Geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in deep saline aquifers is one approach to mitigate release from large point sources to the atmosphere. Understanding of in-situ processes providing trapping is important to the development of realistic models and the planning of future storage projects. This thesis covers both field- and pore-scale numerical modeling studies of such geohydrological processes, with focus on residual trapping. The setting is a CO2-injection experiment at the Heletz test site, conducted within the frame of the EU FP7 MUSTANG and TRUST projects. The objectives of the thesis are to develop and analyze alternative experimental characterization test sequences for determining in-situ residual CO2 saturation (Sgr), as well as to analyze the impact of the injection strategy on trapping, the effect of model assumptions (coupled wellbore-reservoir flow, geological heterogeneity, trapping model) on the predicted trapping, and to develop a pore-network model (PNM) for simulating and analyzing pore-scale mechanisms. The results include a comparison of alternative characterization test sequences for estimating Sgr. The estimates were retrieved through parameter estimation. The effect on the estimate of including various data sets was determined. A new method, using withdrawal and an indicator-tracer, for obtaining a residual zone in-situ was also introduced. Simulations were made of the CO2 partitioning between layers in a multi-layered formation, and parameters influencing this were identified. The results showed the importance of accounting for coupled wellbore-reservoir flow in simulations of such scenarios. Simulations also showed that adding chase-fluid stages after a conventional CO2 injection enhances the (residual and dissolution) trapping. Including geological heterogeneity generally decreased the estimated trapping. The choice of trapping model may largely effect the quantity of the predicted residual trapping (although most of them produced similar results). The use of an appropriate trapping model and description of geological heterogeneity for a site when simulating CO2 sequestration is vital, as different assumptions may give significant discrepancies in predicted trapping. The result also includes a PNM code, for multiphase quasi-static flow and trapping in porous materials. It was used to investigate trapping and obtain an estimated trapping (IR) curve for Heletz sandstone.

Freshwater is essential for a functional society and the human well-being. However, it should not be taken for granted. Freshwater aquifers in coastal are subject to current and future risk of becoming saltwater contaminated – reaching a tipping point. Freshwater security on islands is vulnerable. The aim of this empirical study is to identify the effects of a 2-meter sea level rise and the current risk of well salinization at the Baltic Sea island of Öland, Sweden. A Geographical Information System (GIS) was used to conduct a quantitative risk assessment analysis. Natural and physical parameters affect the risk of intrusion into wells including hydrology, geomorphology, and climatology. Anthropogenic causes and climate change also add to the risk of salinization. However, they are not included in the quantitative study. The spatial distribution of the current risk is mapped in this study and can be used as a tool to identify wells at risk. Moreover, a future sea level rise has been visualized and show that 3% of all wells on the island will get directly inundated along with 5% of the total land area. Important land such as urban areas, nature reserves, and animal protection areas will get inundated including the loss of environmental and socio-economic values. A precautionary approach needs to be implemented in future planning since many wells are already at risk of salinization. The complexity of the problem is vast, and this study aims to fill the gaps in literature and previous research in a more multi-criterion way. Nevertheless, the political discussion urgently needs to address the topic and a mitigation and adaptation strategy must be on the agenda.

Halten organiska kolföreningar ökar i svenska ytvatten till följd av bland annat klimatförändringar och förändrad markanvändning i avrinningsområdet. Organiskt kol bidrar till färg, smak och lukt på vattnet och fungerar även som substrat för akvatiska mikroorganismer. Ungefär hälften av svenskt dricksvatten produceras idag från ytvatten. Det är av stor vikt att det organiska kolet, och då särskilt den bionedbrytbara lösta kolfraktionen, BDOC, renas bort från dricksvatten då dessa kolföreningar annars kan utgöra en fara för dricksvattensäkerheten. Vid Lovö vattenreningsverk i Stockholm testas nu en ny jonbytesbaserad reningsprocess i pilotskala för att förbättra vattenreningen av ytvatten med förhöjda halter organiska kolföreningar. För att undersöka och utvärdera den nya reningsprocessen togs vattenprover på ingående råvatten och därefter mellan varje steg i den jonbytesbaserade reningsprocessen. För jämförelse genomfördes samma provtagning i den fullskaliga, konventionella reningsprocessen, en process som idag producerar dricksvatten till konsumenter i norra delen av Stockholm. Proverna inkuberades i mörker i 20° C under cirka tre veckor. Under tiden utfördes mätningar och prover togs för analys. De parametrar som analyserades var syrgaskonsumtion, förändringar i bakteriehalt och halten totalt organiskt kol (TOC), samtliga med målet att kvantifiera den mikrobiella tillväxtpotentialen och innehållet av BDOC. Analyserna visade att det nya processteget i pilotanläggningen, som baseras på suspenderade anjonbytare, har potential att rena bort delar av den bionedbrytbara fraktionen av TOC. Det efterföljande, desinficerande, ozoneringssteget oxiderar därefter delar av kvarvarande TOC till mer bionedbrytbar form. Det allra sista reningssteget, ett granulerat aktivt kolfilter var ej i drift under projektet. Detta steg har dock i andra studier visats rena bionedbrytbart kol effektivt, varför den sammantagna bedömningen är att den nya reningsmetoden har god potential för rening av bionedbrytbara kolföreningar.

