Stadsplaneringen utgör en viktig roll i arbetet för att främja en hållbar utveckling. Enligt Miljöbalken ska en behovsbedömning göras för varje upprättad detaljplan i syftet att utreda huruvida den leder till en betydande miljöpåverkan eller ej. Den bedömningen baseras dock ofta på bristfällig kunskap om de specifika miljöindikatorer som utvärderas. Det ges heller inget utrymme för förändringar i själva planen för att eliminera identifierad miljöpåverkan. En förbättrad strategi för behovsbedömning som innefattar ett anpassningsfokus och tidigt minimerar miljökonsekvenserna är därför önskvärd. En studie gjordes av arbetsprocessen för behovsbedömning i samband med detaljplanering på Örebro kommun i syfte att upprätta ett nytt, mer holistiskt arbetssätt för behovsbedömningsprocessen inom detaljplanering för att underlätta och förbättra arbetet för en hållbar stadsutveckling. Djupgående intervjuer utfördes på kommunen och teorier om hållbar utveckling samt lagar studerades. Mål som relaterade till hållbarhet ur kommunens policydokument sammanfattades. Målet var att undersöka hur det kunde skapas en förändrad strategi med tillhörande processverktyg för behovsbedömning inom detaljplanering, på Örebro kommun, som är praktiskt tillämpbar samt följer rådande lagar och policyer. Arbetet resulterade i ett strategidokument med en förändrad arbetsprocess och två olika tillhörande checklistor. Slutsatsen är att en ny strategi ska innehålla ett iterativt och tvärvetenskapligt arbetssätt samt en alternering mellan checklistorna beroende på detaljplanens omfattning. Det sistnämnda för att strategin ska kunna tillämpas inom kommunorganisationens strikta tidsramar, utan att kompromissa med kvaliteten på miljöarbetet vid omfattande detaljplaner som potentiellt ger stor miljöpåverkan. / Urban planning plays an important role when working for achieving sustainable development. According to the Swedish Environmental Code, a screening has to be executed for every local plan to investigate whether or not the plan generates significant environmental impact. The screening process is however often based on poor knowledge about the environmental aspects that are evaluated, and neither is there room for adaptation of the plan to eliminate identified environmental impact. An improved strategy for the screening process is needed, which has emphasis on the adaptation and a reduction of the environmental impact early in the process. In this master thesis, the screening process for local planning was studied at the municipality in Örebro, a medium sized city in Sweden. The purpose of the study was to establish a new more holistic working process for screening within local planning, to facilitate and enhance sustainable urban planning. Interviews were carried out at the planning department of the municipality, and sustainable development theories and the law were studied. Municipality targets that related to sustainability were extracted from their policy documents and summarized. The objective was to investigate whether an alternative strategy with suitable process tools could be created for screening within local planning at the municipality that is also applicable in practice and in line with prevailing laws and policies. The thesis resulted in a strategy document and two accompanying checklists, and the conclusion is that a new strategy should include an iterative and multidisciplinary working process, along with an alternation between checklists, depending on scope of the local plan. This strategy should be applicable within the municipality organization without compromising the environmental assessment quality when carrying out an extensive local plan that entails a potentially big environmental impact.

In the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the environmental protection of the marine environment was first addressed in a comprehensive manner on an international level. However, the Convention distinguishes between four different sorts of pollution depending on which source the pollution originates from. Still, one of these sources play a more crucial role in the protection of the marine environment than the other since that source is estimated to stand for 80 percent of all the marine pollution; namely marine pollution from land-based sources. As the throw-away culture has led to products being disposed of at a faster rate than ever before, in particular plastic products, the amount of land-based debris has also substantially increased over the last decades. This increased disposal rate of products in combination with poor waste treatment has consequently led to many kinds of wastes ending up in the ocean and causing severe harm, not only to the marine environment and its living species, but also to humans that eat the fish and use the many other ecosystem services of the Sea. In this thesis, some prominent international conventions on marine pollution from land-based sources are examined; namely the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, as well as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. To achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 14.1 to significantly reduce marine pollution from land-based sources by 2025, this thesis claims that international laws addressing this sort of pollution need to be implemented. Moreover, this thesis rests on the belief that regional implementation is a crucial component in making states align with international law. However, while regional implementation has been ambitious in the European Union Law, many regions still lack enforceable frameworks that aim to reduce and prevent marine pollution from land-based sources.