Many countries have committed to goals of emission reductions outlined by the Paris Agreement. The actions and results seen thus far from national governments have been lackluster notwithstanding their good faith pledges. City governments have taken it upon themselves to pick up where their national governments have failed. A large portion of emissions are due to transportation. Individuals’ daily travel patterns are typically limited to within a relatively local area. As mobility patterns differ between cities, municipalities have a unique role in transitioning to a sustainable society that blanket policies by national governments cannot achieve. This results in a bottom-up approach in achieving national commitments to the Paris Agreement. In order to make effective policies and plans, municipalities should make decisions based on known information. Before reducing emissions, it must be known where and by whom the emissions are being produced. This report uses Uppsala as a case study to explore how GIS can be used to communicate and create an understanding between data scientists and politicians so that mitigation efforts can be evidencebased. The report results in several methods for visualizing personal automobile emissions based on registration data. The report continues in discussing some potential actions that can be taken to addressing the emissions from neighborhoods indicated as large contributors by the visualizations.

Climate change has caused severe vulnerabilities for the global food production system and alternative agriculture methods are needed as a solution. Urban agriculture (UA) can be a sustainable solution, making the global food system more resilient and increasing the global food security. Using available empty rooftops to implement green roofs for food production can be a solution to challenges faced by urban agriculture, such as unavailability of land and proper amount of sunlight. The aim of this thesis is to explore the potential of green roofs in Uppsala city, looking into the food production capacity and the energy conservation benefits for buildings having a green roof. With the help of GIS software, 745 flat roofs with a total available area of 877408 m2, were considered feasible for implementing green roofs. Upon calculations based on yields obtained from other studies, the results revealed that the annual vegetable production on potential green roofs in Uppsala city is 23550 T of tomato, 48 T of cabbage and 96 T of chilli. On comparing the tomato production with the amount of tomato consumed annually by the population of Uppsala city, the data reveals that less than 10 % of the estimated production can meet the annual demand.Upon investigating the thermal insulation effects of green sedum roof on a building in Uppsala city, the thesis reveals that annually, 824 kWh or .824 MWh can be saved, providing a monetary benefit of SEK 543. The results point out that, on implementation of green sedum roofs on 100 buildings, about 82 MWh amount of energy can be conserved, thus reducing the overall consumption of fuels such as peat and oil and reducing the emissions of green house gases. Green roofs in comparison with conventional roofs can also act as a heat sink to keep the building cooler during warmer summers, thus reducing the demand for artificial cooling. Keywords: Sustainable Development, Urban Sustainability, Food Security, Energy Security, Resilience, Urban Agriculture, Green Roof, Thermal Insulation, Energy Conservation, Climate Change.

Tunnels and anthropogenic underground cavities are a very natural part of our everyday modern life. Especially in larger cities such as Stockholm where the infrastructure reaches far above ground level as well as deep below the surface. Metro, commuter train, cars along with many other ways of transportation have been moved below the surface the last century. Before then there were neither the technology nor the knowledge of how tunnels and underground cavities should be constructed so that the safety is not neglected. Several different forces are present in the bedrock below us, such as the weight of the overlying rock/strata and stresses due to tectonic, thermal, or hydrostatic forces among other. Knowledge of these forces and stresses are essential so that you will not get a piece of rock falling on your head on your way home from work with the metro. In most of the