Uppföljning av betydande miljöpåverkan av planer och program

För att uppnå en mer miljöanpassad fysisk planering upprättas miljökonsekvensbeskrivningar (MKB:er) för planer som kan antas leda till betydande miljöpåverkan. MKB:n är ett dokument som beskriver de miljökonsekvenser som en plan kan ge upphov till och fungerar som ett beslutsunderlag för att integrera miljöhänsyn i planbestämmelserna. Processen att ta fram en MKB kallas miljöbedömning och regleras i den svenska miljölagstiftningen. I lagstiftningen finns krav på att den som antagit planen ska följa upp den faktiska miljöpåverkan som planen gett upphov till. Uppföljningen ska ske efter att planen genomförts och omfatta all betydande miljöpåverkan. Det saknas idag tydliga riktlinjer om hur uppföljningen ska genomföras, och många av landets kommuner lyckas inte leva upp till de lagstiftade kraven. Detta kandidatarbete syftar till att studera hur Umeå kommun arbetar med att följa upp betydande miljöpåverkan från detaljplaner och hur kommunen uppfyller de lagstiftade kraven angående uppföljningen. Metoder som används är en litteraturstudie som bland annat behandlat lagtexter och myndighetsskrifter, en fallstudie av fyra av kommunens MKB:er samt intervjuer med anställda på Umeå kommun. Resultatet visar att uppföljningen behandlas mycket lite i de studerade miljökonsekvensbeskrivningarna och att det praktiska uppföljningsarbetet hittills endast omfattat två av kommunens detaljplaner. I rapporten diskuteras hur väl kommunen uppfyller kraven i lagstiftningen och hur uppföljningen kan organiseras för att täcka alla detaljplaners betydande miljöpåverkan.In order to achieve a more environmentally adapted physical planning Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are established for plans that are considered to cause a significant environmental impact. The EIA is a document which describes the possible environmental consequences a plan can lead to and serves as a tool to integrate environmental consideration into the plan provisions. The process to produce an EIA is called environmental assessment and is regulated in the Swedish environmental legislation. The legislation requires that the one who adopted the plan has to monitor the actual environmental impact of the plan. The monitoring shall be done after the plans implementations and include all significant environmental impact. Today, there is a lack of guidance on how to organize the follow-up, and many of the municipalities fail to fulfill the legislative requirements. This bachelor thesis aims to study how the municipality of Umeå is monitoring significant environmental impacts from detailed plans and how they meet the legislative requirements regarding follow-up. Methods that are used are a literature study, a case study of four EIAs from the municipality and interviews with employees of the municipality of Umeå. The result shows that the follow-up is treated vaguely in the studied EIAs and that only two of the detailed plans have been monitored so far. The report discusses how well the municipality fulfill the requirements in the legislation and how they can organize the monitoring to cover all significant environmental impacts from the detailed plans

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Swedish waters

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) is a group of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants. PFASs are widely used in industrial processes and products such as water- and fat repelling surfaces in clothes, paints and paper. They are also used in certain types of firefighting foams and have been found in ski waxes. PFASs are organic compounds with a fully or partly fluorinated chain which makes them very stable to heat and degradation. They are globally spread and found in high concentrations in e.g. water and biota. The goal of this study was to analyze the results from a screening campaign of PFASs in Swedish waters. The aims were to identify the most polluted types of waters and identify the main emission sources. Further, the measured concentrations were compared with guideline values. This study also investigated the possibility of tracing PFAS sources from a water sample. In total 528 samples (including 30 triplicates and 26 blanks) were collected across Sweden and analyzed for 26 different PFASs. The types of water sampled were groundwater, surface water, landfill leachate and sewage treatment plant (STP) effluent. Also 10 reference lakes located in remote areas were sampled. The samples were analyzed by using a method including filtration, SPE (solid phase extraction) and LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry). The result showed PFAS concentrations ranging from zero to thousands of ng L-1. The highest average concentration was measured in landfill leachate. The maximum concentrations were detected in samples collected from surface water and groundwater. The impact from different sources was investigated for surface- and groundwater. The results showed that fire training sites are causing the highest concentrations followed by landfills/waste disposal areas. An analysis of the concentration in drinking water showed that 5 of the sampled sites contained concentrations above the recommended guidelines from the Swedish National Food Agency (90 ng L-1 for the sum of 11 PFASs). The conclusion drawn from this was that it is important to continue monitoring PFAS concentrations in drinking water sources, especially those potentially impacted by fire training sites or landfills. The possibility of source tracing PFASs from surface- and groundwater samples was investigated through PCA (Principal Component Analysis), cluster analysis and analysis of branched isomers. The results did not show any correlations between the sources and specific PFAS profiles, except for PFOS, PFBS, PFHxS and PFPeA in groundwater which showed some correlation with fire training sites. The conclusion was that source tracing needs to be investigated further, and the possibility of finding correlations might increase if more specific source categories are used