I Sverige finns det en brist på studier angående hydrologisk torka trots att det existerar problem med torka idag. Hydrologisk torka kan ha allvarliga konsekvenser på både naturen och samhället när det kommer till vattentillgång, växt -och djurliv och jordbruk. Av den anledningen är det viktigt att studier görs som undersöker allvarligheten i den hydrologiska torkan i Sverige för att få en bättre förståelse. I den här studien användes ett månadsvis Q95 värde som ett tröskelvärde med ett minimum av fem dagar i följd under tröskelvärdet för att definiera hydrologisk torka. Metoden applicerades på fem avrinningsområden in Sverige med data som sträckte sig mellan 1961- 2010. Resultatet från studien visade på att hydrologisk torka var speciellt framträdande under v issa år. Dessa år verkade vara kopplade till varandra under två till tre år i följd. De visade även ofta liknande månader och antal dagar under tröskelvärdet. Andra studier gjorda över de Nordiska länderna visade på liknande resultat. Metoden överensstämde även till en stor del av historisk torka i Sverige. För att kunna ge en större och komplett bild av hydrologisk torka diskuterades några möjliga metoder. Nederbörd, snö, strömflöde, evapotranspiration och grundvatten skulle behöva räknas med för en mer pr ecis studie. Standardiserade index kan täcka de mesta av de olika delarna, men för att få mera specifika förlustvärden så skulle även en tröskelnivå metod behöva implementeras i studien / In Sweden there is a lack of studies on the topic of hydrological drought even though it exist present problems of drought. Hydrological drought can have severe effects on both nature and society regarding water supply, animal life and agriculture. It is important to investigate the severity of hydrological drought in Sweden to get a better understanding of this phenomenon and its affects. To define hydrological drought this study used a Q95 monthly threshold with a minimum of 5 consecutive days below the threshold. This method was used on five catchments in Sweden with data ranging from 1961 -2010. The result from the study showed that hydrological drought was very prominent in some year s. These years seemed to be often linked together in two to three consecutive years. They often had similar amount of days and months below the threshold. Other studies over the Nordic countries showed similar results. The method also gave a result that to a certain degree showed droughts that coincided with historical records of drought in Sweden. This gave a positive feedback of the index accuracy. To get a broader picture of how hydrological drought propagates in Sweden some possible choices were discuss ed. Precipitation, snow, streamflow, evapotranspiration and groundwater would need to be covered for a more precise study. Standardized indices have most of spectrum covered, but it would be suggested to implement the threshold level method as well to get accurate deficits.