cases the roof of tunnels or underground cavities are shaped like an arch, and the stability of these arches depends on several aspects. At excavation of rock, there are natural arches in the bedrock. However, the stability of these arches depends on stresses, amount of overlying rock and the presence of rock joints and fractures (amount, directions and the characteristics of rock joints and fractures are important). These among other aspects determine the stability and the size of the arch. The natural arch in a manmade underground cavity or tunnel is seldom sufficient for it to be safe enough for humans to be in. There is a need for reinforcement of different kinds, where rock bolting is one of the most common. This bachelor’s thesis used a model to simulate arches in tunnels and cavities. The model which simulated an arch was an uplifted box (820x820x250 mm) with railroad macadam, pressure gauges and systematically placed bolts (threaded rods with nuts and washers at each end). The bottom part of the uplifted box could be removed. With a torque wrench the macadam was subjected to different torques, and the bolts were then removed according to a pattern to see at which torques and stresses the model held. The purpose of the thesis was to develop a refined method for bolt model so that controlled experiments could be done. The purpose was as well to determine how important the stresses in the rock is for the span of the arch. The thesis should also function as an instruction for future experiments at the university.  According to the results of the experiments, both lower stresses and higher stresses gave rise to a large arch span. In many cases, an even stress distribution in the model resulted in a greater arch span, but in some cases not. More experiments would have to be done to reach a reliable result. Therefore, there is great potential for other students to continue these experiments. / Tunnlar och bergrum är i modern tid så vanliga att många knappt märker att en befinner sig i ett bergrum i sin vardag. Inte minst i större städer såsom Stockholm där infrastrukturen sträcker sig högt över markytan såväl som långt ner i berggrunden. Tunnelbana, biltrafik, tågtrafik är några transportsätt som ofta har förflyttats under jord det senaste århundradet. Innan dess fanns varken tekniken eller kunskapen om hur tunnlar och bergrum ska konstrueras för att säkerheten ska vara tillräckligt hög. I berget under oss finns det flera krafter som verkar, däribland vikten från ovanliggande berg, spänningar av tektoniska, termala eller hydrostatiska ursprung. Kunskap om dessa spänningar är väsentliga för att du inte ska få ett bergblock i huvudet när åker hem från jobbet med tunnelbanan. I de allra flesta fall har bergrummet eller tunneln ett tak format som ett valv, och stabiliteten av dessa valv beror på flera aspekter. När berguttag sker finns det en naturlig valvverkan som existerar i berget. Höga spänningar, mängden överliggande berg och förekomsten av sprickor (mängd, riktningar och egenskaper hos sprickorna) är några faktorer som påverkar stabiliteten av valvet och hur stort valvet kan vara. Den naturliga valvverkan i en antropogen tunnel är sällan tillräcklig för att valvet ska hålla och vara säkert för människor ska vistas i. Det krävs bergförstärkning av olika typer, där bultförstärkning är vanligt förekommande.  Arbetet gick ut på att simulera valv i berg med hjälp av en modell. Modellen efterliknar ett tunneltak och består av en upphöjd låda (820x820x250mm) med järnvägsmakadam, systematiskt placerade bultar (stänger med bricka och mutter i varje ände) och tryckmätare. Lådan har en avtagbar botten. Experimentet gick ut på att spänna upp makadammet med olika vridmoment, och se vid vilka moment det håller när bultarna succesivt tas bort i en viss ordning. Syftet med arbetet var att ta fram en förfinad metodik för bultmodell så att kontrollerade försök kan genomföras samt fastställa spänningars betydelse för spännvidd av valv. Uppsatsen ska även kunna användas som instruktion för framtida försök vid universitetet.  Resultatet visade att en stor spännvidd uppstod vid både höga och låga spänningar. En jämnare spänningsfördelning gav i flera fall en större spännvidd, men i andra fall inte. Fler försök hade behövt göras för att säkerställa ett pålitligt resultat och det finns därmed stor potential att bygga vidare på experimenten som gjorts.

