The location on the river delta of Klarälven, adjacent to lake Vänern, makes Karlstad one of the Swedish cities where a significant Flood risk is present. The city has several major Floods in its memory which has caused great material damage and economic losses, the latest of which occurred in the winter of year 2000/2001. The purpose of the study is to examine how the approach to Flood risk has changed in the municipality of Karlstad since the 1950s, and how this change has affected the current situation regarding the city's vulnerability to Flooding. To investigate this, a document analysis was conducted, where key documents in the media and from the municipality of Karlstad was studied. Furthermore, an interview study was conducted with respondents who currently are employed or previously have been employed in the municipality of Karlstad, who in various ways work with issues of Flood risk. The result of the study shows that several changes have taken place since the 1950s in terms of the municipality's approach to Flood risk, which for instance has led to preventative measures being taken to a greater extent than previously in the physical planning.

Agricultural drainage is widely used to manage the amount of water in the ground in order to improve conditions for cultivation. However the effects of drainage companies on water regimes are considerable leading to runoff changes such as altered stream flows, peak flows and water levels. In a greater extent this could imply an increased risk for Floods along affected watercourses. This study analyzes the extension of agricultural drainage within the drainage basin of Trosaån in Sweden by ArcGIS mapping. In a statistical analysis, historical variation in streamflow in relation to mean precipitation and mean temperature are investigated for the study area.

Due to the climate change natural disasters expects to increase and in some areas the conditions for dissemination of hazardous pollutants from contaminated areas could be affected. Different inventories and mapping has been made to identify areas of risk for Flood or avalanche around the country. At the same time inventory and treatment of potential polluted areas (MIFO objects) is progressing. In Ljungans run of area in Västernorrlands county is a exposed area due to the amount of clay and silt in the ground that are sensitive in the context avalanche. The area has also a lot of MIFO objects and risks of Flood.This essay aims to investigate what data material that is available regarding MIFO objects, Flood- and avalanche risks in Ljungans run of area in Västernorrlands county.

The discharge from Lake Mälaren is regulated to keep the lake water level within limits set by a water decree. Despite this, in the year 2000 the lake water level rose above the upper limit. Studies conducted at the climate modeling unit Rossby Centre at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) indicate that the inflow to the lake may increase in the future. A Flood in the area will, among other things, strike infrastructure and residential districts.The aim of this study was to investigate the water levels of Lake Mälaren in future climates. In addition to this possible future expansion of the lake discharge though the sluice gates in order to keep water levels below limits set by the water decree and to prevent Flooding of the shoreline were discussed.

The effects of the climate changes are expected to generate several substantial direct and indirect consequences on both ecosystems and societies. It is the extent of the negative consequences that determents the vulnerability of the things or the ones exposed. The knowledge of the effects and consequences by a changing climate provides an opportunity to take measures to reduce the vulnerability.Our society?s vulnerability depends on how we choose to act out of the existing knowledge and what measures we choose to take. Karlstad municipality has good knowledge and perception of the increased Flood risks the climate changes will generate and the probable consequences that most likely will follow. How the municipality decides to manage the Flooding issue is not just affected by the will to mitigate the vulnerability but also by the vision to increase the number of citizens.

Storm water management has become a more important matter as urban areas are expanding and natural areas are being exploited. As nature landscapes are being converted into hard surface areas storm water flow is affected both in terms of velocity and size. A flow increase can easily result in a Flooding if the dimensions of the pipeline system are inadequate. Considering predicted upcoming climate changes, Flooding?s may become more common in urban areas in the future.

Flooding events are no longer rare, Floods occur all over the world. Accordingly, it is vital for the society and different authorities to work with Flood mapping. To meet the goal of Uppsala kommun to map the risks of Floods in Uppsala län, a map of the different areas around Funboån which are inside the area of risk for Flooding have been developed.In the work, cross sections and the water flow have been measured. Moreover, an echo-sounding have been carried out in Funboån to map the bottom topography. From the bottom map and laser scanned data covering the study area, a terrain model was created.

Severe Floods caused by heavy autumn rains in year 2000 raised the question whether measures to reduce the damage from high water levels, in the area surrounding lake Glafsfjorden and along the river Byälven down to lake Vänern, are possible. One option is to reduce flow resistance along the river and thereby lower the maximum water level a given inflow would cause. Good knowledge of hydraulic and hydrological conditions is necessary in order to estimate the effect of such flow-reducing measures. In order to quantify such effect a 1-dimensional hydraulic flow model has been set up for the river Byälven using the software package MIKE 11. The model is more detailed, especially concerning topography and bathymetry, than earlier models used for studies of the river.

Mosquitoes are found in extremely large numbers in the lower parts of the River Dalälven. In the year 2000 the mosquito nuisance was especially high, resulting in foundation of the Biological mosquito control project. Since 2001 mosquito larvae are controlled by using a biological pesticide BTI (Bacillus thuringiensis ssp israelensis). The mosquito fauna in the area is dominated by Flood water mosquitoes, a group of mosquitoes that are very aggressive and form new generations of mosquitoes during every single Flooding event during the summer. To be able to efficiently control the mosquitoes it is essential to know the extension and locality of the Flooding.

