Research suggests that society's vulnerability to natural disasters along coasts could increase as a result of climate change, which is likely to lead to elevated sea levels and possibly an increase in the occurance of meteorological phenomena such as storms and tropical cyclones. Following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, both of which received considerable media attention, empirical data has indicated that coastal vegetation might be able to protect and reduce damages to coastal communities during tsunami events and tropical cyclones.The aim of the essay has been to study the function of coastal ecosystems as protection against tsunami waves and storms from a risk management perspective, meaning that I have, through an overview of scientific articles, compiled current research on how coastal ecosystems can attenuate storm surges and tsunami waves, and analysed how this knowledge can be put into practice in coastal communities from a risk management perspective, i.e. if coastal ecosystems are a viable risk reduction measure, are practically applicable, and if so, how they could be applied.There is empirical evidence suggesting that coastal ecosystems, particularly mangroves, can reduce the strength of a tsunami wave, but full scientific consensus on this issue has not yet been reached. With regard to protection against storm surges, there is extensive scientific evidence that coastal vegetation can mitigate damages and reduce the height of a storm surge, although the wave has to traverse several kilometres inland through thick vegetation for the protection to be effective. A synthesis in the form of a figure regarding the many physical factors that influence wave development through coastal ecosystems has been created in an attempt to simplify and explain the phenomenon.The conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems can be justified from a risk management perspective, but planting new forest belts for the purpose of disaster mitigation is quite unrealistic and can rarely be sustainable, since, for protection to be effective, the forest belt must extend several kilometres inland from the coast, and would thus likely prove difficult to implement along coastal societies..

Human existence and welfare depend on functional ecosystems. Ecosystems are critical to sustain life-support services for human well-being. One method that visualizes that humanity requires ecosystem services for resource consumption and assimilation of produced waste is ecological footprints. This study focuses on the ecosystem service carbon sequestering. A quantification of this ecosystem service showed the potential for accumulation of carbon in different ecosystems in Stockholm and Norrbotten County for the years of 1995 and 2004.

The stability of railway embankment is essential for safe transport. In order to ensure safe transport, water should be allowed to freely drain. Furthermore, as the engine driver has to be able to see signs, and people working on the embankment are supposed to easily see flaws on the rails to ensure safety for the passing trains, plants should not be allowed to grow on the embankment. In Sweden there are 12 000 kilometers of railway tracks and 25?30 % of them are treated for weed control every year.

The thesis deals with three document retrieval models based on logic: the Boolean model,the fuzzy model and the Van Rijsbergen model.In Chapter 1, the author presents the purpose of the thesis. This is to give the logical foundationof the models, to describe them and to examine them critically. In Chapter 2, some importantnotions in document retrieval are presented. Chapter 3 is devoted to the Boolean model, Chapter4 to the fuzzy model and Chapter 5 to the Van Rijsbergen model.These three chapters are organized in the same way. First, the logical foundation of the modelis given.

Freshwater ecosystems have long been neglected as an important part of the global carbon cycle. However, research shows that most of the world?s lakes are net-heterotrophic and consequently emitters of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. In many boreal and north-temperate lakes, most of the yearly emissions usually occur in spring, shortly after ice-thaw. The aim of this study was to quantify the flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in three boreal lakes, during this annual event.

The purpose with this masters thesis was to model the scanner in a system for laser bathymetry. The model was then used to develop a controller for the scanner so a good search pattern was achieved. Two different types of models have been tested, a physical model and a Black Box model of Box Jenkins type. The physical model has been derived from Lagranges equations. Identification experiments have been used to compute the Black Box model and to find the unknown parameters in the physical model.

Evaporation is a part of the chemical recovery department at wood pulping mills. The purpose of evaporation is to remove water from the black liquor, which makes the liquor combustible. The process is very energy demanding, and having a well-functioning model of the system is of greatest interest. The model can then be used to study energy consumption and to test different control strategies. Two models have been developed during the master thesis.

