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Urban planning is assumed to play an important role in developing nature-based solutions (NBS). To explore how NBS is addressed in urban development, municipal planning practices are analyzed based on three case studies in the Stockholm region, Sweden. Through focus group discussions, interviews and document studies, the planning and implementation of NBS and their intended contribution to regional green infrastructure (GI) and social and ecological qualities are investigated. The results show that the planning and design of urban green spaces engages the local community. Moreover, different conceptual frameworks are used to strengthen an ecological perspective and nurture expected outcomes, in particular ecosystem services and GI. Through competence development and collaborative approaches, the co-creation of innovative solutions for public and private green spaces is promoted. However, institutional conditions, e.g. legal frameworks and landownership shape the planning process and can challenge the ability to enhance social and ecological qualities. An assessment of the planning processes indicates a strong focus on ecosystem services and local GI, while the potential to contribute to regional GI differs widely between cases. The study concludes that a knowledge-driven and integrative planning process can foster the potential of NBS for green and sustainable cities.

Catchments are complex social-ecological systems involving multiple, and often competing, interests. Water governance and management regimes are increasingly embracing pluralistic, participatory, and holistic norms as a means to engage with issues of complexity, uncertainty, and value-conflicts. Integrated, participatory approaches are theoretically linked to improved learning amongst stakeholders across sectors and decision-making that is grounded in shared knowledge, experiences and scientific evidence. However, few studies have empirically examined the impacts of an integrated approach to learning and knowledge practices related to water resources.Here, a Swedish sub-catchment that has adopted such an approach in association with implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is examined. Interview-based analyses show that WFD implementation has both helped and hindered learning and knowledge practices surrounding both water planning and spatial planning. Whilst communities of practice have developed in the study area, a number of important challenges remain. These include the rigid goal-orientation of the WFD, the fragmentation of knowledge caused by an over-reliance on external consultants, as well as a lack of resources to synthesise information from multiple sources. Present results raise questions regarding the efficacy of the WFD to sufficiently enable the development of learning and knowledge practices capable of handling the complexity, uncertainties and value-conflicts facing catchments in Sweden and elsewhere., QR 20180821

Planning for sustainable cities involves supporting compact, energy-efficient urban form as well as maintaining attractive and liveable urban landscapes. Attractive cities depend highly on services provided by ecosystems, especially cultural ecosystem services (ES), which give direct benefits to urban citizens. Therefore, access to a diversity of urban functions and publicly available ES by walking and public transport should be considered when planning for sustainable cities. This could be facilitated by user-friendly planning support models. The aim of this study was to develop a GIS-based model for assessing accessibility to ES, more specifically, water-related cultural ecosystem services (WCES), via walking and public transport, with input from stakeholders. The model was applied to the Stockholm region in Sweden. Travel times and census data were used to derive measures and maps of accessibility to prioritised WCES in the region, today and in urbanisation scenarios for 2050. The results showed how access to WCES varied spatially within the region. The number of potential visitors to different WCES sites now and in the future urbanisation scenarios was estimated, and areas in need for future development of the public transport system as well as WCES were identified. The GIS-based accessibility model has potential to be used as planning support in urban planning., QC 20170313

Urban development trajectories are changing towards compact, energy-efficient cities and renewable energy sources, and this will strongly affect ecosystem services (ES) that cities are dependent on but tend to disregard. Such ES can be provisioning, regulating and cultural ES, around which competition over land resources will increase with energy system shifts. Much of this can be foreseen to take place within urbanising regions that are simultaneously the living environment of a major part of the human population today. In order to inform critical urban policy decisions, tools for integrated assessment of urban energy and transport options and ecosystem services need to be developed. For this purpose, a case study of the Stockholm region was conducted, analysing three scenarios for the future urbanisation of the region, integrating a transport energy perspective and an ES perspective. The results showed that a dense but polycentric development pattern gives more opportunities for sustainable urban development, while the dense monocentric scenario has apparent drawbacks from an ES perspective. The methodology is compatible with a model integration platform for urban policy support and will thus enable integrated policy assessment of complex urban systems, with the goal of increasing their sustainability., QC 20160930