In today?s World is climate change an important and hot topic. Climate scenarios for Sweden show a warmer climate, especially during the autumn, winter and spring. The same climate scenarios also show that the precipitation will increase during this part of the year, however, during the summer the opposite is expected to occur. The purpose of this essay is to examine how future climate change will affect Stockholm especially the expected increase in precipitation, which may lead to a rising level of the Lake Mälaren. During 2000/2001 was Stockholm hit by a Flood. This Flood nearly resulted in major consequences and showed that there were significant risks for the city of Stockholm and increasing precipitation will result in even more water in the drainage systems of Lake Mälaren. The results presented here show that it is important to increase the drainage capacity of Lake Mälaren in order to reduce the risks of Flooding in the central parts of Stockholm.

Översvämningar förekommer regelbundet på stora delar av jordklotet. Utgående från de klimatförändringar vi ser idag med, bland annat, kraftigare och intensivare nederbörd är det troligt att det blir fler och större översvämningar framöver. Områden som inte tidigare varit översvämmade kan komma att bli översvämmande. Varje land eller område med regelbundna översvämningar har någon form av varningssystem. Översikter över olika typer av system för att varna för översvämningar är svåra att finna. Syftet med denna uppsats är att:Undersöka viktiga principer för effektiva varningssystem för översvämningar som orsakas av kraftig nederbörd och/eller vårflöden.Skapa en systematisk och strukturerad sammanställning över nuvarande system för att varna för översvämningar orsakade av kraftig nederbörd och/eller vårflöden.Ge praktiska exempel på några svenska kommuners system för att varna för översvämningar. Litteratur- och internetsökningar kring varningssystem för översvämningar samt intervjuer med ?översvämningsansvariga? i Ödeshög och Vetlanda kommuner utgör grunden för informationen i denna uppsats. Exempel på olika typer av varningssystem för översvämningar presenteras.

Översvämningar är ett stort problem på flera håll i Sverige och klimatförändringarna väntas förvärra situationen i vissa delar av landet. I syfte att strukturera arbetet med översvämningsrisker togs översvämningsdirektivet (2007:60:EG) fram i EU år 2007. Direktivet genomförs som förordning (SFS 2009:956) i Sverige och denna infördes i svensk lagstiftning den 26 november 2009. Enligt förordningen om översvämningsrisker har Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap en viktig roll då de ska utföra den preliminära bedömningen av översvämningsrisker, bl.a. genom framtagande av kartor som redovisar översvämningshotade områden.

Coping theory asks what the cognitive and behavioral patterns of individuals dealing with stress are. This essay includes, besides the perspective of the psychology of religion, theories of culture and ritual in exploring two Swedes coping with the natural disaster in Thailand year 2004. The vacation paradise was struck by an enormous Flood wave, called a tsunami, causing vast destruction and the death of over 200.000 people. Among these 543 were Swedes on vacation. When a disaster of such measures happens, what kind of stress does it cause? How do you cope? Are religion and ritual important? What is the function of the culture in the copingprocess? Using hermeneutical analysis this essay interprets the material from two books by Swedes, who not only experienced the disaster, but lost two children and husband and wife in the Flood wave.

This study deals with the distinct difference in media attention the earthquake-disaster in Haiti and the Flood-disaster in Pakistan got in 2010. There may be many reasons to this divergence, but this study focuses on how news articles can create compassion.   This study, with its critical perspective, examines how two daily papers in Sweden portray the suffering of the victims of the catastrophes in Haiti and Pakistan, and create compassion for them. Furthermore it asks the question who benefits from the newspaper?s description of human suffering in the third world.   The result shows that the manner of which Swedish daily newspapers report from the catastrophe in Haiti creates an emotional involvement, which most likely leads to compassion. Furthermore it shows potential to lead the readers to identify with the suffering people in Haiti.   The Swedish daily newspapers report of the catastrophe in Pakistan on the other hand, does not involve the reader on an emotional level, but gives them the role of a spectator.

The New National Elevation Model (NNH) is a new high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of Sweden from airborne laser scanning. It creates many new opportunities, particularly in the area of Flood mapping. NNH is provided by Lantmäteriet in two formats, both in raw LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data and in grid format with two meter resolution. These alternatives have advantages and disadvantages and the aim of this thesis research is to identify these. One of the focuses of the study is data storage and thus data structure analysis, resolution and storage facilities. The research questions are:Why and in what context the different NNH-products from the National Land Survey are used (DEM 2+ or point cloud)?What constraints and opportunities are created by the different options, mainly in terms of different software, resolution, and data storage?The study area is Kärsön in Ekerö municipality located in Stockholms län and has an approximate area of 25 square kilometers. The study is divided into two parts. The first objective is to identify the consequences of using different software to create DEM from pointcloud compared to the DEM2+ model. Height models with a two meter resolution are created in FME and ArcGIS. The models are then compared with the grid from Lantmäteriet, created in TerraScan. The second objective is to examine the impact of the change in resolution, both the storage aspect and both the accuracy aspect. Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) is an interpolation method which in previous studies proved to have the best results on high resolution LIDAR data. This model was tested and compared with a model from FMEs built-in function and the model from Lantmäteriet wich are based on triangulation (also proved a good method in previous studies). The grid created in TerraScan has good properties such as accuracy.