Companies are increasingly pressed to consider sustainability aspects when making decisions during product development. However, the methodological support for doing so is immature. The immaturity is particularly pronounced regarding the social dimension (or pillar) of sustainability and regarding strategic sustainability considerations. The overall aim of this thesis was to explore how the social dimension of sustainability and a strategic sustainability perspective could be better included in methodological support for product development. This was pursued in two ways.   Firstly, a two-staged review of the literature was conducted. Stage one focused on summarizing the state of the art of integration of social sustainability aspects in product development and stage two focused on critically analyzing and evaluating these efforts. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development was used to guide the analysis of the current integration efforts and the evaluation of their potential for supporting sustainable product development and strategic sustainable development in general. Secondly, a recently published principled definition of social sustainability was used to enhance two approaches for including sustainability considerations in product development. One of these approaches is focused on decision-making support at concept selection, based on assessment and comparison of sustainability implications of the considered product concepts. The other approach is focused on developing sustainability criteria and a related sustainability compliance index in support of concept development.   In the literature review, social life cycle assessment methods (Social LCA) were found to represent a large part of the current efforts, and several challenges with those methods were identified. From a decision support perspective, they were found to have weaknesses regarding applicability and robustness: results from the assessment, usually performed by scientists to evaluate a scientific question, may be too complex to interpret from a business standpoint; the impact perspective may be too narrow, missing important aspects of social sustainability; and generally they lack a strategic perspective. The use of a strategic sustainable development perspective in the approaches prototyped in this thesis is a way of tackling these challenges. The use of backcasting from visions framed by sustainability principles can: help organize and make sense of the general field of sustainability, highlighting where overlaps between objectives exist; provide the long term perspective needed for sustainability; allow for product developers to gain awareness of potential impacts of a product’s life cycle phases within existing knowledge, time and resource constraints; help build a roadmap in order to reduce a product’s contribution to unsustainability (including social unsustainability).   Future research will focus on further testing and development of the suggested approaches and specifically on further development of tactical design guidelines that provide support for the fulfilment of long-term sustainability criteria and clarify the connection between decisions taken during product development and a product’s sustainability profile.

Many land systems experience massive ecological pressure due to ongoing land use changes for the increasing demand for food, but also need to sustain essential ecosystem services. Computer-based model scenarios help to anticipate the consequences of different socio-economic future transition pathways for humans and nature and evaluate trade-offs between various demands on land. In many grassland ecosystems, the processes of agricultural abandonment in less attractive regions coexist with agricultural intensification in others. At the same time, the ecological value of natural grassland is rarely considered in decision making. By using the CLUMondo land use modelling framework I mapped the future composition of the land system of Orenburg province under five socio-economic scenarios with different ranges of food production intensification. The outcomes allowed me to identify hotspot areas for arable land expansion, grassland restoration, and agricultural abandonment. Most agricultural expansion is prevalent in three scenarios with high ambition for food production, and, without active policy interventions, some natural grassland areas in northern parts of the province are likely to be converted to cropland. In a scenario with low demand for food production, large areas in southern parts could be abandoned creating good opportunities for grassland restoration on former cropland, but possibly having negative socio-economic consequences, such as people’s migration to northern parts of the province. In a scenario with lesser ambition for crop production, but an increase in meat production, agricultural abandonment is less widespread and will even include some additional conversion of cropland to pasture. With appropriate policies aimed at supporting sustainable grazing practices (together with favourable global socio-economic conditions), such scenario can provide an opportunity for satisfying demands for food, providing livelihoods, and ensuring the flow of ecosystem services by grassland ecosystems.

Människors boyta har en betydande miljöpåverkan. Valet av bostad är därför viktigt ur ett miljöperspektiv. Syftet var att undersöka unga mäns inställning till bostadsytan och vilka motiverande faktorer det finns för dessa att minska sin bostadsyta. Frågeställningarna utifrån syftet löd: Hur är inställningen hos yngre män till att leva på en mindre boyta? Är miljöpåverkan en motiverande faktor till att minska sin bostadsyta? För studien användes en kvalitativ metod där sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med unga män genomfördes. Resultatet ställdes mot teorin kognitiv dissonans, samt definitionen av hållbar bostadsyta, för en analys. Befintlig forskning integrerades även i analysen. Resultatet visade att önskan om större bostadsytan gick före miljöhänsyn, men inte nödvändigtvis om bostaden var bra planerad. De motiverande faktorerna till en mindre boyta var främst andra än miljöskäl, nämligen ekonomiska eller underhållsrelaterade. Det var endast en av informanterna som önskade ett boende av miljöhänsyn. / People's living space has a significant environmental impact. The choice of housing is therefore important from an environmental perspective. The purpose of the study was to find out young men's attitudes towards the living space, as well as what motivating factors there could be for reducing their living space. The questions based on the purpose were thus: What is the attitude to the living space of younger men? Do environmental factors motivate young men to reduce their living space? What other motivating factors for a life in a smaller space could be identified? A qualitative method was used, where six semi-structured interviews with young men were conducted. The result was set in the light of the theory of cognitive dissonance, as well as the definition of sustainable living space, for an analysis. Previous research was also integrated into the analysis. The result of the study showed the demand for larger living space went before environmental factors, but not necessarily if the home was well planned. The motivating factors for a smaller living space were mainly other than for the sake of the environment, namely economic reasons or lower maintenance. Only one of the informants showed interest in a smaller living space to reduce his environmental impact.