Forest biomass is a renewable resource that is increasingly utilised for bioenergy purposes in Sweden, which along with the extraction of industrial wood may conflict with biodiversity conservation. The aim of this paper is to present a method for integrated sustainability assessment of forest biomass extraction, particularly from bioenergy and biodiversity perspectives. The landscape simulator LandSim was developed and linked with models for the assessment of biomass yields and habitat networks representing prioritised biodiversity components. It was applied in a case study in Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. Forest growth and management were simulated for the period 2010-2110, following two land zoning scenarios, one applying even-aged forest management on all forest land except for protected areas (EAF-tot), and one applying continuous cover forest management on parts of the forest land, combined with protected areas and an intensified even-aged management on the other parts (CCF-int). The EAF-tot scenario implied higher yields of biomass feedstock for bioenergy, the CCF-int scenario only giving 66% of that yield, while the CCF-int scenario performed substantially better when it came to the habitat network indicators, if habitat suitability was ensured. Conclusively, the case study confirmed that the modelling framework of the LEcA tool, linking the landscape simulator LandSim with the biomass yield assessment and the habitat network model can be used for integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options., QC 20161214

This study developed methodology for statistically assessing groundwater contamination mechanisms. It focused on microbial water pollution in low-income regions. Risk factors for faecal contamination of groundwater-fed drinking-water sources were evaluated in a case study in Juba, South Sudan. The study was based on counts of thermotolerant coliforms in water samples from 129 sources, collected by the humanitarian aid organisation M,decins Sans FrontiSres in 2010. The factors included hydrogeological settings, land use and socio-economic characteristics. The results showed that the residuals of a conventional probit regression model had a significant positive spatial autocorrelation (Moran's I = 3.05, I-stat = 9.28); therefore, a spatial model was developed that had better goodness-of-fit to the observations. The most significant factor in this model (p-value 0.005) was the distance from a water source to the nearest Tukul area, an area with informal settlements that lack sanitation services. It is thus recommended that future remediation and monitoring efforts in the city be concentrated in such low-income regions. The spatial model differed from the conventional approach: in contrast with the latter case, lowland topography was not significant at the 5% level, as the p-value was 0.074 in the spatial model and 0.040 in the traditional model. This study showed that statistical risk-factor assessments of groundwater contamination need to consider spatial interactions when the water sources are located close to each other. Future studies might further investigate the cut-off distance that reflects spatial autocorrelation. Particularly, these results advise research on urban groundwater quality., QC 20170614

Inadequate infrastructural networks can be detrimental to society if transport between locations becomes hindered or delayed, especially due to natural hazards which are difficult to control. Thus determining natural hazard susceptible areas and incorporating them in the initial planning process, may reduce infrastructural damages in the long run. The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of expert judgements for assessing natural hazard susceptibility through a spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA) approach using hydrological, geological and land use factors. To utilize SMCA for decision support, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was adopted where expert judgements were evaluated individually and in an aggregated manner. The estimates of susceptible areas were then compared with the methods weighted linear combination (WLC) using equal weights and factor interaction method (FIM). Results showed that inundation received the highest susceptibility. Using expert judgement showed to perform almost the same as Equal weighting where the difference in susceptibility between the two for inundation was around 4%. The results also showed that downscaling could negatively affect the susceptibility assessment and be highly misleading. Susceptibility assessment through SMCA is useful for decision support in early road planning despite its limitation to the selection and use of decision rules and criteria. A natural hazard SMCA could be used to indicate areas where more investigations need to be undertaken from a natural hazard point of view, and to identify areas thought to have higher susceptibility along existing roads where mitigation measures could be targeted after in-situ investigations., QC 20171024

The urbanization trend during the last decades have several environmental impacts, particularly associated with increasing runoff and flood hazard, and decreasing water quality. These topics have been investigated all around the world, but relatively little is known about the impacts of urban development at the early stage of the urban planning in cities. This project aims to develop planning support tools for addressing impacts of different urbanization patterns in alternative planning scenarios on surface water within the City of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. With the help of urban planners at the municipality, alternative future urban scenarios will be created and assessed from a hydro-meteorological risk assessment perspective. The scenarios will include alternative development patterns for buildings, infrastructure and supply of several regulating and cultural ecosystem services. For the water-related risk assessment, a hydrological model will be set up and validated using available data for a selected catchment that is affected by the scenarios. This will then be used to assess the impacts of the scenarios on the hydrological response and its implications. In the end, the results are expected to contribute to identifying how localization and type of different ecosystem services in the urban planning can be employed as nature-based solutions for hydro-meteorological risk reduction and climate adaptation., QC 20170613

