<p>The majority of the Swedish population were self-provided within agriculture a hundred years ago. Times do change and today the situation is the other way around - most of us live within city boundaries and only few work with farming and related agricultural businesses. One thing that has not changed though, is the need of supplies from Swedish agriculture.</p><p>What do we think of those products? Are we even aware of the connection between us and agriculture? The Federation of Swedish Farmers, LRF (Lantbrukarnas riksförbund), started their project to strengthen the link between consumers and producers in 2008.This paper is part of the project and its aim is to investigate consumers' views and values upon the effects and products from Swedish agriculture.</p><p>Opinions and values have been studied through interviews influenced by phenomenology. The results show that the informants in general had a positive approach and thinking concerning the products and effects from Swedish agriculture. They thought tat the products represented high quality and they had a tendency to prefer them in front of other choices.</p> / <p>För hundra år sedan var större delen av befolkningen i Sverige bönder, brukare av jorden, och mer eller mindre självförsörjande. Med tiden har detta förändrats och idag är förhållandet omvänt, landsbygden avbefolkas till fördel för de ständigt växande städerna och väldigt få arbetar med att bruka jorden. Vi är dock fortfarande beroende av det som jorden ger och därför även av jordbruket, men hur ser vi på jordbruket och dess produkter och hur kopplar vi dessa till oss själva?</p><p>Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund, LRF, startade under hösten 2008 (projektet) konsumentdialogen, en satsning vars syfte är att stärka och visa på relationen mellan konsument och producent. Denna uppsats är en liten del i arbetet med att förstå konsumenten. Avsikten med min studie är att belysa konsumentens åsikter och värderingar kring effekter av och produkter från det svenska jordbruket. Genom en intervjustudie med utgångspunkt i fenomenologin har jag undersökt konsumenters uppfattningar och värderingar till produkter och effekter av det svenska lantbruket inom områdena mat, energi och natur.</p><p>Min studie visar att det tillfrågade generellt ser positivt på produkter som det svenska jordbruket producerar och förknippar dessa med hög och god kvalité. Merparten av de tillfrågade väljer i första hand matprodukter från Sverige och fyra av de informanterna anser att småskalig energiproduktion inom jordbruket har stora potentialer i framtiden.</p>

<p>Decentralized development approaches have in recent years gained wide acceptance in policy circles. In India the national and the state</p><p>governments have for a long time undertaken the primary responsibility for water management. In recent years however, there has been a clear shift of policy towards increased reliance on the local communities. This thesis deals with the capacity of rural communities in India to manage their water resources in a sustainable way.</p><p>Through a case study of water management in a South Indian village opportunities and barriers for rural communities in India to manage their water resources in a sustainable way is analysed. The thesis deals with both formal and informal institutions involved in the water management.Factors that can promote and obstruct locals’ contribution in water management are discussed. Also the role of external actors such as NGOs, the Panchayats and the government is dealt with, and how they may facilitate a development towards sustainability and increased locals’ contribution in order to achieve a sustainable community bases water management.</p><p>Theories on collective action and the commons have been used in the analysis. These theories deal with how to get people to cooperate regarding the management of common resources such as water in order to achieve higher collective benefits. The study is primarily based on 66 semistructured qualitative interviews with local water users in a village in Andhra Pradesh.</p> / <p>Decentralized development approaches have in recent years gained wide acceptance in policy circles. In India the national and the state</p><p>governments have for a long time undertaken the primary responsibility for water management. In recent years however, there has been a clear shift of policy towards increased reliance on the local communities. This thesis deals with the capacity of rural communities in India to manage their water resources in a sustainable way.</p><p>Through a case study of water management in a South Indian village opportunities and barriers for rural communities in India to manage their water resources in a sustainable way is analysed. The thesis deals with both formal and informal institutions involved in the water management.Factors that can promote and obstruct locals’ contribution in water management are discussed. Also the role of external actors such as NGOs, the Panchayats and the government is dealt with, and how they may facilitate a development towards sustainability and increased locals’ contribution in order to achieve a sustainable community bases water management.</p><p>Theories on collective action and the commons have been used in the analysis. These theories deal with how to get people to cooperate regarding the management of common resources such as water in order to achieve higher collective benefits. The study is primarily based on 66 semistructured qualitative interviews with local water users in a village in Andhra Pradesh.</p> / The ISRN in the pdf-file is incorrect. The correct ISRN is shown below.

