The important urban issue of urban heat islands in Stockholm is examined in this thesis. These places influence urban sustainability, liveability, and public health because of the much higher temperatures they experience relative to their surroundings. This thesis objectives were to discover these urban heat islands, comprehend their patterns, investigate how they relate to sociodemographic characteristics, and identify vulnerable areas. Advanced remote sensing techniques and analytical techniques were used to locate and show urban heat islands. The procedure produced visualizations of urban heat patterns, illuminating the geographical distribution and intensity of these islands as well as the urban zones most exposed to risks from heat.The study found a link between hotter temperatures and places with higher population densities, as predicted by the authors. Regression analysis and visual inspection both support this link, which underlines the impact of population dynamics on the local environment and the necessity for people- centered urban development. Additionally, a connection was shown between warmer areas and locations with a non-Swedish population. This finding suggests possible differences in heat exposure and raises concerns about the urban heat occurrence in same areas as where vulnerable socio- demographic factors appear. However, more thorough research is needed to determine the underlying reasons behind this link.The lack of a significant relationship between age groups or income levels and the prevalence of urban heat in the thesis suggests that Stockholm's vulnerability to heat may not be highly associated with these variables. This highlights the complexity of urban heat and its effects. A vulnerability map was made using data from previous research on groups that are vulnerable and causing factors. It was possible to identify regions where vulnerable socio-demographics factors and heat zones overlapped when compared to the heat map, which was useful information for developing the vulnerability map, that identified the areas in need of more resources.

The aim of this thesis is to visualize and explain how people’s economic and social relations were connected in the parish of Sundborn, in the south east of Dalarna, in the period 1820-1849. The study is based on records of claims and debts in inventories and parish registers, which enable reconstruction of the private local credit market. The study shows that the majority in the economic network lived in Sundborn, and that while few people had formal loans at the institutional credit market, many had loans by trust at the private local credit market. Also, while few people were lenders, almost everyone was a borrower. The most common credit relationship was between people who lived near one another, and people who lived near one another or were related received a higher average credit. The private local credit market consisted primarily of men. These results have been interpreted with the use of social network theory, it being shown that people depended on their social network to obtain the necessary credit. In creating an economic network graph, I show that households in the parish of Sundborn were interconnected by debt relations. By using this method, it is possible to identify significant persons and potential parish bankers. Through combining the network graph with a landscape map, I show connections between the settlement, the assets, economic relations, centrality and the long valley of Sundborn river. The study opens up possibilities for further development of the same method to visualize historic data and relate it to the landscape, with a view to generating new related questions and spatial analyses.

The creation of sustainable and safe environments nowadays moves more and more into focus for urban planners and architects. Cities should be designed in a way to contribute to social cohesion, shaping an inclusive environment and focusing on the wellbeing of its citizens. Nevertheless, these processes can be undermined by public crime and the fear of crime, which is not only affecting aspects of personal safety but also affecting the people’s behaviour. Reasons why criminality occurs are manifold, impacted by a dynamic set of socioeconomic, demographic, personal but also environmental aspects. In recent years especially the impact of factors related to urban and environmental design respectively planning received rising attention in the field of crime prevention. However, the implementation of strategies regarding ‘crime prevention through environmental design’ or ‘designing out crime’ is still in its early stage in Sweden.   This study aims to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of public crime for the case of Umeå in order to identify potential risk areas, which could receive particular attention regarding crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). In this sense a GIS based spatial analysis had the aim to detect statistically significant hotspots of crime and furthermore to assess the development of these hotspots over time. In order to understand the nature of public crime and criminal behaviour in Umeå in a more holistic way, also temporal aspects regarding the occurrence of crime were analysed. One particularly vulnerable neighbourhood was examined with a qualitative field observation regarding the principles of crime prevention through environmental design in order to assess in which way the built environment is designed and suited to prevent and deter criminality.   Umeå displays rather clear patterns of higher crime activity, assigned to seasonal, weakly and daily periods, which are connected to higher activity in the public space. Also from a spatial perspective certain patterns are detectable with a higher vulnerability for crime at spots which generate higher activity such as shopping areas or neighbourhoods with nightlife and transport hub functions, and in general neighbourhoods with a higher building density. The neighbourhood of Ålidhem displayed thereby a high concentration of criminality, marked as a constant or even intensifying hotspot for the entire period of investigation. The results of the field observation regarding principles of CPTED are especially indicating a lack of maintenance and furthermore the street and building layout is contributing to disorientation. On the other hand, the area is in most cases well equipped for natural surveillance and provides a high amount of locations for leisure and recreation in order strengthen social cohesion.

