Webbreda

This paper discusses the dynamics of coastal policy change in Sweden, using erosion and beach nourishments as an example. The Multiple Stream Model is a theoretical model on agenda setting and policy change developed by the political scientist John Kingdon (1984, 2003). This paper applies Kingdon’s model in describing and explaining coastal policy dynamics regarding coastal erosion in Sweden. Coastal protection is not a separate policy field in Sweden: interventions to protect the (common) coast form a component of spatial planning, which is largely the responsibility of the municipalities. Our analysis reveals that interventions to protect the coast are indeed organized at a local level, by landowners and the municipality, driven by a strong problem perception. This problem perception is articulated as a local voice seeking increased acknowledgement of the coastal erosion issue by the national government. Although the problem of coastal erosion has entered several regional and national policy agendas over the last decade, and the first implementation of a large scale beach nourishment has been experienced positively, this has not yet led to the opening of ‘policy windows’ for significant change on the regional and national levels.

The famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe initiated meteorological observations on the Island of Ven that were recorded in a diary, starting in October 1582 and lasting almost uninterruptedly until April 1597. Although the observations were mainly qualitative due to the lack of proper instruments and procedures in those days, a lot of useful information can be extracted from the diary regarding cloud cover, precipitation characteristics, wind speed and direction, heat conditions, and the occurrence of thunder, halos, and northern lights. After the diary was found in the mid-19th century, La Cour (1876) transcribed the observations to quantitative measures, obtaining four values per day for a number of meteorological parameters. The transcribed observations from the diary may be used to investigate whether changes in the climate have occurred since the 16th century. In the present paper, the wind properties (direction and speed) from the diary, were compared to measurements from the 19th and 20th/21st century to determine if such changes have taken place. In accordance with results from previous studies, the data analysis showed shifts in the wind direction from the sector northeast – southeast to the sector south – west. These changes are more pronounced for the winter months compared to the summer months. No conclusions could be made regarding the wind speed, probably due to problems in transcribing the observations in the diary to quantifiable values. The observed changes in the wind direction are of significance for the wave and water level conditions around the south coast of Sweden, which in turn affect sediment transport and shoreline evolution.

The article presents a study assigned by SCA about water stress assessments on basin level for sites where SCA have pulp- and paper mills, paper mills or factories. Four tools were evaluated with the aim to find indices that measure water stress, i.e. lack of water of good enough quality for humans and the ecosystem. Water indices, developed through research, become more accessible when they are in water tools, developed by non-governmental organisations, corporations or financial institutions. Two indices in WBCSD’s Global Water Tool and three indices in WWF-DEG’s Water Risk Filter totally gave each site five assessments. The study included 96 sites. Both tools gave assessments without showing confidence intervals for the results that are presented. More local knowledge would be required to assess how well the results correspond to reality. That is the case for all indices that are measured on the level of basins or countries.

Falsterbo Peninsula on the south coast of Sweden is low-lying and exposed to flooding. In 1872 the extreme storm surge Backafloden caused large devastation on the Swedish, Danish, and German coasts in the South Baltic Sea. For the Falsterbo Peninsula, the peak storm surge level is estimated to have been 240 cm above normal. If a similar event happened today, the consequences would be far worse, as extensive flood prone areas have been developed since 1872. Due to climate change, the mean sea level is expected to rise and increase the flood risk unless preventive measures are taken. This paper discusses the occurrence of extreme sea levels at the Falsterbo Peninsula and design levels for coastal protection. Sea level observations from Skanör, Klagshamn, and Ystad are analysed with General Extreme Value and General Pareto Distribution models to estimate sea levels with return periods of 100–500 years. The estimated return period of the 1872 event, based on these models, resulted in an unrealistically low probability. To better understand the statistical behaviour of extreme storm surges of this magnitude on the Swedish south coast, development of more advanced statistical models will be required.

Desalination is an important method for producing drinking water and it has been a freshwater supply alternative for a long time. The water resources in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, are mostly depending on desalination as a major source of (>80 %) drinking water, while the rest comes from groundwater. The largest number of desalination project is located in the Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman) which today counts for more than 45 % of the world production. The Omani production, however, is only about 3 % of the total production in the GCC countries. The International Desalination Association (IDA), Award Program (2014–2015) was designed to facilitate the advancement of global expertise in desalination and water reuse through the exchange of talents, knowledge and skills. This was awarded for the author at Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW), as the host agency in Oman for six weeks. PAEW performs studies and explores and evaluates multiple techniques for providing fresh water and power production to various consumers; residential, industrial and commercial. Oman has several desalination plants, both small (smallest about 100 m3/d) and large size (largest about 200,000 m3/d) which are controlled by the PAEW. In the program lecturing, discussions and field visits were conducted to assist the host agency PAEW in Oman.

