Tailings is leftover material from mining industry and is produced in huge quantities approximately 70-99% of the ore production.  Tailings material is stored as impoundments by constructing tailings dams which are often constructed with tailings material itself. Tailings are artificial material and the mechanical behavior of tailings material upon loading is different as compared to natural soil materials. There are number of dam failures reported every year which has severe impact on inhabitants and environment nearby. Considering the failures of tailings dams and consequences there is a need to understand the tailings material in depth for safe existence of these dams. The confident dam design can assure the safe existence of tailings dams for long term as these dams are presumed to function for generations to come. The material properties in tailings dams can change during operation due to raising of new layer. Raised new layer can change stress level, which in turn may change the material properties in terms of strength, pore pressures, grain sizes etc. Today mostly tailings dam are designed by performing analysis for safety for existing and future rasings as well. These analyses are based upon a for certain factor of safety. Not very much can be done with design and analysis for tailings material if the material is not described very well. Understanding of tailings material in depth can provide help for detailed material parameters which later can be used in safety assessment for future raising and changed conditions in dam. This study presents the work carried out on tailings material from a Swedish tailings dam. The study is conducted on undisturbed and disturbed tailings material. The undisturbed tests are carried out to understand material properties as per in-situ conditions. Whereas disturbed materials are used to created different materials with different particles sizes. Initially in this study the basic properties of tailings materials are studied e.g. specific gravity, phase relationships, particle sizes, particle shapes and shear behavior on collected samples at various depths. During direct shear tests, the unexpected vertical height reductions were observed, these results are presented in this study. The comparison of strength parameters by direct shear and triaxial tests on material from various depths is also done and presented. Based on results from direct shear, triaxial and oedometer tests on uniform sized tailings material; the evaluation of primary and secondary deformations and particle breakage and effect of vertical loads is also carried out and presented. The study also includes the comparison of strength parameters for each particles size. The breakage of particles is analyzed by sieving the material after direct shear tests followed by a particle shape study. The effect of deposition on shear strength parameters is also studied by construction of samples with different angle of deposition of material. The strength parameters of uniform sized particles in triaxial tests are also evaluated and discussed.

At the Lampen site outside of Kalix, Sweden two embankments with heights 1,5m and 2m have been built to study and test the properties of sulfide soil that is located in the Gulf of Bothnia coastal areas. In this master thesis investigations have been done on what more could be done at the Lampen site today concerning new technics, measurements, observations and calculations etc. rather than building new embankments. Conclusions have been drawn from a total of 7 cases including Lampen what more could be done at the Lampen site. Verifications have also been done on the work made at the different cases. It was concluded that the work on all the different cases could be verified in some way against hand calculations or PLAXIS models beside the Murro test embankment site because this work had too little release data aterial given. Made verifications gave corresponding results to the described and measured ones in the real cases. Cases that have been looked at are: 􀀀 Murro test embankment (Karstunen et.al, 2005) 􀀀 Test embankment constructed to failure on soft marine clay in Malaysia (Brand, 1991) 􀀀 Test embankment on hydraulically placed PFA (Pulverized Fuel Ashes) in the United Kingdom (Cousens, et al., 2003) 􀀀 Trial Embankment on peat in Booneschans the Netherlands (Zwanenburg, et al., 2012) 􀀀 A case study on sulphide soil on road of E12 north link, Västerslätt, Umeå, Sweden (Törnqvist, 2013) 􀀀 Follow up and evaluation of settlements on the road 760 in Norrbotten, Sweden (Johansson, 2010) 􀀀 Test Embankments Lampen, Sweden (Andersson, 2012) From these cases it was concluded that more calculations in Plaxis 2D, Plaxis 3D and maybe Geosuite settlements software programs should be done at the Lampen site, both for long term and short term behavior and settlements as the only current model made is an Embacko V1.02 which is based on the work and results by Andersson (2012). Also verifications should be made by hand calculations on the models as this had not been done until today. Further disturbed samples should have been taken at the Lampen site as it have been done at the Murro site in Finland as this site is built on similar ground conditions with sulfide soil. Heavy equipment used at the site and as well the building of the embankments might have disturb or influenced the soil so the properties might have been changed. Also a couple of new measurement technics have been looked at for Lampen. The looked at technics are optics fibers, drones and ShapeAccelArray (SAA). ShapeAccelArray (SAA) devices could be installed at some different points on the site, down through the soil profile to give better readings on vibrations, accelerations, deformations and settlements. A drone could also be used during the snow free period to fly daily-predefined paths and make a 3D mapping of the geotechnical structures. And if the embankments would be built now again from the start it would be a good idea to install from the start a smart geotextile with polymer optical fibers (POF) totally covering the whole embankment size. This would give continues reading on deformations and displacements. But since the measurements and all other work at the Lampen site in the project went well and gave good results there is no need to do further changes.