Transforming delta terrains

In this study, telecoupled and local impacts on flooding in the Paraná River Delta in Argentina are analysed and described. A sustainable design strategy is then proposed for a newly developed site in the delta. Land systems are not only affected by their direct surroundings, but also by interconnections with distant areas. The accelerating pace of globalisation and new anthropogenic drivers produce novel relationships between previously disparate geographical places. This situation can be observed in the lower Paraná River Delta, north of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Characteric for the delta is it being a heterogeneric area where a number of different human and natural pressures converge. The drivers behind these pressures are direct and indirect interactions, couplings, from local and distant places in the connected river system. Research on upstream and local events reveals changes in the conditions of the river system. Telecoupled and local impacts are historically major forces which form and govern the delta processes, but as the impacts are amplified, new challenges in the form of large environmental transformations are currently emerging in the delta. Growing urbanisation in the delta makes it clear that the area is increasingly becoming a part of the urban conurbation of Buenos Aires. Since the expanding delta front is expected to reach the city, this could result in major challenges in adapting to changes in flooding and sedimentation. The analysis in this study shows that, in order to manage the telecoupled and local impacts, the delta needs to function as an open system rather than as a landscape in isolation. Many current local interventions, such as new private developments, run counter to this principle. While the traditional human lifestyles were previously able to coexist with the natural environment and hydrodynamics of the delta, human and natural processes are today increasingly beginning to collide. This thesis sets out to explore the possibility of conducting design interventions that are in line with the natural processes of the delta, as an alternative to the many unsustainable actions that are taking place in the area at the moment. A recently developed site on one of the most fragile islands along the delta front, the Colony Park project, serves as a case in point and exemplifies the transformation from natural wetlands into a closed, private settlement constructed on embankments. The site has therefore been selected as an area of focus in this study. The results of this work are the implementation of a research approach based on interconnectedness, as well as a case study involving a design strategy which relates the theoretical findings to design practice. It concludes that taking into account interconnectedness in the physical construction and in new integrated design solutions has the potential of generating benefits for this problematic, closed site. Creating a more open system can help to decrease vulnerability in the delta, as well as to support its future sustainability

Ecosystem-based biomimicry : managing climate change with sustainable design

Inom hållbar design har man under senare år börjat härma naturen för att hitta nya lösningar på människans problem. Naturens ekosystem fungerar som praktiska modeller för kretsloppsfungerande miljöer där energi och material tas om hand – precis som visionen för den hållbara staden. Genom att dels förstå ekosystemets uppbyggnad, dels övergången från ekologi till design, kan man efterlikna ekosystem i den urbana miljön. Designstrategin biomimik är en tillämpning av detta förhållningssätt, där man efterliknar naturens processer i arkitektur. Tack vare den ekosystembaserade designens omhändertagande funktioner har den även potential att vara en effektiv resurs i hanteringen av klimatförändringar. Strategin är trots detta relativt oanvänd i Sverige, vilket är bakgrunden till att jag undersöker metoden och dess effektivitet mer ingående. I uppsatsen undersöks huvudfrågeställningarna: Hur kan man använda sig av ekosystembaserad design som grundar sig på forskning? samt På vilka sätt kan ekosystembaserad design bidra när det gäller hanteringen av klimatförändringar? Uppsatsen presenterar metoder, principer, problem och praktiska exempel för att hitta svar på dessa frågor. Hållbar design och klimatförändringarnas påverkan på vår miljö är ett aktuellt ämne, vilket gör att fler yrken kommer involveras. Kunskaperna inom landskapsarkitektyrket omfattar många av de områden som ingår i detta arbete. I uppsatsen undersöks därför landskapsarkitektens roll i den ekosystembaserade designen, samt hur vi som yrkesverksamma kan arbeta med hanteringen av klimatförändringarna genom ekosystembiomimik. Syftet är att skapa ett underlag för diskussion och visa praktiska metoder som kan användas i arbetet. Studien har genomförts genom granskning och analys av litteratur, undersökningar av praktiska projekt samt en intervju. Resultatet visar att efterliknandet av ekosystem är mycket komplext, vilket gör att det behövs tydliga forskningsbaserade metoder om ekosystembiomimik ska kunna fungera som ett effektivt medel mot klimatförändringar. Det kräver också ett bättre samarbete mellan olika discipliner i arbetet mot hållbarare miljöer.In recent years, the mimicking of nature to find solutions to human environmental problems has been developing in the field of sustainable design. The ecosystems of nature are practical models for creating environments where energy and material flow in cycles – just like the vision for the sustainable city. By understanding the structure of ecosystems and the transformation from ecology to design, an emulation of ecosystems in urban environment is possible. The design strategy biomimicry is an application of this approach, where mimicking nature in architecture can create systems and functions which nature provides clear and functional models for. Because of the cycling functions of ecosystem design, the approach has also potential for being an effective resource in managing climate change. Despite of this, the strategy is relatively unused in Sweden, which is the reason why I have examined the method and its effectiveness closer. The paper presents two main questions: How can you use a ecosystem-based design founded in research? and How can ecosystem-based design contribute when it comes to managing climate change? The paper presents methods, principles, problems and practical examples in approaching these issues. Sustainable design and the impact of climate change on our environment is a current topic, involving several professions. Special knowledge in landscape architecture covers many of the areas included in this work. The role of landscape architects in ecosystem-based design is therefore examined in the paper, and how we as professionals can work with managing climate change through ecosystem biomimicry. The purpose is to create a basis for discussion and demonstrate practical techniques that can be used in the work. The study was conducted through review and analysis of literature, the study of practical projects, and an interview. The result shows that there is a great complexity in mimicking ecosystems, which requires explicit research-based methods if ecosystem biomimicry is to function as an effective tool against climate change. It also requires better collaboration between different disciplines in working towards a more sustainable environment

