Water is the most essential resource for life. In cases where drinking water is processed from surface water it is important to ensure the raw water is of good quality, and is suitable for processing through the water treatment plant.The drinking water for Västerås is sourced from Västeråsfjärden, in the western side of Lake Mälaren. The city itself is home to marinas, ports, a wastewater treatment plant, the Svartån outlet, sewage pumping stations and stormwater outlets. Because of the negative effects these activities have on surface water quality, Mälarenergi AB is interested in relocating the raw water intake point to Granfjärden, 10 km east of Västeråsfjärden. At Granfjärden the intake point would be less exposed to the activities in Västerås, and could be placed at a greater depth, resulting in better water quality.In this Master?s thesis the water quality and the pollution risks at Västeråsfjärden and Granfjärden sites are compared.

Fytoremediering kallas metoden som utnyttjar växters naturliga förmåga att ta ta upp, omvandla eller stabilisera ämnen för att sanera föroreningar. Det är en mycket miljövänlig metod som endast bygger på naturliga processer. Idag nyexploateras i hög grad hamn- och industriområden, vilka ofta kräver stora saneringsinsatser. Dessa ligger ofta i stadsnära lägen där det generellt finns ett behov av grönytor. Till detta hör att parkmark sällan anläggs på förorenad mark, då det inte bär samma möjlighet till lönsamhet som annan exploatering. Fytoremediering är en långsam saneringsmetod och förbises därför ofta som ett alternativ då det krävs snabba lösningar inför exploatering, men i jämförelse med andra saneringsmetoder har fytoremediering en mängd fördelar. En aspekt som gör metoden högst intressant för oss i vår yrkesroll är möjligheten att under saneringens gång kunna skapa betydelsefulla gröna ytor av tidigare otillgängliga områden. Tidsaspekten vänds från något negativt till positivt genom att skapa estetiskt tilltalande, intressanta och rekreativa uterum.

Transmission of reactive power is well known to cause active power losses. Thus, newcomponents who can help minimizing these expensive reactive power flows are ofgreat interest to the power distribution companies. ABB Corporate Research hasdeveloped the first electronic power breaker. One possible application for thisbreaker is transient-free switching of capacitor banks. This could prove a usefuldistribution voltage complement to the switch-sync technique, mainly applied to transmissionvoltage level.

Vomb meadows is an area well knows for its rich bird life. During the 19:thcentury until mid 20:th century, the meadows were flooded annually in order toincrease the hay yield. The river Klingavälsån situated along the west side of themeadows, used to be a shallow river, meandering across the landscape. In the1940?s the river was straightened and made deeper.

The EU's Water Framework Directive aims to a long-term and sustainable use of our water resources and wants to ensure good water quality in Europe's water bodies. Discharge of polluted stormwater into receiving waters can be a threat to their ecological and chemical status. Municipalities are responsible for supervision of the environmental quality standards (EQS) and therefore need to gain knowledge of current stormwater management, the expected level of pollution emissions and possible appropriate purification steps to ensure that the goal of good water quality is achieved.This master thesis aims to provide this knowledge in the example case of Vallentunas urban area and wants to prepare future oversight so that it can be assessed how much the discharge of polluted stormwater into the local receiving water is a threat to its status. With the help of maps, aerial photographs, site observations and individual discussions those areas are mapped where appearance of moderate to highly polluted stormwater could be suspected. The degree of pollution at the discharge points is determined based on land use upstream and uses standard values according to the administrators assistance "Tillsyn av dagvatten" (MSL 2014).The study identifies 100 areas in need of supervision regarding their stormwater management.

During the last decade several cooperatives have struggled against many problems. Especiallyin North America several cooperatives have been forced to reconstruct, merge or have beenpurchased by other firms. There are many reasons behind these problems, but one observationmade on these cooperatives implies that they have one thing in common. The cooperatives areall very large and have a complex business structure.Lantmännen is one of the largest cooperatives in the Nordic Countries with its main office inSweden. In Nilsson et al.

The Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaorientalis), is a small freshwater cetacean which has recently fallen dramatically in number. It is an endemic species for the Yangtze River and unless drastic action is taken, it risks the same fate as the now functionally extinct Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer). Threats to the porpoise are diverse but they have in common that they are caused by man. Development of the river has been made to supply a growing human population with food, hydropower, and to reduce the risk of flooding. These changes have resulted in a degraded habitat for the porpoise.

During the last couple of years leaf-edge-cuts, typical to Otiorhynchus wingless-weevils, have been discovered on ornamental shrubs, especially Syringa vulgaris lilac and Ligustrum vulgare privet. These plant species have not earlier been attacked by wingless-weevils and because of that, the aim of this study is to see if new species of weevils have been established in Sweden or if the domestic weevils have changed their food preferences. This work also includes a literature study of known weevil species in Sweden and their host plants, and of wingless-weevil species in Europe that could be invasive here. Locations, where damage to previously named plants has been reported, have been examined. The extension and appearances of the damages have been documented in order to study if different weevil species make different types of edge-cuts.