Den finkorniga sulfidjorden som finns längs Norrlandskusten är känd för sin stora sättningsbenägenhet och utgör en potentiell miljörisk genom försurning och urlakning av metaller om den inte hanteras rätt. För att förebygga miljörisker och utveckla jordförstärknings- och grundläggningsmetoder måste en ökad kunskap om sulfidjordar tas fram. I ett pågående forskningsprojekt vid Statens Geotekniska Institut studeras sulfidjords kompressionsegenskaper och rekommendationer ska tas fram avseende underlag för sättningsberäkningar. I projektet omfattas ett antal provbankar där ett av dessa områden, Lampen ligger i Kalix i norra Sverige. I detta examensarbete har det utförts numeriska analyser i finita elementprogrammet PLAXIS 2D av sättningar och portryck under en av provbankarna i Lampen och jämförelser görs med tidigare rapporterade fältmätningar. Tre olika delar analyseras i FE-programmet PLAXIS 2D. I den första delen, som är huvuddelen, utvärderas materialmodellernas, Soft Soil (SS) respektive Soft Soil Creep (SSC), förmåga att simulera de uppmätta sättningarna och porövertrycken för en period av cirka ett års belastning av provbank. Den andra delen består av en analys av de två deformationstillstånden, axialsymmetriskt och plant. De två deformationstillståden jämförs med hänsyn till sättningar och portryck. I den tredje delen utvärderas påverkan på simulerade resultat av olika nivåer på grundvattenytan, en variation som har observerats i provområdet i Lampen. Vid en jämförelse av de konstitutiva modellerna noteras som förväntat större sättningar vid användning av SSC-modellen i jämförelse med SS-modellen. SSC-modellen visar även ett högre porövertryck. Vid jämförelse med i fält uppmätta värden noteras att de mest överensstämmande sättningarna erhålls från SS-modellen medan portrycksutvecklingen simuleras bättre, men ändå långt från bra, med SSC-modellen (för simulering med dubbelsidig dränering). Vid analys av deformationstillstånd (axialsymmetriskt kontra plant) noteras en jämnare fördelning av deformationer längs banken vid användandet av axialsymmetriskt tillstånd. Den potentiella brottrörelsen som uppvisas vid släntkrön vid tillämpning av plant deformationstillstånd är inte lika tydlig vid axialsymmetriskt tillstånd. Det axialsymmetriska tillståndet visar även ett lägre porövertryck. Numeriska simuleringar av den varierande nivån på grundvattenytan som observerats i fältmätningar visar vid fallet en lägre antagen grundvattennivå en marginellt mindre sättning.  Potentiella brottrörelser blir inte lika tydliga då den lägre nivån på grundvattenytan simuleras.

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En av Sveriges största industrier är skogsindustrin. Att sköta stora skogsinnehav medför vissa svårigheter, t.ex. så kan i händelse av en storm kan delar av skogen bli vindfälld. Det är då viktigt att upptäcka och ta bort de fallna träden eftersom det annars kan leda till granbarkborrangrepp. En metod för att upptäcka den vindfällda skogen är att ta flygbilder över området, vilket kan bli både dyrt och tidsödande. Därför testas i denna studie detektering av stormfälld skog i Sentinel 2 bilder. Sentinel 2 har valts ut eftersom den har både en hög spatial- och temporal upplösning samt att bilderna är tillgängliga gratis. Tidigare studier på området har använt satellitbilder med en lägre spatial upplösning eller data från andra typer av fjärranalys. De flesta av dessa metoder är ganska komplexa eller väldigt specifika för ett särskilt fall. Metoden som tas fram i denna studie ska vara enkel att implementera även för personer utan någon djupare kunskap inom fjärranalys. Bilddifferens med olika index såsom NDVI, NDMI och GreenNDVI testas. Även oövervakad klassificering testas. Noggrannheten har utvärderats med två-stegs metoden med en noggrannhet på 85 % men även en konfusionsmatris tillämpas för att utvärdera noggrannheten av områden där ingen förändring inträffat. Bilddifferens med NDVI och GreenNDVI klarar två-stegs testet när ett statistiskt bestämt tröskelvärde används, NDVI får högst användarnoggrannhet. Felmatrisen visar dock att det finns många stormfällen i ytorna som blivit klassade som ingen förändring, den oövervakade klassificeringen får inte det problemet i samma utsträckning. Bilddifferens i NDVI med statistiskt bestämt tröskelvärde bedöms vara den mest effektiva metoden för att detektera stormfälld skog.