Intrinsic sparse LSTM using structured targeted dropout for efficient hardware inference

Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are useful for speech recognition but their fully-connected structure leads to a large memory footprint, making it difficult to deploy them on resource-constrained embedded systems. Previous structured RNN pruning methods can effectively reduce RNN size; however, it is difficult to find a good balance between high sparsity and high task accuracy or the pruned models only lead to moderate speedup on custom hardware accelerators. This work proposes a novel structured pruning method called Structure Targeted Dropout (STD)-Intrinsic Sparse Structures (ISS) that stochastically drops grouped rows and columns of the weight matrices during training. The compressed networks are equivalent to a smaller dense network, which can be efficiently processed by Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). STD-ISS is evaluated on the TIMIT phone recognition task using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) RNNs. It outperforms previous state-of-the-art hardware-friendly methods on both accuracy and compression ratio. STD-ISS achieves a size compression ratio of up to 50× with <1% accuracy loss, leading to a 19.1× speedup on the embedded Jetson Xavier NX GPU platform

New records of the Paleotropical migrant Hemianax ephippiger in the Caribbean and a review of its status in the Neotropics

Tropical America is currently experiencing the establishment of a new apex insect predator, the Paleotropical dragonfly Hemianax ephippiger (Odonata: Aeshnidae). H. ephippiger is migratory and is suggested to have colonised the eastern Neotropics by chance Trans-Atlantic displacement. We report the discovery of H. ephippiger at three new locations in the Caribbean, the islands of Bonaire, Isla de Coche (Venezuela), and Martinique, and we review its reported distribution across the Neotropics. We discuss the establishment of H. ephippiger as a new apex insect predator in the Americas, both in terms of ecological implications and the possible provision of ecosystem services. We also provide an additional new species record for Bonaire, Pantala hymenaea (Odonata: Libellulidae).Peer reviewe

Challenges for environmental governance: policy issue interdependencies might not lead to collaboration

Policy actors address complex environmental problems by engaging in multiple and often interdependent policy issues. Policy issue interdependencies imply that efforts by actors to address separate policy issues can either reinforce (‘win–win’) or counteract (‘trade-off’) each other. Thus, if interdependent issues are managed in isolation instead of being coordinated, the most effective and well-balanced solution to the underlying problem might never be realised. This study asks if reinforcing and counteracting interdependencies have different impacts on perception and collaboration. Our empirical study of collaborative water governance in the Norrström basin, Sweden, shows that policy actors often avoid collaborating when the policy issues exhibit reinforcing interdependencies. Our evidence indicates a perceived infeasibility of acting on reinforcing interdependencies. We also find that actors do not consider counteracting interdependencies (‘trade-offs’) at all when they engage in collaboration. Further, even though actors were aware of counteracting and reinforcing interdependencies, our analyses suggest they might be less aware of the former. These findings illustrate that actors either avoid each other due to policy issue interdependencies or, at best, ignore existing interdependencies when engaging in collaboration. Our study highlights the importance of problem perception in accomplishing integrated solutions to complex environmental problems, and of how understandings of different types of interdependencies shape collaboration in environmental governance

Impacts of climate change on global food trade networks

Countries’ reliance on global food trade networks implies that regionally different climate change impacts on crop yields will be transmitted across borders. This redistribution constitutes a significant challenge for climate adaptation planning and may affect how countries engage in cooperative action. This paper investigates the long-term (2070-2099) potential impacts of climate change on global food trade networks of three key crops: wheat, rice and maize. We propose a simple network model to project how climate change impacts on crop yields may be translated into changes in trade. Combining trade and climate impact data, our analysis proceeds in three steps. First, we use network community detection to analyse how the concentration of global production in present-day trade communities may become disrupted with climate change impacts. Second, we study how countries may change their network position following climate change impacts. Third, we study the total climate-induced change in production plus import within trade communities. Results indicate that the stability of food trade network structures compared to today differs between crops, and that countries’ maize trade is least stable under climate change impacts. Results also project that threats to global food security may depend on production change in a few major global producers, and whether trade communities can balance production and import loss in some vulnerable countries. Overall, our model contributes a baseline analysis of cross-border climate impacts on food trade networks