This report describes a synchronous machine model with magnetic saturation in d-axis, neutralconnection and electrical exciter interface for the transient simulator PSCAD/EMTDC. It hasbeen designed and verified in comparison to the regular machine model in EMTDC.The performance of the model is very good when incorporating a linear as well as a saturatedmagnetising inductance. The dynamic deviation is only thousandths to ten thousandths perunit. By using a cubic interpolation of the saturation curve, the model gives a good representationof the saturation effect. The open source code implementation of the synchronousmachine model gives the possibility to easily adapt the model to specific requirements.The derived model makes it possible to simulate a synchronous machine with its excitationsystems, e.g.

The aim of this master thesis was to create a dynamic model for the processes in a solid fuel boiler of the moving grate type. Another aim with the model was to keep it as simple as possible but still able to catch the dynamics of the processes in the bedplate of the boiler. The creation of the model had its origin from drying and combustion equations used in earlier modeling work of boilers. The represented model has been used to simulate different kinds of disturbances in a boiler and different ways to control the boiler. These tests show that controlling a number of parameters in the bed of the boiler is an effective way to keep the grate stable during disturbances.

This master?s thesis describes the development of a model of the catalystsystem aiming at control by an MPC. A well functioning model, which is suitable in control purpose, is important while emission legislation become more and more hard to fulfill for the car manufacturers. Much research has been done in the field of physical modeling of the system, but in this work a linear adaptive time discrete ARX-model is developed and validated.The systems tendency to change its dynamic during usage implies that the model must be adaptive. The developed model proved to be well functioning and shows promising conditions for the MPC design.

This report describes a synchronous machine model with magnetic saturation in d-axis, neutralconnection and electrical exciter interface for the transient simulator PSCAD/EMTDC. It hasbeen designed and verified in comparison to the regular machine model in EMTDC.The performance of the model is very good when incorporating a linear as well as a saturatedmagnetising inductance. The dynamic deviation is only thousandths to ten thousandths perunit. By using a cubic interpolation of the saturation curve, the model gives a good representationof the saturation effect. The open source code implementation of the synchronousmachine model gives the possibility to easily adapt the model to specific requirements.The derived model makes it possible to simulate a synchronous machine with its excitationsystems, e.g.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyse, model and finally generate dynamic vehicular motions in a train. The objective with the analysis was to find important motions for a realistic train experience. The motions from the analysis were then weighted against possibilities for generation in a motion platform.A dynamic motion model was created to model the selected motions. The model was implemented in a simulation environment, more specifically MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation environment was used to simulate the model and to generate outputs to control a motion platform.

This project consists of an adaptation, trial and evaluation of a model for practicing. Based on prior research I created a model aiming mainly to raise a musician?s self- awareness around the different parameters a performance consists of. An additional wish was for it to simultaneously assist the musician in monitoring his or her progress. With video recording and self-evaluation as the two main parts I tried the model by using it over a period of three months.

In this report a model was constructed in order to determine how a number of covariates influence the gross domestic product, GDP. The covariates were chosen depending on their expected influence on GDP, for example education and life expectancy. The data used in this report are collected from the World Bank. The model to describe GDP has been calculated using multiple line arregression. In order to reach a reliable final model the number of covariates has been gradually decreased to eliminate insignificant covariates.

AbstractHudiksvalls coordinating model - a model to make cooperation easierCamilla Andersson and Åsa GradinThe purpose of this study was to examine the experience each one of the administrators have of their own new model in Hudiksvall to make cooperation easier for the three different administrations in Hudiksvalls municipality. The study will focus on the administrators experiences of Hudiksvalls coordinating design. Questions of the study were: How is the influence of the model on the rules? How is the influence of the model on expectations and parts? What kind of influence did the model have on the responsibility distribution? What kind of influence has the model on the responsibilities at the transfer of costs? To answer the questions of the study we applied a qualitative method, it was made through a standardization interview guide and open questions, with six of the dealing officers who works with the model. Some of the results wich can be discern are by an economic character, andfor the clients that they won`t be passed around the administrations in the community, they get the right help, quick and safe.Key words: cooperation, coordination..