<p><p>Since the first car appeared, the pollution on the roads became an issue, which is still mainly unsolved. Too many people complain about traffic noise. Various methods have been developed that aimed at minimizing the noise pollution and improving the environment.</p><p>This thesis presents the problems posed by noise pollution, covers the background of noise pollution and its effects on human health. Another important part of the thesis covers the method of noise calculation which applies in specific Nordic countries.</p><p>The main goal of the thesis is to present maps of noise levels on roads for region Skåne in Sweden. Because the regulation and the limits for noise levels are different for different countries, I could find various calculators for traffic noise. Australia, England, USA have the noise level calculators open for public. Another professional calculator, SoundPlan, is a program that can perform a very accurate calculation for traffic noise but only for small areas. Because of this disadvantage, the request for my thesis was to provide a program which can calculate traffic noise level for wide areas. As a master student specialist in GIS (Geographic Information System) it was natural to develop the traffic noise calculator with available GIS tools.</p><p>The software system to calculate the traffic noise maps was implemented in ArcMap 9.1, a GIS program which allows creation of tools, according to a mathematical description of noise calculator. The mathematical description is based on the Nordic Prediction method, a document which set up requirements for prediction of road traffic noise. ArcMap 9.1 allows the development of extensions in different programming languages. The tools implemented in this thesis are written in Visual Basic. The thesis work implements several tools for calculating noise levels, starting from the basic traffic noise level and introducing additional noise corrections to perform more accurate noise calculation. The additional corrections could be added because I had access to additional data regarding buildings and population location. The available population data from Lund gave me the opportunity to create a tool which performs population exposure to noise in this region.</p><p> </p></p>

<p>Metadata is the important information describing geographical data resources and their key elements. It is used to guarantee the availability and accessibility of the data. ISO 19115 is a metadata standard for geographical information, making the geographical metadata shareable, retrievable, and understandable at the global level. In order to cope with the massive, high-dimensional and high-diversity nature of geographical data, data mining is an applicable method to discover the metadata.</p><p>This thesis develops and evaluates an automated mining method for extracting metadata from the data environment on the Local Area Network at the National Land Survey of Sweden (NLS). These metadata are prepared and provided across Europe according to the metadata implementing rules for the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE). The metadata elements are defined according to the numerical formats of four different data entities: document data, time-series data, webpage data, and spatial data. For evaluating the method for further improvement, a few attributes and corresponding metadata of geographical data files are extracted automatically as metadata record in testing, and arranged in database. Based on the extracted metadata schema, a retrieving functionality is used to find the file containing the keyword of metadata user input. In general, the average success rate of metadata extraction and retrieval is 90.0%.</p><p>The mining engine is developed in C# programming language on top of the database using SQL Server 2005. Lucene.net is also integrated with Visual Studio 2005 to build an indexing framework for extracting and accessing metadata in database.</p>

<p>Chemical stabilization of mine waste from Ljusnarsbergsfältet with sewage sludge and calcium carbonate residues</p><p>Mine waste from Ljusnarsbergsfältet in Kopparberg, Sweden, is considered to constitute a great risk for human health and the surrounding environment. Some of the waste rock consists of sulphide minerals. When sulphide minerals come into contact with dissolved</p><p>oxygen and precipitation, oxidation may occur resulting in acid mine drainage (AMD) and the release of heavy metals. The purpose of this study has been to characterise the waste material and try to chemically stabilize the waste rock with a mixture of sewage sludge and calcium carbonate. The drawback of using organic matter is the risk that dissolved organic matter can act as complexing agents for heavy metals and in this way increase their mobility. An additional study to examine this risk has therefore also been performed.