The waterworks Ringsjöverket in Stehag in Skåne has a long prehistory prior its inauguration in 1963. In this paper, the background to how the waterworks developed from an idea to a full-scale regional drinking water treatment plant for the cities of Eslöv, Helsingborg and Landskrona is described for the period from 1947 to 1963. During these sixteen years, a substantial number of stakeholders took the opportunity to partake in of the development process which prolonged it but also grounded it well in the village of Stehag and in the affected cities. The legal process to get a water permit for water abstraction is time consuming and more often than not is taken up to the appeal court and even the Supreme Court. Since large scale water developments affect many persons, a change of the water allocation must be treated with great care and respect in order to be acceptable for the stakeholders. The prehistory of Ringsjöverket is a good example to this.

According to the authors’ many years of experience in coastal projects around Sweden, there is a great need for an improved Swedish terminology for engineering issues and planning of coastal areas. This article presents, thus, an English-Swedish dictionary, including explanatory comments, with an ambition to clarifying a wide range of words and expressions. This dictionary is also available online at kustordlistan.se in a living version that will be updated as such a need arises. On kustordlistan.se there is also a Swedish-English version of the dictionary. Both the English-Swedish and Swedish-English dictionaries are aimed at Swedish-speaking readers as the explanations are given in Swedish irrespective of whether the table refer to the translation from Swedish to English or vice versa. The Swedish-English dictionary can, thus, both be used to find the corresponding English words of a known Swedish coastal term and to understand the meaning of an unknown Swedish coastal term.

Due to climate changes and global warming, sea level rises. In Sweden, this affects primarily the coast of Skåne where land uplift is minimal. The understanding and commitment to coastal planning seems limited, and the reasons can be several; the question of responsibility is unclear, there is uncertainty about which measures are the best, the difficulty of understanding the coastal dynamics when the coast is described as a static line on different maps, and last but not least people might not want to accept that part of the landscape will disappear as the landscape is something we identify with, both individually and as a cultural community. Some research suggests that storytelling and artistic methods can be used to develop understanding and preparedness in relation to climate change. The explorative work discussed in this article is based on a curiosity about and a trying out of such methods, in collaboration with master students in landscape architecture from SLU, Alnarp. The investigations gave new knowledge to students and a wider public, a new platform to discuss coastal landscape dynamics and alternative design and planning strategies. The methods used also proved to be possible to develop for other types of understanding, and opened up for new strategies and solutions to coastal planning and design for the future.

The role of sediments in the phosphorus (P) dynamics of the Baltic Sea is often highlighted. The impact of the sediments on the water column is strictly limited by the amount of potentially mobile P available in the sediments. We present total P measurements for ten sediment cores from the Bothnian Sea and the Baltic Proper and detailed measurements of different P forms with different mobility in two cores. The Baltic Proper is characterized by anoxic conditions in the bottom waters overlying the accumulation sediments, whereas the bottom waters of the Bothnian Sea are generally oxidized which is also reflected in the sediments. Integrating the sediment concentrations over the depth profiles, amounts of mobile phosphorus were estimated in each sediment core. Average mobile P content in the sediments of the Bothnian Sea was found to be an order of magnitude higher than in the Baltic Proper. By contrast, the bottom waters of the Baltic Proper contained dramatically higher P concentrations indicating that the available mobile P was largely present above the sediments. An indicative distribution of P between deep water and sediment in the Bothnian Sea is 1:16, while the corresponding ratio in the Baltic Proper is 3:1.

Med anledning av arbetet med EUs vattendirektiv skrev jag 2000 en debattartikel med titeln »Vatten – demokrati och inflytande med ett nytt EG-direktiv» (Karlsson 2000). Eftersom vattendirektivet hade en tidplan med flera delmål kändes det då frestande att beskriva ett framtidsscenario. Artikeln andas enorm optimism och entusiasm – svår att förstå så här i efterhand. Att tidplanen skulle spricka var väntat, men att så lite har hänt under den tid som passerat känns i dag mycket märkligt. Trots att miljön ideligen uppmärksammas är EUs ramdirektiv för vatten med dess goda och viktiga intentioner ett nästintill okänt begrepp för många. Syftet med denna nya debattartikel är att göra en uppföljning av den gamla artikeln och att kommentera mina prediktioner av framtiden med facit på hand.