Transport infrastructure can impose significant barriers to movements to many, if not most terrestrial animals. Barrier effects can lead to increased isolation of wildlife populations, which in turn might have demographic effects and even increase genetic differentiation between neighbouring populations. This study attempted to clarify the role of fauna passages and generic landscape patterns for connectivity in fragmented landscapes, and to improve the theoretical basis for future experimental approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of barrier mitigation strategies. Specifically, the issue of whether it would be more effective to construct a single large rather than several small crossing structures (SLOSS) was addressed by this study. Three hypotheses were formulated on the relationship between habitat connectivity, as a prerequisite for genetic exchange, and habitat aggregation and contrast between habitat types. Random landscapes with different combinations of aggregation, contrast and number and size of fauna passages were created in a GIS. Connectivity was then quantified as a function of movement resistance using circuit theory and related methods, and measurements from the random landscapes were statistically analysed. The results indicate that in any landscape, it would be more effective to construct several small fauna passages instead of a single large one to mitigate the effect of a barrier. The level of aggregation appeared to have no influence per se on connectivity, and increasing the level of contrast increased the variance in the results. It is recommended that barrier effect mitigation strategies focus on the location and design of several small fauna passages rather than a single large one. Future research should focus on the development of dispersal and movement models for a set focal species. The effectiveness of increasing fauna passage dimensions above those of crossing structures that are evidently used by the intended species should also ne, QCR 20170502

In this study a decision support model for tree stump harvest was developed. The model takes into account four criteria: economy, energy and climate, biodiversity, and land and water. The value of each individual tree stump was calculated separately for each criterion. The four criteria values were then weighed together into a final suitability score for stump harvest. The final suitability score decided whether the decision support model recommended harvest of each individual tree stump or not. Data from the harvester collected at final felling was used as input to the decision support model. For each stump the values used in the model was dry mass, stump diameter, tree species and position. In addition, the harvesters log track was used as a basis for localising the terrain roads within the stand. Other geographical data used was elevation data, presence of objects with special value for biodiversity and land/water, such as key biotopes, open water and moist soil. A special study was conducted to estimate the soil stability from a topographical wetness index.The decision support model was evaluated on an existing felling 2010 in Northern Uppland. The area was 45 hectares with about 26 000 stumps. The result of the decision support model showed that general economic parameters had the greatest impact in both sensitivity and scenario analysis. The most important variable was the price for stump biomass at road side. The decision support model results left continuous areas of the stand with all stumps unharvested. The reason for this was the economy criterion's sensitivity to the local amount of stump withdrawal per hectare. Low stump withdrawal gave high harvesting costs. In that economy was the only criterion which motivated stump harvest, the model never suggested harvesting a stump unless surrounding stumps were harvested too.There is potential for developing this decision support model further using updated knowledge and examining the impact of different criteri, QC 20170914

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to outline and demonstrate a new geographic information system (GIS)-based approach for utilising spatial geological data in three dimensions (i.e. length, width and depth) to improve estimates on earthworks during early stages of road infrastructure planning. Methods: This was undertaken by using three main methodological steps: mass balance calculation, life cycle inventory analysis and spatial mapping of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use. The mass balance calculation was undertaken in a GIS environment using two assumptions of geological stratigraphy for two proposed alternative road corridors in Sweden. The estimated volumes of excavated soil, blasted rock and filling material were later multiplied with the GHG emission and energy use factors for these processes, to create spatial data and maps in order to show potential impacts of the studied road corridors. The proposed GIS-based approach was evaluated by comparing with actual values received after one alternative was constructed. Results and discussion: The results showed that the estimate of filling material was the most accurate (about 9 % deviation from actual values), while the estimate for excavated soil and blasted rock resulted in about 38 and 80 % deviation, respectively, from the actual values. It was also found that the total volume of excavated and ripped soils did not change when accounting for stratigraphy. Conclusions: The conclusion of this study was that more information regarding embankment height and actual soil thickness would further improve the model, but the proposed GIS-based approach shows promising results for usage in LCA at an early stage of road infrastructure planning. Thus, by providing better data quality, GIS in combination with LCA can enable planning for a more sustainable transport infrastructure., QC 20170118