Dagvatten härstammar från nederbörd och ibland en del grundvatten, när regn faller på hårda ytor ökar sannolikheten för ytavrinning med högt flöde och med det vattnet kan föroreningar följa med som hamnar i recipienten eftersom generellt så renas inte dagvatten när det rinner i ledningar, vattendrag eller diken vidare till recipient. När regn faller på ytor med vegetation så blir det lägre flöde, då en del vatten stannar på växter eller blir upptagna av rötter samt infiltreras av jorden. Vattnet filtreras därför naturligt och risken för föroreningar är lägre, men många naturligt förekommande ämnen hamnar ändå i recipienten. När städer expanderar så ökar de hårda ytorna i form av till exempel vägar och byggnader. Uppsala är en av dessa städer som expanderar, därför är det viktigt med bra dagvattenhantering för att försöka minska mängden utsläppta ämnen som försämrar vattenkvaliteten i Fyrisån. Studien genomfördes genom att kartlägga dagvattenutlopp med Fyrisån som recipient, samt provtagningar av vattnet från utloppen och ytvatten från Fyrisån. De parametrar som testats är konduktivitet, turbiditet och nitrathalt. Proven har sedan jämförts med data hämtad från Sveriges lantbruksuniversitets (SLU) teststationer Klastorp och Flottsund. Detta kandidatarbete undersöker dagvatten och dess påverkan på vattenkvalitet i Fyrisån. Den del av Fyrisån som analyserats är 8,5 km lång och sträcker sig från Klastorp i norra Uppsala, till Sävjaån i södra som ligger ungefär 4 km norr om Ekoln där Fyrisån mynnar. Varje dagvattenutlopp fick varsin koordinat med hjälp av en GPS och senare en benämning i undersökningen / Stormwater originates from precipitation and possibly some amounts of groundwater. When rain falls on areas with a hard surface it can contribute to surface runoff and with that the possibility for contaminations to enter the recipient, since most stormwater is directed to the recipient with pipes, trenches and water streams directly that generally have no sort of cleaning treatment. On the other hand, when precipitation falls on areas with vegetation the water is intercepted by the plants and the roots taking up water as well. This gives less runoff and the water that reaches the recipient has been filtered through the soil, but substances can still reach the recipient.  When cities expand and more hard surfaces increase such as roads and buildings, and areas of vegetation generally decrease. Uppsala is one those cities that are under heavy expansion, which makes it very important to have a good management plan of stormwater to try and decrease the amount of substances that makes water quality worse in Fyrisån. Three parameters were used to determine the water quality in this thesis, conductivity, turbidity and nitrate content. Testing was performed on both the water from the outlets, as well as the surface water of Fyrisån. Results from the testing were compared to data collected from Sveriges lantbruksuniversitets (SLU) test sites Klastorp and Flottsund. This bachelor’s thesis examines stormwater and its impact on water quality of Fyrisån in Uppsala, Sweden. The examined area follows Fyrisån, is 8,5 km long and stretches from the northern part of Uppsala, Klastorp to the south where a stream called Sävjaån connects, which is situated about 4km before Fyrisån mouths in the lake Ekoln. The area was mapped using a GPS, giving each location with a stormwater outage a specific coordinate and afterwards a name used in the report.