In the last decade, anthropogenic climate change has caused strong impacts on natural and human systems worldwide. It is of particular importance to include youths in the international decision-making process centred on climate change as they represent the closest living relatives to future generations. Therefore they need to have a say in the decisions affecting their future. Different schools of thought defined characteristics for ideal communication in these political decision-making arenas. The most contradicting theories are on one hand deliberative democrats who favour dialogic and consensus-based proceedings and on the other hand proponents of agonistic pluralism who prefer the conflictual elements of force and disruption in communication processes. The aim of this study is to explore synergies and intersections between both in theory contradicting paths. The study follows a case study design of the international climate change negotiations COP22 in Marrakech 2016. The data collection process involved empirical observations and semi-structured interviews with 30 international youth participants as to their experiences of participating in proceedings, petitioning politicians, and protesting outside venues. The results of this study show that young people concurrently navigate between formal deliberative proceedings and informal agonistic approaches, taking advantage of their underacknowledged positive cumulative and complementing effects. The interplay between both paths stimulates meaningful involvement for youths at the conference and within the climate change social movement. Youths navigating simultaneously between both paths are shown to have both insider knowledge about the vulnerabilities of the system and outsider knowledge providing enough distance to criticise the proceedings. Thus, these youths have the best merits to meaningfully involve in the decision making and successfully introduce change. The process of enculturation to the norms and procedural rules of the conference contributes to the level of meaningful youth involvement and determines the participation path chosen. Moreover, the results outline that the influence of each path in the decision-making process and the definition of meaningful involvement varies with the arena in which it is executed. Whereas meaningful involvement for deliberative inclined youths can be best described through a shared power youth-adult participation, youths following the agonistic path seek meaningful involvement through emotion work and empowerment expressed in direct actions and protest.

Clean drinking and recreational water is essential for human survival and contaminated water cause 1.4 million deaths worldwide every year. Both developing and developed countries suffer as a consequence of unsafe water that cause waterborne diseases. The Great Lakes region, located in the United States is no exception. Climate change is predicted to cause an increase in waterborne disease outbreaks, worldwide, in the future. To adapt to this public health threat, vulnerability assessments are necessary. This literature study includes a vulnerability assessment that describes the main factors that affect the spreading of waterborne diseases in the Great Lakes region. Future climate scenarios in the region, and previous outbreaks are also described. The study also includes a statistical analysis where mean temperature and precipitation is plotted against waterborne disease cases. The main conclusion drawn is that the Great Lakes region is at risk of becoming more vulnerable to waterborne diseases in the future, if it does not adapt to climate change.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relation between two highly relevant documents for the Colombian society: Firstly, The peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC guerrilla. Secondly, the agreement of the authorities of the country to follow and pursuit the new Sustainable Development Goals – Agenda 2030 from United Nations. For this research, an extensive existing literature review was done. Throughout the empirics, the analysis looked at the relation between these two documents to show the level of compatibility for the Sustainable Development agenda in Colombia. This compatibility is important to determine as both documents have a vital importance for the Colombian Society. The first, Peace Agreement, as it is the text that aims to propose the political agenda after more than 50 years of conflict between the authorities and the FARC guerrilla. Secondly, the SDGs – Agenda 2030 is a political agreement that countries in the world will follow to contribute to the sustainability of the planet. Thus, after having the chance to review and analyze both documents, there exist clear synergies between both documents, with the exceptions of certain topics. It can be concluded that there is much room for being optimistic in the case of Colombia, but to keep in mind that the agreements are just that: the entrance to a route that now the whole country needs to take, the path of sustainability.

The dichotomy of conservation vs. sustainable development has generated numerous debates since the introduction of the latter in the late 1980s. When UNESCO introduced the Biosphere Reserve concept in the early ‘70s, it drew even more attention to the matter. In the recent past, many initiatives to address the issue gained ground not only across Europe, but worldwide. This is the case of ecotourism, a responsible (and sustainable) form of tourism that takes place in natural areas, sustains local communities, and involves a learning experience. Even though it might look like the perfect tool to strengthen the link between conservation and sustainable development, especially in a Biosphere Reserve context, ecotourism faces many challenges. Through a case study of an Italian Biosphere Reserve that was recently awarded with the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism, Monviso Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, this research aimed at understanding local stakeholders’ stand onthe matter. A series of interviews were conducted and subsequently phenomenologically analysed to explore the possibility for ecotourism to act as a learning tool for sustainable development. Results show that ecotourism had some positive effects in the area, such as the creation of a network for collaboration between various stakeholders, among others. However, negative perception of ecotourism still play an inhibiting role, as it is not perceived asa sufficient source of income. It is discussed that this might be a consequence of two main factors: a lack of proper environmental education and the economic crisis the country is currently facing. Adjustments in the language and methods used in the educational system and a change of course at higher governmental levels might foster ecotourism to become a catalyst by being a learning tool.