<p>From long ago, rivers have always sustained livelihoods of the peoples through the utilisation of different natural resources available in the basin. All over the world, many rivers have been dammed in the spirit of performing various purposes: agricultural irrigation, domestic water supply and power generation or flood control.</p><p>By the year 2001, the World Commission on Dams brought into focus the debate on damrelated impacts on local economies, societal cultures, livelihoods security and environmental conservation. The outcome of the World Commission on Dams consultation strongly recommended the governments to involve all stakeholders to address appropriately all issues associated with dams.</p><p>The overall focus of this master thesis is the projected Rusumo Falls dam in the Kagera River Basin (East Africa). Based on literature documentation completed by on-ground observations and qualitative interviews at Rusumo, various issues connected with the dam are presented.</p><p>In the first part, the Kagera River Basin background information is provided. It gives an overview of the physical and human characteristics of the Kagera watershed and subcatchments. A brief history and socio-economic indicators are given to enlighten the outsiders about the development challenges of the riparian countries of Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Regional frameworks for the development and management of Kagera Basin natural resources are presented: The Kagera Basin Organisation and the Nile Basin Initiative.</p><p>Section two analyses the likely social problems around the Rusumo Hydro Electric Project resulting from the land issue and the electricity needs and posing a dilemma for the governments committed to reverse the poverty and developing the economies. Benefits and drawbacks of the dam as perceived by the beneficiaries are thoroughly listed.</p><p>Based on the overwhelming supports from the Rusumo people, the governments of Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania together with the international community, a public participation scenario is suggested in the last chapter. It encourages the governments to come together with all interested groups and the affected people of Rusumo and address any matters associated to the dam management process.</p><p>The conclusion of this study draws some strategies and methods to ensure full popular participation in the dam management. It provides some ways to involve all stakeholders to address the related issues. As the Rusumo people perceptions of the dam possible effects might not be realistic, the popular participation can offer them a good opportunity to handle socio-economic problems such as the land issue, the economy restructure and the nature conservation. In this case study, the government of Rwanda is therefore responsible for the establishment of platforms for a broad popular consultation.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to find potential areas suitable for energy production using renewable sources. For this aim, accurate assessments are necessary. The assessments include geographical suitability, closeness of infrastructure and observing local and regional framework concerning the use of renewable sources together with environmental protection. In addition, economical factor is considered in such an assessment. In this study, the Photovoltaic (PV) production potential for Germany is considered. An accurate and complete data set is necessary in order to achieve reliable results. In addition, a powerful database management and strong analysis tools are required. Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool for finding suitable sites for the photovoltaic production.Using GIS, energy generation planners are able to visualize solar densities throughout the considered area. In addition, they can find the optimal and most economical sites by the combination of solar potential with the information about land. In this study, data sources consist of meteorological and geographical conditions. Furthermore, all analyses have been performed using Arc GIS Desktop. This study demonstrates the possible places for photovoltaic plants and indicates suitable candidates according to weights and factors in multi criteria analysis. The solar radiation data is from year 1995 to 2005. Land cover data is according to Corine 2000 and the more detailed Raumordnungskataster (Rok) for Weser-Ems. Numerical results are reliable from a comparison point of view. This study demonstrates the sensitivity of the defined criteria with respect to electricity production. In particular, this study is useful to see the capabilities of GIS for site selection regarding photovoltaic plants.The purpose of this study is to find potential areas suitable for energy production using renewable sources. For this aim, accurate assessments are necessary. The assessments include geographical suitability, closeness of infrastructure and observing local and regional framework concerning the use of renewable sources together with environmental protection. In addition, economical factor is considered in such an assessment. In this study, the Photovoltaic (PV) production potential for Germany is considered. An accurate and complete data set is necessary in order to achieve reliable results. In addition, a powerful database management and strong analysis tools are required. Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool for finding suitable sites for the photovoltaic production.Using GIS, energy generation planners are able to visualize solar densities throughout the considered area. In addition, they can find the optimal and most economical sites by the combination of solar potential with the information about land. In this study, data sources consist of meteorological and geographical conditions. Furthermore, all analyses have been performed using Arc GIS Desktop. This study demonstrates the possible places for photovoltaic plants and indicates suitable candidates according to weights and factors in multi criteria analysis. The solar radiation data is from year 1995 to 2005. Land cover data is according to Corine 2000 and the more detailed Raumordnungskataster (Rok) for Weser-Ems. Numerical results are reliable from a comparison point of view. This study demonstrates the sensitivity of the defined criteria with respect to electricity production. In particular, this study is useful to see the capabilities of GIS for site selection regarding photovoltaic plants.</p>

<p>In metropolitan areas where the exploitation pressure increases, also the importance to point out nature areas grows, both for the sake of outdoor life and for biodiversity conservation. Since nature conservancy and spatial planning constitute two different parts of the municipalities land use control, a case study has been carried out in two municipalities in the Stockholm region, Huddinge and Järfälla. Both these municipalities have protected about one third of their land and today there are plans to repeal parts of the reserves to enable exploitation. This thesis shows – from the theoretical concept of sustainable development – officials, politicians and non-governmental organizations perspectives on questions concerning land use together with the work with nature reserves and repeals. The study focuses on how different basic attitudes and paradigms emphasizes different aspects of sustainable development and how this in turn affects the work to repeal nature reserves. Interviews with stakeholders in the municipalities and documents concerning land use and nature reserves demonstrates that there is distinct differences between the planning-paradigm, based on spatial planning, and the environmental-paradigm, based on nature conservation. From the planning-paradigm it is considered that nature reserves had to big impact on the munici­pality's land use and that valuable nature more frequently should be protected by the Swedish planning and building act. From the environmental-paradigms view the nature conservancy is – and should also in the future be – an important tool in the long-term prevention to stop valuable nature from being exploited. The thesis also stresses the importance to in the work with repeals take all effects that this kind of decision can lead to into account – not just in the repealed area but also for the future work with nature reserves on the whole.</p> / <p>I storstadsregioner där exploateringstrycket blir allt större, ökar också vikten av att peka ut naturområden, både för det rörliga friluftslivet samt för bevarande av den biologiska mångfalden. Utifrån det att naturskydd samt fysisk planering utgör varsin del av kommuners styrning av mark­användningen har en fallstudie genomförts i två kommuner i Stockholmsregionen, Huddinge och Järfälla. Båda dessa kommuner har skyddat ungefär en tredjedel av kommunens mark och idag finns planer på att upphäva delar av reservaten för att där möjliggöra exploatering. Uppsatsen visar – utifrån det teoretiska begreppet hållbar utveckling – hur tjänstemän, politiker och intresse­organisationer ser på markanvändningsfrågor samt arbetet med naturreservat och upphävande. Studien fokuserar på hur olika grundinställningar och paradigm lyfter fram olika aspekter av hållbar utveckling samt hur detta i sin tur påverkar arbetet med att upphäva naturreservat. Intervjuer med kommunala aktörer samt dokument rörande markanvändning och naturreservat visar att det finns tydliga skillnader mellan planparadigmet, med grund i den fysiska planeringen, och miljö­paradigmet, med grund i naturvården. Utifrån planparadigmet anser man att naturreservaten har fått för stor inverkan på kommunens markanvändning och att värdefull natur oftare borde skyddas med hjälp av plan- och bygglagens verktyg. Från miljöparadigmets vinkel är naturskyddet – och bör även i fortsättningen vara – ett viktigt verktyg för att långsiktigt förhindra att värdefull natur exploateras. Uppsatsen framhåller också vikten av att man vid upphävande av naturreservat tar hänsyn till alla effekter som ett sådant beslut kan leda till – inte bara i det upphävda området utan även för det fortsatta arbetet med naturreservat i stort.</p>