This study addresses and conceptualizes the possible dependence of ecosystem services on prevailing air and/or water flow processes and conditions, and particularly on the trajectories and associated spatial reach of these flows in carrying services from supply to demand areas in the landscape. The present conceptualization considers and accounts for such flow-dependence in terms of potential and actually realized service supply and demand, which may generally differ and must therefore be distinguished due to and accounting for the prevailing conditions of service carrier flows. We here concretize and quantify such flow-dependence for a specific landscape case (the Stockholm region, Sweden) and for two examples of regulating ecosystem services: local climate regulation and storm water regulation. For these service and landscape examples, we identify, quantify and map key areas of potential and realized service supply and demand, based for the former (potential) on prevailing relatively static types of landscape conditions (such as land-cover/use, soil type and demographics), and for the latter (realized) on relevant carrier air and water flows. These first-order quantification examples constitute first steps towards further development of generally needed such flow-dependence assessments for various types of ecosystem services in different landscapes over the world., QC 20170614

Based on principles of multi-criteria analysis techniques, a model (MAPStump-E) for decision support on stump harvesting at stand level was developed. The model applies the concept that each stump can be attributed production values (economic) and environmental values (here soil protection and water quality). Individual tree stump information was incorporated directly from the production reports of harvesters and combined with high-resolution Geographical Information System data on topography and soil type to create a production submodel and a soil and water vulnerability submodel (SWM). To test the model, it was applied to a 45-ha study forest in south-central Sweden and the outcome of nine scenarios with varying bioenergy prices and environmental protection levels was examined. Combined analysis of the effects of production and environmental criteria on total dry mass of harvestable stumps at the study site showed that biomass prices had a stronger influence than environmental criteria. Conflict stumps were defined as stumps suitable for harvest based on production criteria, but unsuitable based on soil and water protection criteria. In a ?medium? price scenario, the proportion of conflict stumps at the study site ranged from 6% to 18%, depending on protection level set., QC 20160921

QC 20170531

Research motivation Renewable energy has great importance in the work to counteract the global climate changes. The Swedish government has seta target that in 2020, 50% of the energy use shall come from renewable energy, and the government has also declared a longterm commitment for Sweden to be independent of fossil fuels. To reach these targets wind power is expected to play a greatpart, and approximately 50 TWh of new wind power is needed to meet this objective, compared to the current annual production of approximately 16 TWh. However, climate change is not the only issue at hand, and there is a risk of conflicts between meetingthe targets for renewable energy and other sustainability objectives, e.g. concerning ecosystem services, such as habitatsupporting biodiversity, recreation and cultural landscapes. Hence to steer towards a sustainable planning of wind power, targets and objectives as well as decision support has to be dealt with systematically, encompassing social, economic, technical and ecological perspectives. Objective The objective of the project is to develop GIS-based methods that can be used as planning support in sustainable planning of wind power, in cooperation with regional and municipal actors. The method will function as decision support, which will helpplanners and decision makers at local and regional level to systematically handle the different aspects related to wind power localisation. Methodology The project is performed in collaboration with the County Administrative Board of Västernorrland County, which is the study areafor the project. Initially, a literature study is performed to gain knowledge about earlier research in the field and identify importantfactors to include in the methodology. Workshops are held with the included actors, to gain further understanding of what information is relevant when planning for wind power, and to gain local knowledge about the study area; what issues are at hand,and what factors govern wind power, QC 20170904