</p><p>The project started with a pilot study in order to identify the material fraction that was suitable for the experiment. When suitable material had been chosen, a column test was carried out for the purpose of studying the slurry’s influence on the mobility of metals along with the production of acidity. To clarify the organic material’s potential for</p><p>complexation a pH-stat batch test was used. Drainage water samples, from the columns,</p><p>were regularly taken during the experiment. These samples were analyzed for pH, electrical conductivity, alkalinity, redox potential, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), sulphate and leaching metals. The effluent from the pH-stat-test was only analyzed on a few occasions and only for metal content and change in DOC concentration.</p><p>The results from the laboratory experiments showed that the waste rock from Ljusnarsberg easily leached large amounts of metals. The stabilization of the waste rock succeeded in maintaining a near neutral pH in the rock waste leachate, compared to a pH 3 leachate from untreated rock waste The average concentration of copper and zinc in the leachate from untreated waste rock exceeded 100 and 1000 mg/l respectively, while these metals were detected at concentrations around 0.1 and 1 mg/l, respectively, in the leachate from the treated wastes. Examined metals had concentrations between 40 to 4000 times lower in the leachate from treated waste rock, which implies that the stabilization with reactive amendments succeeded. The long term effects are, however, not determined. The added sludge contributed to immobilize metals at neutral pH despite a small increase in DOC concentration. The problem with adding sludge is that if pH decreases with time there is a risk of increased metal leaching.</p>

Today’s climate changes will probably give rise to precipitation in Sweden, which will cause more floods in Swedish rivers. Many of the Swedish rivers are regulated and have lots of hydro-electro power plants. Higher floods in the rivers will give greater water loads on the dams, which mean that a higher discharge through the sluice gates and in the spillway channels is needed. High discharge of water in a spillway channel can create scour of the material in the channel. Usually, for spillways in Swedish hydropower plants, this material is rock and the scour is in form of rock blocks. Scour downstream of dams can in the worst case endanger the dam construction. The purpose of this study was to identify the extent and the type of rock scour that may appear in spillway channels of Swedish hydro power plants. The scour in rock material in a spillway channel is usually caused by pressure fluctuations in the water, which can cause large differences in pressure on the top and bottom surfaces of blocks. This pressure difference can be high enough to lift whole blocks. The main factors that affect this kind of scour are the crack pattern of the rock mass, the geometry of the spillway, the discharge of water and the surface fluctuation in the water. In this study a numeric model analyse, a field study and a literature study has been made in order to examine the influence on scour of the orientation of cracks in a rock mass. A rock mass containing a group of cracks with small or no dip is more likely to scour when it is exposed to discharging water. The orientation of the cracks in a rock mass relative to the direction of the water flow has also an impact on the capacity of the rock mass to resist scour. In the field study the scour pattern in the spillway channels of the hydro power plants in Ligga, Harsprånget, Porjus, Satisjaure and Seitevare was examined. The scour of rock mass in the spillway channels in Ligga, Harsprånget and Porjus has been extensive. The rock mass in these channels has bedding cracks of small distances. This is probably the reason why these rock masses are sensitive for loads from discharging water. The rock mass in the spillway channel in Satisjaure has lots of cracks and is also very sensitive for loads from discharging water. This channel has been rebuilt during 2004. There are different methods to predict the ability of a rock mass to resist scour. The Erodibility Index Method is a semi-empirical method that is verified by field observations in the USA. In this work the ability to apply this method on Swedish channels has been examined with field observations from Porjus, Harsprånget and Seitevare. As the Erodibility Index Method seemed to work in the case of these three spillways, it was also applied on the spillways in Satisjaure and Ligga. Measures to reduce the energy in the discharging water in the spillways are very effective to reduce the risk of scouring in the rock mass. Blasted stairs in the rock mass in a channel or a stilling basin downstream the sluice gate is something that can reduce the energy in discharging water. Further documentary of spillway channels, like