<p>One of our big public health problems in Sweden is that human beings are too inactive in outdoor settings. That is why stress related diseases increase and influence humans both mentally and physical. The physical activity is halved among many children when they start school and the older they become the less they enjoy school. It is also an increasing problem that children and youth in today's society have lack of worthwhile experiences in the nature. The aim of this study was therefore to examine how the experience of outdoor environment had importance for health and learning on upper secondary school pupils. The study is used a questionnaire survey where 192 upper secondary school pupils in nature and farm focused programs, respectively social programs participated. Of the result it emerged that the outside environment was a positive place in order to create health and learning. Although social- and farm focused pupils had different opinions about good outside environments and where they rather learned, the pupils at the social program were less pleased with their outside environment at school, although they already had what they wanted. The pupils at the social program also wanted more outdoor education and more practical education, as the farm focused pupils considered positive for health and learning. Our conclusion is that the pupils’ wishes should be noticed and a more varying education, that include the outdoor environment and experiences in nature, should be introduced in more schools, even in the cities, since the school also is an arena where young people spends a lot of their time. If the school creates an interest for nature it can last for the rest of life.</p>

<p>One of the main reasons for the massive loss in plant species diversity is the fragmentation of habitats. In Europe, open pastures and meadows are the habitats going through the most changes during the 20th century, according to the agricultural changes. In this study vascular plants were invented at five different islands in the Lurö archipelago, Vänern, Sweden. The aim of the study was to sort out whether the diversity of plants has gone through any changes in abandoned managed grasslands compared to continuous managed grasslands. The aim was also to study if a change in the landscape has made any differences for the species development or decline. The results indicate that the number of vascular plants were significantly lower in the abandoned areas than the still managed areas. Results, only from the field layer, showed same results. There was a significant difference between the number of indicators in managed lands than lands that were abandoned for 30-40 and 100 years ago. A comparison from earlier study, from a time when grazing had just ceased at some islands, showed a significant difference in plant species diversity between the years. Just a few decades can impoverish a plant community that might have taken hundreds or even thousands of years to build up. To preserve the biological diversity formed by human impact, one must continue managing the lands.</p> / <p>En av de största orsakerna till den massiva förlusten av växtarter, är fragmenteringen av habitat. I Europa är öppna naturbetesmarker och ängar de habitat som genomgått de största förändringarna i och med jordbrukslandskapets omstruktureringar under 1900-talet. I den här studien inventerades kärlväxter på 5 olika öar i kulturlandskapet Lurö skärgårds naturreservat. Syftet var att ta reda på hur diversiteten bland kärlväxtarter skiljer sig mellan hävdade gräsmarker och f.d. gräsmarker där hävd upphört och hur ett förändrat landskap spelat roll för artantalets utveckling eller tillbakagång. Resultat visade att antalet kärlväxter var signifikant lägre i marker som slutat hävdas, än marker som fortfarande hävdas. Även jämförelser i enbart fältskiktet visade ett signifikant högre artantal hos välhävdade marker än marker där hävd upphört. Det fanns en signifikant skillnad mellan antalet indikatorarter i marker som var under hävd och marker som slutat hävdas för 30-40 år sedan, kontra 100 år sedan. Vid jämförelser med en tidigare studie, som ägt rum precis efter att hävden upphört på ett flertal lokaler visade resultat att det fanns en signifikant skillnad i artantal mellan de båda åren. På några få decennier kan ett helt växtsamhälle som byggts upp under hundratals eller kanske till och med tusentals år utarmas. För att bevara den biologiska mångfald som formas av en störningsregim beroende av människans inverkan, måste hävd fortsätta kontinuerligt.</p>