Transport infrastructure is closely linked to several sustainability issues of main policy relevance, and significant impacts on biodiversity as well as resource use and construction costs relate to the corridor design and location in the landscape. The aim of this study was to develop methods for railway corridor planning, in which corridor design and location would be based on important ecological and geological sustainability criteria. The method, an MCA framework including both spatial and non-spatial MCA, was demonstrated on a railway planning proposition in an urbanising area north of Stockholm, Sweden. Alternative spatial alignments for 6 railway corridors were derived based on criteria representing biodiversity, resource efficiency and costs, developed from ecological and geological knowledge, data and models. The method identified a study area specific positive synergy between ecological and geological sustainability criteria. The evaluation part of the methodology could furthermore identify uncertainties in the input data and assumptions and conflicts between ecological criteria. In order to arrive at a well-informed decision support system, the criteria as well as the decision rules employed could be further elaborated. Other relevant sustainability issues would also need to be integrated, such as cultural landscapes, recreation, and other ecosystem services. Still, arriving at a corridor design informed by the ecological and geological conditions in the planned area, as demonstrated by this study, could improve the sustainability performance of transport infrastructure planning., QC 20160718, GESP

Global urbanization has increased rapidly and it is expected to continue. Due to the continuing urbanization process, green areas are transformed into areas for housing, industry and infrastructure. As a consequence, ecosystems in urbanizing areas are affected, which results in degradation of habitats, due to fragmentation and disturbances, with significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. In cities, green areas are of primary interest to support biodiversity as well as in their role as producers of ecosystem services; that is, services that ecosystems produce to the benefit of humans often without any costs. In addition, publicly accessible urban green areas enhance life quality for urban citizens. To strengthen biodiversity and ecosystem services considerations in the planning process and contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in the long term, a consistent assessment of potential impacts is required. In particular, a landscape approach in urban planning and assessment is needed to address the scales of ecological processes, to strengthen important landscape structures and functions in urban, regional and infrastructure planning. A landscape approach calls for methods for assessing the impacts of human actions on biodiversity at a landscape level, across administrative borders. Such methods should allow an analysis of cumulative impacts of many single planning decisions. Several of the processes involved have a temporal and spatial dimension and are possible to quantify, analyse, and visualize with geographical information systems (GIS) combined with spatial ecological models. This allows for localization and quantification of predicted effects of urbanization on biodiversity components over landscape and regional scales. This chapter addresses impacts of urbanization on biodiversity and urban green areas’ capacity in providing ecosystem services. A brief description of the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services provides a framework for, Accepted QP 201505

QC 20160530

QC 20161103

QC 20161103

QC 20161125

QC 20161019

QC 20160926

QC 20160912

Not duplicate with DiVA 1049779QC 20170904

In low-income regions, drinking water is often derived from groundwater sources, which might spread diarrheal disease if they are microbiologically polluted. This study aimed to investigate the occurrence of fecal contamination in 147 improved groundwater sources in Juba, South Sudan and to assess potential contributing risk factors, based on bivariate statistical analysis. Thermotolerant coliforms (TTCs) were detected in 66% of the investigated sources, including 95 boreholes, breaching the health-based recommendations for drinking water. A significant association (p<. 0.05) was determined between the presence of TTCs and the depth of cumulative, long-term prior precipitation (both within the previous five days and within the past month). No such link was found to short-term rainfall, the presence of latrines or damages in the borehole apron. However, the risk factor analysis further suggested, to a lesser degree, that the local topography and on-site hygiene were additionally significant. In summary, the analysis indicated that an important contamination mechanism was fecal pollution of the contributing groundwater, which was unlikely due to the presence of latrines; instead, infiltration from contaminated surface water was more probable. The reduction in fecal sources in the environment in Juba is thus recommended, for example, through constructing latrines or designating protection areas near water sources. The study results contribute to the understanding of microbiological contamination of groundwater sources in areas with low incomes and high population densities, tropical climates and weathered basement complex environments, which are common in urban sub-Saharan Africa., QC 20150519

Hydrogen produced with the help of local wind energy resource can be considered as a key energy carrier, which can play a major role in switching the transport fuels from fossil to renewable. In this paper, we preliminary assessed the wind generated hydrogen production potential in order to provide the environmentally clean, renewable and cheap fuel to the road transport sector of Sweden. Vestas-112 wind turbine (V-112) and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer were used as main components. Land use restrictions related to wind to hydrogen energy installation were also taken into account. Geographic Information System (GIS) tool was used for this study. We estimated that in Sweden, 25,580 ktons/year of hydrogen can be produced by using local wind energy resource, which is equivalent to 860 TWh of energy. Moreover, by using per capita gasoline consumption of Sweden, it was also estimated that during year 2011, 2900 ktons of imported gasoline was used in transport sector, which emitted 8700 ktons of CO2 into the local atmosphere of country. It was also estimated that in Sweden, gasoline consumption and CO2 emission can be reduced to 50% by using only 530 ktons i.e. (2%) of total local wind generated hydrogen production., QC 20150608

