Water is an important food and an important natural resource. In order to protect these are the Environmental Code and the EU directive given to water protection and related water protection regulations will be established for all water sources until 2010. Those who will prepare a water protection and related water protection regulations is the municipality or person responsible for water supply. The person then decides and declares the area as water protection and related water protection regulations are municipal or provincial government. The idea of creating a water protection is to protect the water supply and the body of water against pollution caused by point sources, diffuse sources and accidents combined.

Sweden's drinking Water quality is considered to be high partly due to a high quality of the raw water and a well developed sewage infrastructure. Despite this, there is water contamination that could be prevented by installation of a sophisticated early warning system. Some of the major players in the production of drinking water have already invested in different types of early warning systems to ensure drinking water of high quality. There are various forms of early warning systems where automatic monitoring of E. Coli is an interesting alternative.

Benthic diatoms are used in Sweden for monitoring Water quality in run-ning water; the method is also frequently used in other countries in Europe. One of the problems of the diatom method is the need for sedimentation of the fresh sample, to be able to decant the over standing water and add alco-hol as a preservations solution. To my knowledge, no results have been published about how long the settling time must be to ensure that the ben-thic diatoms really have settled down to avoid a loss of the diatoms when decanting the over standing water. The aim of my investigation was to improve the Swedish method where the benthic diatoms are used for Water quality monitoring. I wanted to find out the appropriate time necessary to wait until all diatoms have settled down before decanting the over standing water. First, fresh benthic diatom samples were taken in the river Fyrisån and the lake Mälaren on different days. After arriving in the laboratory, I waited three different times (30 min, 60 and 180 min) for the diatoms to settle.

The thick shelled river mussel (Unio crassus) has a fragmented distribution in southern Sweden. It is a threatened and protected species. In both the Swedish red list and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Unio crassus is classified as Endangered (EN). Causes for this classification are for instance differentiated bottom substrate and deterioration in Water quality. In this study, habitat preferences of Unio crassus were investigated to assist in future restoration work.

The overall aim is to examine how the European Union Water Framework Directive has affected the local water management in the catchment Märstaån situated in the eastern part of the lake Mälaren river basin, Sweden. The first part of the study gives an historical overview of the area with focus on how the old agricultural landscape was handling the nutrient load from farming activities by means of different kinds of wetlands. By using the concept of the procedural landscape, introduced by Torsten Hägerstrand , together with historical maps with dates starting from the 17th century, the pre-modern landscape is analyzed.  The second part is an investigation, based on qualitative data, on how the different actors in the catchment area work together to secure the Water quality for the Märstaån river. The analysis shows that the Märstaån catchment river systems are mostly unchanged in the rural areas.  The exception is the mainstream section of the Märstaån river running partly underground today and the Halmsjöbäcken river that is heavily affected by the Arlanda airport situated within the catchment area.

This study investigated potato growing in beds as an alternative to conventional ridges.It was based on results from field trials on bed-grown potatoes carried out by Halland Rural Economy and Agricultural Society in 2007, studies of literature and interviews with farmers with experience of bed growing of potatoes. Due to their shallow root system, potatoes are one of the most drought-sensitive crops. Potatoes are often grown on sandy soils with poor water-holding capacity. Factors such as total yield, tuber size distribution and quality defects are negatively affected when water becomes insufficient. Wide beds have a more flat top which leads to more uniform water infiltration. Further on, beds have lower soil surface area due to its shape, and therefore, retain water more efficient. In the field trials, which were carried out at the Stjärnarp Estate near Halmstad, potatoes were grown in beds alongside a conventional ridge-grown crop.

Sweden's drinking Water quality is considered to be high partly due to a high quality of the raw water and a well developed sewage infrastructure. Despite this, there is water contamination that could be prevented by installation of a sophisticated early warning system. Some of the major players in the production of drinking water have already invested in different types of early warning systems to ensure drinking water of high quality. There are various forms of early warning systems where automatic monitoring of E. Coli is an interesting alternative.