mapping and laser scanning, would contribute to a further verification of the Erodibility Index Method and to get a general survey of the risk of scour in Swedish spillways. / Dagens klimatsituation ser ut att ge ökad mängd nederbörd i Sverige, vilket innebär att de svenska älvarna kommer att utsättas för allt högre vattenflöden. De flesta av Sveriges älvar är reglerade, d v s längs älvarna finns en mängd större och mindre dammar. Ett högre flöde i älvarna innebär även rikligare tillrinning till dammarna vilket medför att avbördningen från dem måste bli större. Avbördningen från dammarna sker genom utskov och höga vattenflöden i utskovskanalerna kan orsaka erosion på det berg som kanalen vanligen består av. Erosionen är av typen ”blockerosion” där hela bergblock av större eller mindre storlek lösgörs från bergmassan. I värsta fall kan blockerosionen krypa uppströms och erodera dammkroppen bakifrån, vilket skulle kunna innebära att dammen brister. Syftet med detta arbete var att identifiera omfattning och typ av bergerosionsproblem som uppkommer i utskovskanaler. Blockerosion uppkommer i regel då forsande vatten skapar tryckskillnader mellan övre och undre ytan på block. Tryckskillnaden kan då skapa tillräckliga lyftkrafter för att block ska lossna. De huvudsakliga faktorerna som styr blockerosionen är bergmassans sprickighet och material, utskovskanalens geometri och vattnets flöde och ytfluktuation. Genom litteraturstudie, numerisk modellanalys samt fältstudie har inverkan på blockerosionen av sprickriktningar utretts. En bergmassa som innehåller sprickgrupper som har liten, nära horisontell, stupning är känslig för vattenbelastning. Stupningsriktningen i förhållande till flödesriktningen har också betydelse för blockerosionen. Stupningsriktning i flödesriktningen gör bergmassan mer känslig för belastning av forsande vatten och gynnar därmed erosionen. Utskovskanalerna i Ligga, Harsprånget, Porjus, Satisjaure samt Seitevare har undersökts med avseende på erosionsrisk. Erosionen i Ligga, Harsprånget och Porjus har varit omfattande och detta beror troligtvis på att dessa kanaler har subhorisontella bankningssprickor med litet sprickavstånd. I Satisjaure är bergmassan mycket sprickig, varför denna kanal är mycket känslig för vattnets belastning. Där har dock åtgärder vidtagits så att kanalen ska tåla sitt dimensionerande flöde. I Seitevare är erosionsrisken i kanalens övre del liten. Det finns olika metoder för att bedöma erosionsrisken i en bergmassa. Erosionsindexmetoden är en semiempirisk metod som är verifierad med platsobservationer i USA. Med hjälp av observationer från Porjus, Harsprånget och Seitevare har erosionsindexmetodens tillämplighet på svenska kanaler undersökts. För dessa tre observationer verkar metoden fungera bra och har därför även använts i kanalerna i Satisjaure och Ligga. Energidämpande åtgärder i kanalerna, såsom energiomvandlargropar och utsprängda trappor i kanalerna, har visats sig vara mycket effektivt för att minska erosionsrisken. En noga dokumentering av utskovskanaler, som t ex kartering och inmätningar, skulle bidra till att erosionsindexmetoden kunde verifieras ytterligare och att en översiktlig bedömning av erosionsrisken i utskovskanaler enkelt kan erhållas.

Metadata is the important information describing geographical data resources and their key elements. It is used to guarantee the availability and accessibility of the data. ISO 19115 is a metadata standard for geographical information, making the geographical metadata shareable, retrievable, and understandable at the global level. In order to cope with the massive, high-dimensional and high-diversity nature of geographical data, data mining is an applicable method to discover the metadata. This thesis develops and evaluates an automated mining method for extracting metadata from the data environment on the Local Area Network at the National Land Survey of Sweden (NLS). These metadata are prepared and provided across Europe according to the metadata implementing rules for the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE). The metadata elements are defined according to the numerical formats of four different data entities: document data, time-series data, webpage data, and spatial data. For evaluating the method for further improvement, a few attributes and corresponding metadata of geographical data files are extracted automatically as metadata record in testing, and arranged in database. Based on the extracted metadata schema, a retrieving functionality is used to find the file containing the keyword of metadata user input. In general, the average success rate of metadata extraction and retrieval is 90.0%. The mining engine is developed in C# programming language on top of the database using SQL Server 2005. Lucene.net is also integrated with Visual Studio 2005 to build an indexing framework for extracting and accessing metadata in database.