<p>Nationalism during the early 20th century, was often shaped around efforts to create feelings of fellowship within the frontiers. Fellow feelings was considered as a necessity to convince the people that their efforts served mutual goals.</p><p>Beginning in the 19th century, the European nations experienced a great many projects for this purpose. In the early 20th century the efforts grew. The danger of war and the competition for economic power, contributed the increase of nationalist movements. At the same time, many influential intellectuals also expressed apprehensions about the urbanized way of life; measures were necessary to secure the future success of the nation.</p><p>The national movements in Sweden, played a prominent role in the creation of a greater patriotic feeling. This paper is about one of these movements: Swedish Tourist Association (STF), founded in 1885. Around the motto “Know your country”, STF promoted Swedish tourism aiming to spread knowledge of the country and its people.</p><p>Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish has influenced the interpretation of STF’s yearbooks 1908-1916. This paper aims at explaining STF’s activities as a combination of efforts to create fellow feelings among the Swedes, and efforts to discipline them to a healthier way of life.</p><p>STF’s vision was to construct mutual heartfelt emotions towards the Swedish nature. The sound nature was seen as a symbol for the sound nation. It was thereby desirable that the Swedes were given the opportunity to experience this nature. Tourism became a technique to solve both the need for Swedish fellowship and the need for healthy citizens.</p><p>Tourism placed the Swedish bodies in the Swedish nature, which disciplined them to mutual patriotic feellings for their beautiful country, and at the same time gave them the healthy constitution and moral strength that should characterize every Swede.</p>

Infectious disease can be transmitted via various environmental pathways, many of which are incorporated into our water and wastewater systems. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) can be a valuable tool in identifying hazard exposure pathways and estimating their associated health impacts. QMRA can be applied to establish standards and guidelines and has been adopted by the World Health Organisation for the management of risks from water-related infectious diseases. This thesis aims at presenting a holistic approach for the assessment of microbial health risks in urban water and wastewater systems. The procedure of QMRA is presented, together with the data collected for the case studies, and the results are discussed in a risk management framework. Decentralised drinking water treatment with membranes was shown to be competitive with centralised conventional treatment regarding environmental impacts and health. To attain sufficient die-off of pathogens in order to reduce risks to acceptable levels, facilities that permit the long-term storage of locally collected faeces are required. Issues of operation and mangement are likely to determine the health risks in decentralised systems. While failures in distribution are more likely to result in detectable waterborne disease outbreaks, the number of people at risk of becoming infected with pathogens passing normal treatment, calculated on a yearly basis, can be larger. Site-specific pathogen monitoring of source waters was identified as an important factor for the accurate estimation of risk. Noroviruses, an emerging waterborne pathogen, were shown to have fluctuating concentrations in surface water, with significant peaks during the wintertime. Time series analysis has potential as an early warning system if complemented by regular monitoring to discriminate peaks from random fluctuations. Groups already sensitive to infection, i.e. the elderly, the sick and children, were shown to consume higher volumes of cold tap water than the rest of the population, which may call for special atention in the risk management of drinking water systems. Microbial health risks associated with the handling and reuse of wastewater and sludge were shown to be successfully addressed within the management system Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Most exposure points identified could be controlled through easy measures. / Copyright Agreement: Figure 6-1, page 49 and figure 6-2, page 50 in the summary/introduction are reprinted from Water Science and Technology: Water Supply 2(2) 11-18, with permission from the copyright holders, IWA. Note: the median values are missing in the article but the figures have been corrected in the summary/introduction.

Sweden has had laws protecting nature for about a hundred years. In this paper the views of nature and the values that serve as a rationale for protective measures are analyzed as results of a social process characterized by the dialectic relationship between institutions and discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to study this relationship and the discursive practices used by institutions, which reproduce or reshape views of nature that define the relationship between society and nature. Institutional design contributes to shaping discourse in the field of nature protection, while being originally shaped by discourse. In Sweden, the national park is an institution that reproduces a view of nature as the wild and untamed opposite of society, and the natural reserves reproduce a view of nature as holder of a multi-faceted set of values intertwined with society. However, the most recently formed national park, the marine national park of the Koster sea includes resource values that threaten the hegemony of arcadian discourse within the institution and indicates social change.