The rapid urbanization of populations from rural areas to cities calls for more sustainable focused urban planning to combat the negative effects of urban sprawl. The United Nations’ Agenda 2030 includes the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets that aim to unite both developed and developing countries in transforming humanity and the planet for a more sustainable future. One of these goals is SDG 11, making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. A large part in achieving the targets of SDG 11 is measuring the current access urban residents have to things such as public green-blue spaces as well as public transportation. This thesis will aim to study Stockholm’s achievement of SDG 11 sub-targets 11.2 and 11.7 of Agenda 2030. In order to meet this aim, the following objectives will be pursued. The first objective is to study the degree to which Stockholm County currently has universal access to green-blue areas and public transportation by conducting a GIS-based analysis. The second objective is to improve our understanding of the socio-economic status of residents who have and do not have accessibility to green-blue areas and public transportation by statistically analyzing correlations between environmental and socio-economic indicators. The methodology included qualitative methodologies such as a literature review, interviews and collaborative focus group meetings with Södertörnsanalysen as well as quantitative methodologies such as spatial analysis and statistical analysis. The results show that while Stockholm has impressively high accessibility for its residents, it has yet to meet Agenda 2030 SDG 11targets 11.2 and 11.7 because the accessibility was not universal. The results also found that people with lower income, people who own their flats/homes and people with children have higher accessibility to green areas. It was also shown that people with higher income, people who rent their flats/homes and have no children have higher access to public transportation.This result can be expected as the bulk of people with higher incomes are living in the innercity where they have high access to urban services and rail stops, but not necessarily green areas. It is important to state that at 300 m from residencies, both access to green areas and access to public transportation is almost 100%. At 500 m from residencies, access to blueareas is close to 35 %, which is not almost complete, but still a high percentage since access to blue areas is a bit of a luxury. This thesis ultimately demonstrates the importance of understanding environmental and socio-economic indicators in urban planning especially if the goals of Agenda 2030 are to be met. This thesis also took steps towards building a methodology for quantifying accessibility and it is recognized that further studies can be conducted to further contribute to sustainable urban planning and development. / Den snabba urbaniseringen där människor flyttar från landsbygden till städer kräver en mer hållbar stadsplanering för att bekämpa de negativa effekterna av stadsutbredningen. FN:sAgenda 2030 innehåller 17 mål för hållbar utveckling (Sustainable Development Goals, SDG) och 169 delmål som syftar till att förena både utvecklade och utvecklingsländer i att omvandla mänskligheten och planeten för en mer hållbar framtid. Ett av dessa mål är SDG 11, vilket ska göra städer och mänskliga bosättningar inkluderande, säkra, resilient och hållbara. En stor del i att uppnå målen med SDG 11 handlar om den nuvarande tillgången stadsborna har till bland annat offentliga gröna och blå ytor samt kollektivtrafik. Arbetet syftar till att studera Stockholms måluppfyllelse när det gäller SDG 11 delmål 11.2 och 11.7 i Agenda 2030. Föratt mäta uppfyllelsen av dessa delmål har studien följande mål. Det första målet är att studera i vilken grad Stockholms län idag har allmän tillgång till gröna och blå områden och kollektivtrafik genom att genomföra en GIS-baserad analys. Det andra målet är att förbättra vår förståelse för den socioekonomiska statusen hos boende som har respektive inte har tillgång till gröna och blå områden och kollektivtrafik genom att statistiskt analysera sambandet mellan miljöinriktade och socioekonomiska indikatorer. Metoden innefattade kvalitativa metoder som litteraturöversikt, intervjuer och samverkande fokusgruppsmöten med Södertörnsanalysen samt kvantitativa metoder som rumslig analys och statistisk analys. Resultaten visar att medan Stockholm har imponerande hög tillgänglighet för sina invånare, har det ännu inte uppfyllt Agenda 2030 SDG 11 mål 11.2 och 11.7 eftersom det visades att tillgängligheten inte var universell. Resultaten visar också att personer med lägre inkomst, personer som äger sina lägenheter/hem och personer med barn har högre tillgänglighet till grönområden. Det visades också att personer med högre inkomst, personer som hyr sina lägenheter/hem och inte har barn har högre tillgång till kollektivtrafik. Detta resultat kan förväntas eftersom en stor andel personer med högre inkomster bor i innerstaden där de har hög tillgång till kollektivtrafik och urban service, men inte nödvändigtvis grönområden. På ett avstånd av 300 m från bostäder, är både tillgång till grönområden och tillgång tillkollektivtrafik nästan 100 %. Vid ett avstånd av 500 m från bostäder är tillgången till blåområden nära 35 % vilket är långt ifrån alla, men fortfarande en hög andel eftersom tillgång till vattenområden och stränder kan ses som lite av en lyx. Denna studie visar dessutom vikten av att förstå miljö- och socioekonomiska indikatorer i stadsplaneringen, särskilt om målen i Agenda 2030 ska uppfyllas. Denna studie tog också initiativ till att bygga en metod för att kvantifiera tillgängligheten, medan vidare studier behöver genomföras för att ytterligare bidra till stadsplanerings- och utvecklingssektorn.