The wind energy being a freely available and low-carbon energy source has got the focus of decision makers around the world, because wind energy systems can reduce the dependence of a nation on fossil fuels and can contribute to a sustainable development of both climate and energy. However, wind power comes with certain environmental impacts and land use constraints that should be taken into account, in order to reach main sustainability goals concerning biodiversity and ecosystem services. The Swedish national goal regarding wind energy development has been set to 30 TWh by the year 2020, of which 20 TWh should come from the on-shore wind energy resource. Therefore, wind energy development in Sweden could play an important role in achieving the future energy and environmental targets. In this regard, we assessed the wind energy potential available in Sweden using a GIS-based approach. We aimed to estimate the technical onshore wind energy potential available in Sweden by considering system performance, topographic limitations, environmental, and land use constraints in the form of two restriction scenarios. The results of this paper can draw the attention of decision makers to reach a sustainable wind energy development in Sweden. The results achieved in this paper suggest that Sweden possesses sufficient wind energy potential and land area available for wind energy installations, which can be used to meet the future renewable energy targets in Sweden., Additional funding: Higher Education Commission of PakistanQC 20150521

Transportation infrastructure has a wide range of effects on ecological processes, which result in both positive and negative impacts for biodiversity. However, the treatment of biodiversity in planning and environmental assessment have been criticized, especially regarding habitat loss and fragmentation effects, the low use of quantitative methods and that of assessments being descriptive rather than analytical and predictive. The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of the Swedish road network by spatial modelling of road effects, to explore potential impacts of fragmentation and disturbance effects of roads on habitat networks for selected ecological profiles, and to discuss the utility of applying quantitative methods for environmental assessment purposes. Habitat and landcover data was used for creating habitat networks for six ecological profiles. Fragmentation and disturbance effects were modelled in GIS and FRAGSTATS was used to quantify ecologically important landscape metrics on habitat amount and connectivity. The results showed that natural grasslands and southern broadleaved forest were substantially more exposed to road effects in Sweden, compared to old coniferous and trivial broadleaved forest. Furthermore, habitat loss was a main consequence of road effects, and forest species with high area demands were most prone to be adversely impacted. Suggestions on method development in order to increase the quality of the analysis methods for environmental assessment are discussed. The potential is seen as high for use of quantitative ecological methods to generate baseline environmental information as well as coarse predictions on likely consequences of development options, useful for environmental assessment., QC 20150209

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QC 20150804

QC 20150615

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System models addressing the nexus of energy, water and land use in transboundary watersheds. Issues of stakeholder involvement as well as integration of ecosystem aspects in nexus assessments are discussed., QC 20150615

NQC 2015

QC 20160530

QCR 20160530

Not duplicate with DiVA 681744QC 20161116

Urbanization contributes to the loss of the world's biodiversity and the homogenization of its biota. However, comparative studies of urban biodiversity leading to robust generalities of the status and drivers of biodiversity in cities at the global scale are lacking. Here, we compiled the largest global dataset to date of two diverse taxa in cities: birds (54 cities) and plants (110 cities). We found that the majority of urban bird and plant species are native in the world's cities. Few plants and birds are cosmopolitan, the most common being Columba livia and Poa annua. The density of bird and plant species (the number of species per km2) has declined substantially: only 8% of native bird and 25% of native plant species are currently present compared with estimates of non-urban density of species. The current density of species in cities and the loss in density of species was best explained by anthropogenic features (landcover, city age) rather than by non-anthropogenic factors (geography, climate, topography). As urbanization continues to expand, efforts directed towards the conservation of intact vegetation within urban landscapes could support higher concentrations of both bird and plant species. Despite declines in the density of species, cities still retain endemic native species, thus providing opportunities for regional and global biodiversity conservation, restoration and education., QC 20140313