Majoriteten av geomorfologin i Sveriges landskap är produkten av den senaste nedisningen som avslutades för ca 8000 år sedan. De Geer-morän är en typ av moränavlagring som härstammar från denna nedisning. De Geer-moränavlagringarna har ett omdebatterat bildningssätt samt är landformer med en omtvistad innebörd i landskapen världen över. Vad är det som moränavlagringarna återspeglar? Är det avlagringar från svämmande glaciärer, avlagringar formade vid grundstötningslinjen för en ryckvis avsmältande glaciär eller kanske avlagringar bildade av sammanpressat material i basala sprickor hos en glaciär? Diskussionen om De Geer-moränen har varit långvarig och teorierna är många. Här är forskningen inte överens. Det förefaller också att studerad De Geer-morän på olika platser världen över inte nödvändigtvis behöver ha haft samma bildningsätt. I Sverige förekommer De Geer-morän främst i två områden, längs med kusten i Norrbotten och Västerbotten, samt vid den mellansvenska israndzonen. I dessa områden förekommer moränavlagringarna som små ryggar i svärmar med några meters höjd. De studier som gjorts i Sverige om De Geer-morän har förklarligt nog tenderat att fokusera på dessa två större områden. Men, utöver dessa två större områden finns det också ett mycket mindre område beläget längs med Sveriges västkust, ett område med samma typ av moränavlagringar. De Geer-moränen här, benämnda Hallands kustmorän, är både äldre och färre, dessutom är senaste nedisningens avsmältning i detta område mer ovisst. I denna uppsats gjordes ett försök till att övergripligt redogöra för några av de presenterade teorierna som föreligger De Geer-moränens bildningssätt. Uppsatsen syftar till att studera och kartera De Geer-moränen belägen längs med Sveriges västkust med hjälp av höjddata och sedan jämföra dessa avlagringar med den teori som presenteras i bakgrunden för denna uppsats. De Geer-moränen kommer även att jämföras med en isavsmältningsrekonstruktion gjord i programmet ICESHEET 1.0, med lokala karterade isräfflor i området samt även analyseras utifrån beskrivningarna till SGUs utgivna jordartskartor. Förhoppningen var att denna uppsatsen skulle kunna bringa mer klarhet om omfattningen och utbredningen av De Geer-moränen längs med Sveriges västkust. Resultatet som erhölls presenterades bland annat visuellt med framtagna kartbilder. Några av de slutsatser som kunde dras utifrån denna studie var att De Geer-moränen längs med Sveriges västkust är starkt påverkade av svallning och överlagring av yngre sediment vilket gjorde dem svåra att upptäcka i landskapet. Högst troligt är det att förekomsten av De Geer-morän längs med Sveriges västkust är större än vad som syns vid dagens marknivå på grund av överlagring, dessutom tyder mycket på att avlagringarna fortsätter ut i Kungsbackafjorden och Kattegatt. Det gick för det studerade området att se att det fanns ett samband mellan jorddjup och förekomsten av De Geer-morän. Ryggarna var främst avlagrade ovanpå drumliner och förekom främst i områden med ett jorddjup på ≥ 5m. Det gick inte att dra några slutsatser om De Geer-moränens bildningssätt i området. / Most of the geomorphology in the Swedish landscape is a product of the last deglaciation that ended about 8000 years ago. De Geer moraine is moraine deposits that has debated origins as well as debated implications worldwide. What message does the deposits send? What kind of conditions do they reflect? Are they perhaps the deposits of surging glaciers, or deposits formed at the grounding lines of melting glaciers or perhaps are they squeezed ridges formed in basal crevasses of glaciers? The discussion in research worldwide about the origin of these features have been going on for a long time and there is a lot of different theories about how the deposits are formed. The De Geer moraines in Sweden are mainly located in two larger areas, one of them being along the east coast in Norrbotten and Västerbotten, and the other one being a large belt of deposits that are located parallel to the big Swedish lake Vänern. The majority of the published articles about De Geer moraine in Sweden are therefore understandably about these two larger areas, however there are also a much smaller area of De Geer moraine along Sweden’s west coast. These deposits are called Halland’s coastal moraines and are not studied to the same extent as the other two areas. This bachelor thesis aims to, in a general way, describe some of the different theories there are about the formation of these ridges. The purpose of this thesis is to study and map the De Geer moraine along the Swedish west coast and compare them to the theory featured in the background of this paper. The ridges will then also be studied on the basis of a glacier melting reconstruction in the computer software ICESHEET 1.0, of ice striations in the area and lastly on the basis of the descriptions to the quaternary maps published by Geological Survey of Sweden. Hopefully, this paper will bring some clarity about the De Geer moraine ridges along the Swedish west coast. The results from this thesis were presented visually in different types of map sheets. Some of the conclusions that could be drawn from this bachelor thesis was that ridges along the Swedish west coast were both wave-washed and superimposed by younger sediments which therefore made them hard to both map and distinguish. There is a high probability that the occurrence of De Geer moraine is much larger in the area than what could be seen at today’s ground level. Also, the distribution of the ridges suggested that they continued out in Kattegatt and the Kungsbackafjord. In general, the ridges were superimposed on drumlins and there was shown to be a connection between soil depth and the occurrence of De Geer moraine, the ridges mainly occurred where the soil depth were ≥5 metres. Despite of this, no conclusion could be drawn about the formation of the features.