Zakrisdal and the west coast region of Karlstad was at one time a protected area where the ammunition factory AmF Zakrisdal 1941-1994 was situated. This factory manufactured explosives for the Swedish armed forces and for export. In this context it is an interesting paradox that the production of ammunition, mines and armorpiercing grenades for more than 50 years has preserved the environment surrounding the factory.The factory is now gone and the production is moved to Karlskoga. Plans are being made to build housing for 3-4000 residents and other enterprises within the area. The area now stands before yet another change, most likely the most profound to date.The inspiration for this work comes from the economic historic Jan Jörnmark.

From policy to practice - a study of textile companies view about challenges with implementing CSR policies examine the textile companies awareness of which challenges there are with the implementation of codes of conduct in a global supply chain, as well as to analyze how the companies deal with the challenges. With increased globalization many companies have chosen to outsource entire or parts of the production in various developing and newly industrialized countries. However, the working conditions in these countries do not always fulfill the labor standards that are defined in various conventions. The society began demanding companies to take social responsibility. The social responsibility goes under the term Corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Strömstad is a small city located on the Swedish west coast. Urbanization and development is acurrent issue for the municipally, as for many other in the current situation. The municipal housingcompany Strömstadsbyggen is one of the parties involved in the extensive development that mustbe implemented to meet the changes and developments which the issue holds.One area that is of interest in the discussion is Rådhusberget - this due to the existing infrastructureand unique qualities that the area holds. In order to achieve the best solutions possible for the area,Strömstadsbyggen wishes to listen to what the existing tenants at Rådhusberget thinks and feelsregarding the area and its future potential.This thesis has therefore been carried out in collaboration with Strömstadsbyggen and has beenaimed at identifying the current tenants' thoughts and opinions in the existing area of developmentand infill potential. The aim of this work was also to investigate how the tenants value their homeand local environment in its current state, and what their wishes are for the possible futuredevelopment of Rådhusberget.To achieve analyzable results concerning how the tenants perceive these aspects, an extensivesurvey have been carried out which were sent out to all tenants in the area.

Introduction: The conversation is one of the main components of the nursing process in psychiatric care. The preunderstanding on this research field is described based on theoretical concepts that together form the basis for understanding the study; nurse's role in psychiatric care, communication and caring relationship, as well as theories of the caring conversation and person-centered care. Research on the caring conversation as a theory and how it is experienced by patients existed, however, no research from the nurse's perspective was found.Aim: The aim of the study was to describe nurses' experiences of the caring conversation with patients in psychiatric open care units.Method: Qualitative research interviews were conducted with six nurses working in outpatient psychiatric care in the west region in Sweden. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed according to the qualitative content analysis as described by Graneheim and Lundman (2004).Results: Four categories with related subcategories were distinguished throughout the analysis: The caring conversation, The importance of the care plan, Limitations and Caring based on the patients narrative.Discussion: An uncertainty about what caring conversation is and what it should contain creates uncertainty in the nurse's work. This results in a need for training for the individual nurse and the further research to obtain evidence for the importance of conversation in caring work.

The aim with this report is to investigate what influence the way playgrounds are used throw the case study in Vänersborg, and also to find methods for municipalities to collect information about how playgrounds are used. The methods were observations, interviews with parents and children, a questionary with questions about what playgrounds they used, how often and why they used them and what the children used to do there. There was also a demographic investigation and documentary research. The most popular playground, Skräcklan, gets visitors from all parts of the municipality. It is located in a park with a view over the lake Vänern, there is a parking place and a café and it has furthermore a large area and many play equipments. Many of the families make shorter trips and picnics to this place. In exception of this playground, the families almost always go to the playground in their neighborhood and their part of the town.

Strömstad is a small city located on the Swedish west coast. Urbanization and development is acurrent issue for the municipally, as for many other in the current situation. The municipal housingcompany Strömstadsbyggen is one of the parties involved in the extensive development that mustbe implemented to meet the changes and developments which the issue holds.One area that is of interest in the discussion is Rådhusberget - this due to the existing infrastructureand unique qualities that the area holds. In order to achieve the best solutions possible for the area,Strömstadsbyggen wishes to listen to what the existing tenants at Rådhusberget thinks and feelsregarding the area and its future potential.This thesis has therefore been carried out in collaboration with Strömstadsbyggen and has beenaimed at identifying the current tenants' thoughts and opinions in the existing area of developmentand infill potential. The aim of this work was also to investigate how the tenants value their homeand local environment in its current state, and what their wishes are for the possible futuredevelopment of Rådhusberget.To achieve analyzable results concerning how the tenants perceive these aspects, an extensivesurvey have been carried out which were sent out to all tenants in the area.

Due to global climate change and the rising levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, the interest for seeking solutions for mitigation has increased. While much attention has been directed towards technical solutions such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), biogenic carbon sinks has also garnered significant attention. Previous studies have shown that coastal ecosystems such as seagrass meadows and mangroves have a much greater capacity for storing carbon (C) compared to terrestrial ecosystems. That raises the question if other coastal ecosystems, such as coastal wetland forests, that previously haven?t been considered as blue carbon habitats also contribute to coastal carbon sink capacity.