For studies using lake sediments as a medium, understanding factors governing sediment distribution and properties is crucial for making accurate interpretations and conclusions. General lake sedimentation theory is however mainly based on larger lakes and systems, potentially leading to biased sampling and data interpretation when applied on a smaller system. In a paper published in 2008, Rippey et al. evaluated the fit of some general sedimentation theories on element distribution in the sediments of Kassjön (63°55´ N, 20°01´ E), northern Sweden. This small boreal lake reoccurs in the scientific literature, largely from paleolimnological studies on varved sediments in the lake, making the understanding of its sediment properties highly relevant. As part of a wider geochemical study on the lake, this paper scrutinizes the findings of Rippey et al. (2008) by using updated bathymetry and geochemical analyses, to provide further insight on sedimentation in Kassjön. Element composition, analysed with X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and dry weight was obtained from sediment samples at 40 sites. Depth at sampling sites, together with catchment morphometry and previous bathymetry, was used to improve the bathymetric understanding. Kassjön was found to have a less steep bathymetry than previously assumed, with distribution of sediment geochemistry and dry weight showing heterogeneity differing from that expected of general sedimentation theories only. These results indicate that previous findings on sedimentation in Kassjön might be too simplistic, and that small-lake sedimentation is influenced by factors not included in general sedimentation models. Caution is therefore advised when e.g. interpreting the environmental record in lake sediments.

Abstract: This research seeks to investigate the possibilities and inadequacies of including wild animals within the justice realm. It bases this research on the reasons and rationales of representatives within environmental non- governmental organizations (ENGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and public agency working with animal- rights and welfare or environmental protection. These representatives reason from a personal and organizational perspective concerning justice, ethics and morals to wild animals. Environmental Justice (EJ) and Ecological Justice (EcJ) serves as the main theories for this research where EJ is often perceived as anthropocentric and EcJ as a non- anthropocentric amelioration of the former. The results indicate that Animal Rights (AR) and World Animal Protection (WAP) think more of animals in terms of individualism, whilst World Wide Foundation (WWF), Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) think in terms of consideration for species and ecosystems holistically. Some respondents perceived justice exclusively as a human term, however with regard to altered paths of reasoning later in the interview as most respondents continuously struggled, to various degrees, to make sense of justice in relation to wild animals. There were occasional uncertainties concerning ethics and morals, however less alien than the justice term and more relevant in relation to other NGOs, i.e. animal- rights and welfare organizations and less outspoken, though not entirely dismissed, within ENGOs and public agency. However, although some respondents occasionally argued that they do not reflect on ethics, morals and justice, these interviews are testament that they do, but with other terms and concepts that could be argued to be synonymous to ethics, morals and justice and perhaps used consciously and/or unconsciously at work. In other words, one can say that a different kind of rhetoric was applied i.e. justice in form of rights, respect. Another finding of the research was a structuration concern: specifically, on whether morals and ethics are reflected in law, or whether the law becomes what constitutes our morals and ethics, given as a majority of the respondents often refer to laws as general guidelines. In other words, does the law reflect reality, or does the law constitute reality? What is the dialectic here? In conclusion, wild animals might never receive full justice, where the researcher analyses it as a sequence of animals not holding moral capacities enough to be moral agents, though with the exception of having rights. As shown in the results, some wild animals can already be said to receive justice, e.g. wild animals as state property and hunting legislation, whilst other wild animals are excluded altogether, e.g. wild animals not being considered in welfare law. In this way, many future challenges include expanding the legal stance of wild animals. Human precedence barricades the opportunities for extending justice which are shown in this study and can be said to link to relational-, aesthetical-, contextual factors and deep cultural values and associations, aspects which overshadow human flourishing, wild animals not having a counterpart, animals as objects and so forth. Though, by giving e.g. wild animals a heightened status in legislation, extending the moral circle to include wild animals the utility of justice may prove helpful in furthering the rights and welfare of animals. Additionally, properties as recognition through, e.g. agency and capabilities could also guide us in giving justice to the natural world, as highlighted by Schlosberg (2007), but also the idea of intrinsic value as highlighted by many respondents. Future research may consider the holistic and individualistic tendencies held within ENGOs, NGOs and public agency to see how it could be mutually considered to a larger extent. As highlighted by one of the respondents, perhaps laws and legislation are not enough and that one could investigate more in how one perceive animals culturally, in other words human dimensions socially and culturally.