Knowledge about regolith thickness is important in several civil and environmental engineering fields. However, subsurface characteristics such as regolith thickness are difficult to determine through surface investigations and maps at regional scales. This paper presents four methods for estimating regolith thickness in a GIS environment for previously glaciated terrain with high frequency of rock outcrops: linear regression (LR) using topographical covariates; inverse distance weighting (IOW) interpolation of regolith thickness point data from well drillings: a trigonometrical approach (TA) developed for this study which uses outcrop slopes and distance between outcrops; and a simplified regolith model (SRM). The SRM is a model modified from TA which estimates the regolith thickness based on outcrops, slopes and the distance to outcrops in eight directions. The methods were compared for three study areas (Tyreso, Vallentuna and Osteraker) in Stockholm County, Sweden. Based on the results in this paper, LR proved to be the most accurate method for regolith thickness estimation, measured through root mean square error values. Whereas IDW was the most accurate method in terms of error within 2 m, which would make it a suitable model if and when large datasets of regolith point data are available. When drilling data is scarce then both the TA and SRM methods can be used for regolith estimations. However, the SRM proved to be a more accurate regolith thickness model compared to TA. SRM shows promising results and could be used at a preliminary stage in engineering projects where little or no data is available prior to detailed field investigations in previously glaciated terrain., QC 20140702

Quantifying different hydrological components is an initial step for sustainable water resources planning and management. One rising concern is the conflict between the environment, hydropower and agriculture mainly in lowland areas where a large share of the base flows need to be abstracted. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used to understand the hydrological processes of the Upper Awash River Basin with the emphasis on analyzing the different options for surface runoff generation using the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Curve Number (CN) method. In this study, SWAT was applied incorporating two methods for estimating the retention parameter (S) for the SCS-CN method. The first allowed S to vary with soil profile moisture content (SM method) and the second allowed S to vary with accumulated plant evapotranspiration (PT method). Hydrograph comparison indicated that the PT method was better in simulating peak flows while the SM method was better in simulating the low flows. While the predicted stream flow hydrographs showed an agreement between the two methods, the simulated annual water balance indicated a disagreement in quantifying the different hydrological components. After evapotranspiration, base flow was the dominant component simulated in the SM method whereas surface runoff was the foremost in the PT method simulation. The analysis indicated that care must be taken when selecting an appropriate tool for quantifying hydrologic system to be used for decision making especially for un-gauged catchments where validation of model results is not possible., QC 20140812

Climate change and security of energy supply are main sustainability issues today and an energy systems shift towards renewable energy sources is therefore urgent. However, unless environmental impacts of such a shift are carefully taken into account, imposed resource and land use changes may counteract other sustainability goals, such as preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) provides a comprehensive framework for assessment of policies and plans where a full range of environmental issues are addressed. The aim of this article was to find possibilities for comprehensive sustainability assessment among published energy-environment models and the linking of renewable energy analysis to landscape and biodiversity issues through land use concerns. Based on the review of relevant energy, environmental and linking models, a survey on publications and a case study on the EU Energy Roadmap 2050, the results show that existing energy models and research have low concerns on land use, landscapes and biodiversity. Consequently, it would be difficult to provide comprehensive decision support by using only these tools. However, suitable energy models, ecological assessment models and multi-criteria approaches exist with great potential for inter-linking. The development of energy models could thus have new orientations, connecting them to involve renewable energy options with land use, landscape and biodiversity concerns, which could be advanced into powerful SEA tools for integrated policy assessment. This will enable the development of more comprehensive decision support tools for assessing future energy scenarios, integrating main policy concerns when assessing renewable energy options., QC 20140610

Pakistan is an agricultural country with an increasing interest for hydropower. Water management problems such as sedimentation and evaporation have been of high concern for surface water reservoirs for many years. Therefore, groundwater storage through subsurface dams could be promising, especially considering the monsoon rainfall and seasonal river flows in Pakistan. The paper aims to develop and test a methodology to locate suitable sites for construction of subsurface dams using spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA) in the northern parts of Pakistan. For the study, spatial data on geology, slope, land cover, soil depth and topographic wetness index (TWI) was used. Two weighting techniques, i.e. the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the factor interaction method (FIM), were employed and compared. The sensitivity of the two methods as well as of the model parameters was analysed. The suitability map derived from AHP yielded about 3 % (16 km(2)) of the total area as most suitable, about 4 % (22 km(2)) as moderately suitable and about 0.8 % (5 km(2)) as least suitable. The suitability map derived from FIM identified about 2.7 % (14 km(2)) of the total area as most suitable, about 4 % (22 km(2)) as moderately suitable and about 1 % (7 km(2)) as least suitable. The sensitivity analyses suggested that AHP was a more robust weighting technique than FIM and that land cover was the most sensitive factor. The methodology presented here shows promising results and could be used in early planning to locate suitable sites for construction of subsurface dams., QC 20141203