ForumCiv is an international development organization working to create a just and sustainable world where all people have the power to effect change. Through this online action research, a novel method to engage with for Environmental Justice (EJ) was introduced to ForumCiv.   A first iteration of the novel online methodology known as the Environmental Rights Toolkit (ERT) was carried out.  As action research, this project is concerned with theory and practice, understanding and change. The aim is to produce knowledge informing ForumCiv how to unpack EJ. The online method embraces a participatory paradigm, which is rights-based and equipped with the content from the three pillars of environmental democracy. Throughout this action research, the connection between key aspects of environmental democracy and environmental justice was outlined.  The results indicate a connection between environmental democracy and environmental justice.  Environmental democracy facilitates EJ in its different forms. EJ can be perceived as distributive environmental justice, procedural environmental justice, and environmental justice as recognition. These different forms are highly interrelated, therefore acting for one supports the realization of the other. Similarly, the decline of one lead to the decline of the others.  Engaging with the access rights can serve to modify power dynamics in certain contexts facilitating the fulfilment of one or more aspects of EJ. The insights from this action research can be seen under two perspectives, theory, and practice. The practice is supported by theory. A novel practice was introduced to ForumCiv and at the same time, this practice comes together with  visions from EJ. To further mainstream EJ in the work of the organization it is necessary that some key areas further integrate the conceptualizations made.

Loess is a silty material produced via glacial grinding and its deposition is usually associated with colder periods when there is a considerable increase in atmospheric dust transport. The magnetic susceptibility of loess-palaeosol sequences has been the subject of extensive research within palaeoclimatology as it has proven to be reliable climate proxy. Most research on magnetic susceptibility has been focused on thick deposits found in Europe and Asia, in particular the Chinese Loess Plateau where it is possible to discern more than 2.5 million years of climate variation in deposits several hundred meters thick. The climate development throughout the Quaternary has been characterized by glacials where there has been a significant ice growth, and interglacials where ice sheets have retreated. The Last Glacial Maximum was the most recent time of ice sheets reaching their maximum extent, occurring at some point between 26.5 and 18 ka BP. Aeolian reworking of material produced in conjunction with the Irish Sea Ice Stream (ISIS) occurred approximately 5000 years after the LGM. The ISIS limit were located just north of the Lizard Peninsula, and impinged on the Isles of Scilly. Loess deposits in SW England has largely been ignored in previous research in favour of the previously mentioned Chinese loess, but may be important climate archives in understanding the climate development of the North Atlantic. As such, the scope of this thesis is investigating the magnetic susceptibility of loess deposits in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in the far SW England. This is done by analyzing 36 samples from Lowland Point and 24 samples from Chynhalls Point, both located at the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, as well as 20 samples from Porthcressa and 14 samples from Gimble Porth, both located at the Isles of Scilly. The instruments used for analysis are the Bartington MS2B and the Agico MFK-1 FA Kappabridge, where all 96 samples were analyzed on the former while the 36 Lowland Points samples and the 20 Porthcressa samples were also