to spring spawning fish species like perch and pike. It is nowadays more common that coastal habitats are inventoried to facilitate future preservation and planning. The aim of this study was to investigate the shallow bay Utanåfladen (59° 53`31.38 N 19°00`44.90 E) in the north Stockholm archipelago and evaluate its habitat value.

In the 1970?s it was predicted that in the beginning of the 21st century there would be a timber shortage in Sweden and a large scale introduction of the exotic tree species lodgepole pine started. An introduction of a foreign tree species means a risk of a negative influence on the forests ecosystem. Today, the stands that were established in the 70?s are middle-aged and the effect on the forest floor vegetation can be studied.

SAMMANFATTNING: Bostadsgårdar bör vara både funktionella och vackra för att uppskattas av de boende. För att uppnå detta är vegetation på bostadsgården ett viktigt element. Bostadsgården bör även vara relativt lätt att sköta för fastighetsförvaltaren. För att vegetationsytorna ska vara långsiktigt hållbara ur både en funktionell och ekonomisk aspekt krävs goda kunskaper om utformning, anläggning och förvaltning av vegetationsytor. Bristande kunskaper kan leda till att det krävs mer skötsel än vad som annars varit nödvändig eller att en sämre funktion på platsen får accepteras på grund av felaktigt växtval för platsen, brister i anläggningsskedet eller brister i förvaltningsskedet.

Hantering av regnvatten på ett hållbart sätt är en av flera strategier som behöver utvecklas för att bygga resilienta städer. I detta projekt undersöks relationen mellan vatten och vegetation och de unika förutsättningarna detta ger för gestaltning. Genom en fördjupad studie av naturlika biotoper, främst olika typer av klibbalskogar, har jag samlat material som tecknar sambanden. Detta material fungerar som bakgrund till ett förslag till utforming av en öppen dagvattenhantering med särskilt fokus på träd i en befintlig stadsmiljö. Genom en kort introduktion till Köpenhamn kommuns strategiska klimatarbete med dagvattenhantering i Klimakvarter på Østerbro förhåller sig detta småskaliga projekt till ett större sammanhang.

This study has investigated how urban vegetation can be used in a multifunctional way to support ecosystem services in urban environments. Nacka municipality is in the start-up phase of building what is to become Nacka city. This provides a unique possibility to study and analyse what role the vegetation play in making the city a healthy living environment and how it needs to be adapted in order to be resilient against changing climate conditions and how the effects of those changes can be regulated. The study further investigates how airborne pollution, caused by urbanization processes, can be regulated or reduced by vegetation or species selection. Methods used in this study were a combination of qualitative interviews and literature studies, seeking to answer the questions: Which specific ecosystem functions are needed in the urban environment and which aspects will influence the ecosystems ability to deliver the functions in demand? And which plant species have the right mechanisms needed to deliver those functions? These questions have been studied and analysed in a local based context where the local conditions ands site specific needs of Nacka define criteria for plant selection.

Herbivore impact on the Swedish forest has under a long time been a common subject of debate. There are many different opinions depending on what direction the forest owner has with his/her forest. Populations of moose and roe deer have increased significantly in Sweden during the last decades. The purpose of this study is to get a full picture of the herbivore impact on the regeneration areas. The field work was done once a year for seven years (1999?2005).

AbstractA prerequisite to be able to use semi-natural pastures in an optimal way is knowledge about their conditions and properties. One thing to consider is the amount of herbage mass that can be produced during one season on different types of semi-natural pastures. That knowledge makes it easier to choose which type of animals and how many you are able to have in each paddock to maintain a high biodiversity and achieve the desired production of the animals at the same time.This study was performed in nine different semi-natural pastures around Uppsala. The paddocks were already mapped with regard to different vegetation types. Exclosure cages were placed on previously fertilized, mesic, dry, shaded and wet vegetation.

Det här arbetet har undersökt huruvida konceptet reglerande ekosystemtjänster är möjligt att konkretisera och applicera i planerings-och gestaltningsarbeten. Målet med arbetet var att skapa ett gestaltningsförslag till Kloster Kyrkopark i Eskilstuna med fokus på partikel- och bullerreglering med vegetation. De frågeställningar som har besvarats i arbetet är: Hur kan man planera och gestalta med vegetation för ekosystemtjänsterna partikel- och bullerreglering och är den tillgängliga kunskapen om reglerande ekosystemtjänster idag tillräckligt konkret för att vara applicerbar i ett gestaltningsarbete? Metoden i arbetet har baserats på forskning för gestaltning. Genom en litteraturstudie, observationer, analys och samtal har allmänna gestaltningsprinciper för partikel- och bullerreducering, samt specifika krav och förutsättningar för projektet sammanställts. Resultaten från forskningen, de allmänna principerna och de specifika kraven och förutsättningarna, har sedan prövats i gestaltningsförslaget. Resultatet från gestaltningsarbetet visar att den tillgängliga kunskapen om reglerande ekosystemtjänster är tillräckligt konkret för att kunna appliceras i en gestaltning. Men det finns ett stort glapp mellan den konceptuella litteraturen som behandlar reglerande ekosystemtjänster och den litteratur som konkret beskriver hur man bör gå till väga vid luft- och bullerreglering med vegetation.

Stormwater is surface runoff water that originates from precipitation or snowmelt and that on hardened surfaces prevents to infiltrate the ground. In city areas stormwater can consists of major amounts pollutants and when reaching a lake or watercourse it can cause damages on vegetation and animals. Therefore it is important to treat polluted stormwater before it reaches the recipient. The municipality of Örebro have since the 90ies an extensive work with treatment of stormwater in sedimentation ponds. A new stormwater treatment project is planned in an industrial estate in Skebäck, Örebro.

Steam was used as a site preparation method to eliminate unwanted bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) in the boreal forest. The efficiency of steam to suppress bilberry was compared with prescribed burning and cutting the bilberry. Different combinations of steaming and/or cutting the bilberry were set up to investigate in which way steaming and cutting influenced the sprouting and regrowth of bilberry. The regrowth of the bilberry vegetation was monitored for 40 month. Steam was most efficient in suppressing bilberry.