In order to build competence for sustainability analysis and assessment of urban systems, it is seen as essential to build on models representing urban form, landuse and transportation, urban metabolism, as well as ecological processes. This type of analysis of interacting sub-systems requires an advanced model integration platform, yet open for learning and for further development. Moreover, since the aim is to increase urban experience with ecosystem management in the wide sense, the platform needs to be open and easily available, with high visualisation capacity. For this purpose, the LEAM model was applied to the Stockholm Region and two potential future scenarios were developed, resulting from alternative policies. The scenarios differed widely and the dense urban development of Scenario Compact could be visualised, destroying much of the Greenstructure of Stockholm, while Scenario Urban Nature steered the development more to outer suburbs and some sprawl. For demonstration of the need for further development of biodiversity assessment models, a network model tied to a prioritised ecological profile was applied and altered by the scenarios. It could be shown that the Greenstructure did not support this profile very well. Thus, there is a need for dynamic models for negotiations, finding alternative solutions and interacting with other models. The LEAM Stockholm case study is planned to be further developed, to interact with more advanced transport and land use models, as well as analysing energy systems and urban water issues. This will enable integrated sustainability analysis and assessment of complex urban systems, for integration in the planning process in Stockholm as well as for comparative sustainability studies between different cities, with the goal to build more sustainable urban systems and to increase urban experiences in ecosystem management., QC 2012. Updated to published 20131202.

The construction sector consumes significant quantities of energy and contributes substantially to greenhouse gas emissions. It is imperative that the sector considers a renewable component to its energy procurement. The sector has adopted various policy instruments such as impact assessment and green procurement for improving its environmental performance. Green procurement involves the procurement of services, products and also energy that meet environmental requirements. This paper focused primarily on the conceptualisation of the inter-link between impact assessment and green procurement. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with three fundamental categories of stakeholders that involved client, contractor and energy company. Although the interview responses showed varied perspectives on the inter-link, most of the interviewees acknowledged its need and suggested certain approaches towards establishing the inter-link. The highlighted approach was to consider the use of commercially available environmental certification tools and focus on areas such as partnerships. Future research should examine how environmental certification tools could facilitate the inter-link and how partnerships need to be arranged therein., QC 20150624

Subsurface dams constitute an affordable and effective method for the sustainable development and management of groundwater resources when constructed on suitable sites. Such dams have rarely been constructed in crystalline rock areas and to best of our knowledge, geographic information system (GIS) has never been used in any methodology for locating suitable sites for constructing these dams. This paper presents a new methodology to locate suitable sites for the construction of subsurface dams using GIS software supported by groundwater balance modelling in a study area Boda-Kalvsvik, Sweden. Groundwater resources were calculated based on digitized geological data and assumptions regarding stratigraphic layering taken from well archive data and geological maps. These estimates were then compared with future extractions for domestic water supply using a temporally dynamic water balance model. Suitability analyses for subsurface dams were based on calculated topographic wetness index (TWI) values and geological data, including stratigraphic information. Groundwater balance calculations indicated that many of the most populated areas were susceptible to frequent water supply shortages. Of the 34 sub-catchments within the study area: ten were over-extracted, nine did not have any water supply demand at all, one was self-sufficient and the remaining 14 were able to meet the water supply demand with surplus storage capacity. Six suitable sites for the construction of subsurface dams were suggested in the vicinity of the over-extracted sites based on suitability analysis and groundwater balance estimates. The new methodology shows encouraging results for regions with humid climate but having limited natural water storage capacities. The developed methodology can be used as a preliminary planning step for subsurface dam construction, establishing a base for more detailed field investigations., QC 20131206