analyzed on the latter. The Bartington MS2B operates at two frequencies, 465 Hz and 4650 Hz, while the Agico MFK-1 FA Kappabridge operates at three frequencies, 976 hz, 3904 Hz, and 15616 Hz. The results from this study suggest that the Lizard Peninsula sample sites exhibit signs of magnetic enhancement through pedogenic processes while the sample sites at the Isles of Scilly consist of mainly unaltered material, likely due to an overlying sollifluction unit inhibiting magnetic enhancement. As a consequence of the different frequencies, the results were lognormalized to permit a direct comparison between the instruments. While the variability in magnetic susceptibility was strikingly similar, the results of the Kappabridge were shifted to ~20% higher values than those of the Bartington which may be attributed to the Kappabridges higher precision when analyzing weakly magnetic material. A similar shift is not evident when measuring the calibration samples of each instrument. In determining the mean annual precipitation after deposition, the Lizard Peninsula samples sites suggest an exposure to an annual precipitation between 300-400 mm/yr, compared to modern rainfall between 900-1000 mm/yr. The data from the Isles of Scilly were insufficient for calculating the mean annual precipitation due to the lack of evidence for magnetic enhancement. / Loess är benämningen för material i siltstorlek som produceras då glacial aktivitet maler ned den underliggande berggrunden. Detta material är tillräckligt litet för att fångas upp av vindar och därefter transporteras i atmosfären, för att därefter avsättas då vindhastigheten minskar. Under kalla perioder i jordens historia ökar denna transport då vindhastigheten ofta varit högre än under varma perioder. Under de varmare perioderna och med tiden så utsätts loess för jordmånsbildande processer och bildar palaeosoler. Den magnetiska susceptibiliteten hos loess-palaeosol-sekvenser har under flera årtionden varit ämnet för utbredd forskning då detta har visat sig vara en tillförlitlig klimatproxy för att förstå klimatutvecklingen under jordens gångna historia. I synnerhet har loess-palaeosol-sekvenser i Kina varit av intresse då det går att utröna mer än 2,5 miljoner år av klimatutveckling i avlagringar som på sina platser är flera hundra meter tjocka. Under den senaste istidens maximala utbredning mellan 26500 och 18000 år sedan passerade en isström över den Irländska sjön (Irish Sea Ice Stream, sammankopplad med inlandsisen), förbi Cornwalls norra kust och stötte samman med Scillyöarna. Det tog sedan ungefär 5000 år tills vindtransport av avsatt material påbörjades. Loessavlagringar i sydvästra England har känts till under årtionden men har till stor del ignorerats till fördel för de tidigare nämnda avlagringarna i Kina, men de kan agera som viktiga klimatarkiv för tiden efter den senaste istiden och därmed klimatutvecklingen i Nordatlanten. Denna rapport undersöker således den magnetiska susceptibiliteten i loess från två platser på Lizard-halvön i Cornwall, och två platser på Scillyöarna. Totalt analyserades 96 prover, 36 av dem från Lowland Point, 24 av dem från Chynhalls Point, båda belägna på Lizard-halvön, samt 20 prover från Porthcressa och 14 prover från Gimble Porth, båda belägna på Scillyöarna. Resultaten från denna studie påvisar att provplatserna på Lizard-halvön visar tecken på magnetisk förstärkning på grund av jordmånsbildande processer, medan provplatserna på Scillyöarna huvudsakligen består av oförändrat material, troligen på grund av att dessa täckts av annat material under isens tillbakadragning, vilket förhindrat jordmånsbildning. Resultaten från Lizard-halvön möjliggör beräkning av årsmedelnederbörden sedan materialet först avsattes, vilket beräknades till mellan 300-400 mm/år jämfört med modern årsmedelnederbörd mellan 900-1000 mm/år. Dessvärre möjliggjorde inte resultaten från provplatserna på Scillyöarna en liknande beräkning.