Drinking water from drilled wells has a high content of iron and other minerals in many places in Sweden. Questions about the association between the quality of drinking water and the health of dairy cows are regulary asked both by advisers and dairy farmers. There are so far not many studies published about the relevance for high iron content in water and dairy cow health and production. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate if there is a connection between the iron content in water and the health of dairy cows. Initially a literature study was made about iron and it´s function in ruminants.

This work investigates the breeding success of the Black-throated Diver, Gavia arctica, related to the Water quality in three lakes located in the Vallentuna area, north of Stockholm, Sweden.For more than 30 years, I have studied the bird life around these three and other nearby lakes, and noticed that the Black-throated Diver breeds in some lakes, but not in others.The results confirm that the deep and clear lakes Tärnan and Stora Harsjön have good Water quality regarding pH, alkalinity, aluminium and Secchi disk values. As expected, the Black-throated Diver shows breeding success in those two lakes, but does not breed in the shallow and eutrophic lake Mysslingen. .

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) was incorporated into the Swedish legislation in 2004 through the ordinance Förordningen om förvaltningenav kvaliteten på vattenmiljön (SFS 2004:660). The objective is that all water bodies shall reach a good status by the year 2015. In Sweden the comprehensive plans of the municipalities can play a large role in reaching these goals. A comprehensive plan deals with the long term water and land use of the municipality, which can facilitate an early consideration of water management in the planning process of the municipality. In Sweden five river basin districts have been established in accordance with the Water Framework Directive.

The objective of this report was to analyse and compare vulnerability and preparation in Swedish municipal drinking water production, in case the commonly used water sources were inoperative. Methods used were a questionnaire and a less extensive study of regulations for water protection areas. The questionnaire was answered by 41 Swedish municipalities. A handful of them were companies co-owned by a few municipalities. Only one out of four municipalities had source protection areas to all their water sources and for many sources the protection was not satisfactory.

This project is focusing on a future park that will surround Hyllie water tower in the outskirts of Malmö. The water tower will be located in the central part of the new building area Hyllievång. The park will function as a town park with a special focus on water. The water council of the municipality, Va-verket, has for the last 7 years built up and been in charge for a pedagogical programme in the water tower, were schoolchildren come to learn about the cycle of water and how we use water in our daily life. In the park they want to build a new part that gives experience of water, as a compliment to the information in the tower. What will that park look like, and what shall it be constructed of? How do you bring water to the surface in a park? How can landscape architecture work to enhance the presence of water and make people more interested in water issues? In the search to find the answers to all my questions I have meet with people, read books and visited different places.

AbstractStormwater is defined as rain- and melted water. Ludvika kommun had little knowledgde about the stormwater that reaches a specific recipient Lyviken. Therefore they intended to do an research of the stormwater that leads down to Lyviken. The aim with this study was to assess the quality of the contents in the stormwater based on pH, conductivity, phosphorous, nitrogen, bacterias, oil and one sample that meassured the value of several methals. Since the population has increased for decades, the area of hard surfaces and asphalts areas also has increased. This can increase the pollutions that finally ends up in the recipient.

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD; 2000/60/EC) was incorporated into the Swedish legislation in 2004 through the ordinance Förordningen om förvaltningenav kvaliteten på vattenmiljön (SFS 2004:660). The objective is that all water bodies shall reach a good status by the year 2015. In Sweden the comprehensive plans of the municipalities can play a large role in reaching these goals. A comprehensive plan deals with the long term water and land use of the municipality, which can facilitate an early consideration of water management in the planning process of the municipality. In Sweden five river basin districts have been established in accordance with the Water Framework Directive.

Coastal areas are popular for housing, both for permanent living and holiday houses. At the same time, thin sediments and small storage capacity in the bedrock makes the ground water resources limited. The limited ground water resources combined with too large withdrawals of ground water makes salt water intrusion a problem in many coastal areas. This study examine the risk of salt water intrusion in drinking water supplying wells on the island Södra Finnö in S:t Anna archipelago, Östergötland, Sweden. A calculation of the relation between ground water recharge and withdrawal is obtained to analyze the ground water balance in the area.