Oil spill preparedness in Sweden : prevention, planning, and response for large accidents

This dissertation has analysed the Swedish oil spill preparedness between 2010 and 2015 by examining management, prevention, planning and response, and compared it to international practices. The study is based on analysis of available data, surveys administered to the coastal County Administrative Boards and municipalities, and interviews with the national oil spill experts. Oil spills can cause significant acute damage to the environment. Sweden has a long coastline with intense shipping traffic. This suggests a high risk of a large oil spill occurring, but no oil spill over 1,200 tonnes has affected the Swedish territorial waters or Exclusive Economic Zone. The findings show that the Swedish Coast Guard, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the Oil Spill Depots, the Swedish Agency for Water and Marine Management, and the Oil Spill Advisory Service are central organisations to national oil spill preparedness. All relevant international conventions have been ratified and implemented, excepting the OPRC Convention requirement to have a National Contingency Plan for oil spills. Oil spill contingency plans exist in 79% of the coastal municipalities. However, only 60% of the coastal municipalities have conducted oil spill exercises within the last 5 years. Requirements to follow up evaluation recommendations were only present in 18% of the 11 real spill and exercises analysed. It is concluded, that in some respects, the structures of Swedish preparedness to handle the impact of a major oil spill somewhere on its coastline could prove to be inadequate. Despite this, Swedish oil spill preparedness is shown to be equivalent to most neighbouring countries. This dissertation establishes the strengths and weaknesses of the Swedish oil spill preparedness regime and calls for further development. The benefits of maintaining and improving the current level of preparedness far outweigh the effort, but will only be evident when a large oil spill occurs

Oil spill preparedness in the Baltic Sea countries

The Baltic Sea is one of the world’s busiest waterways. An estimated 9 % of the world’s trade and 11 % of the world’s oil transportation passes through Baltic waters. It is estimated that this will increase by 64 % between 2003 and 2020. For example, the oil transportation has increased by 133 % between 1997 and 2008 and is now over 250 million tonnes per year. Plenty of shallows and narrow passages make parts of the Baltic Sea difficult to navigate. There are around 130 accidents each year, with 10 of these leading to pollution, mostly of oil. The brackish water of the Baltic Sea coupled with a long residence time of water, makes the flora and fauna particularly sensitive to pollution. The Baltic Sea countries are fortunate to never have had a larger oil spill. The largest one, the Globe Asimi in Lithuania in 1981 spilled 16 000 tonnes of oil. Compared to the larger oils spills in other parts of the world, for example the Prestige, that spilled 63 000 tonnes, this is a small amount. In the Baltic Sea region, several bilateral agreements and international conventions exist to strengthen the cross border cooperation in case of an oil spill. Annual exercises are held by the respective countries’ Navy and Coast Guard on combatting oil spills at sea. These have held multiple joint response operations during the HELCOM Balex Delta exercises for several years. However, this spirit of international cooperation and capacity building has not been the case with the land based oil spill response. The organisation of the on land oil spill response in the Baltic Sea countries varies. Certain countries have a centralised system, with a federal authority in charge of the response and aided by local resources. Other countries have the local authorities in charge, who are aided by the governmental authorities and resources. Different countries have worked with contingency planning to a varying degree. Poland for example have had no larger spills at all, but have invested much time and money into response preparedness. Sweden has had several smaller to medium sized spills, but there is large variation between the municipalities concerning the preparedness level. Different nations have set different goals for their oil spill response as well, for example Finland is prepared for an oil spill of 30 000 tonnes, Germany for 15 000 tonnes, Sweden 10 000 tonnes and the Russian Federation for 5 000 tonnes. The two Baltic Master projects have highlighted the changing patterns related to shipping in the Baltic Sea and the corresponding need to continuously re-assess the threats to coastal environments and communities. One of the important conclusions from Baltic Master II is that the preparedness to deal effectively with oil spills at the local and regional level in most of the Baltic Sea countries is poorly developed. Important aspects are related to the need for updated and well rehearsed contingency plans. The need to test these plans in real exercises with regular intervals must be emphasised in particular. Such practices will test the collaboration between different agencies locally, the cooperation between central and local agencies, and the collaboration across borders. To cover the cost for such an improved preparedness various funding mechanisms can be discussed, one example highlighted in the present report is the development of a fund similar to the Finnish model.https://commons.wmu.se/baltic_master2/1007/thumbnail.jp

Contingency planning guide

This guide has been put together to introduce persons new to contingency planning to the process, give examples of topics and outlines for contingency plans and tips for further information. It has been produced for the EU project Baltic Master II and is the result of the practices and processes followed during the project.https://commons.wmu.se/baltic_master2/1006/thumbnail.jp

Interactions between human and house cat (Felis silvestris catus)

Throughout the history of mankind, our intertwined story with the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus) is a complex one. From being a tiny solitary hunter who lived among humans and their unwanted debris, until today when the cat is one of the most popular pets in the world. Therefore, the human-cat interactions are countless and can be positive or negative which of course can engender varying effects for both humans and cats. Also, the environment in which the interactions takes place seems to alter as well. For this reason, this paper aimed to identify the different interactions between humans and cats, in which environments the interactions occur and what factors are affecting them. Also, what positive and negative effects can be seen among cats and humans were investigated. The methodology that was used in this thesis was a literature review. The information was collected from different articles, books and scientific studies from Primo (SLU-university library search engine), Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. The results indicate that the environments in which the positive and negative interactions occur are many, from cat cafés to the home environment, and these environments seem to influence the interactions. However, research processing the effects of the human-cat interactions is uncertain due to both positive and negative results around health benefits, stress, social needs and support. Factors affecting the interactions between cats and humans are for instance the experience of people, age and gender. To conclude, more research is needed to gain a more complete and holistic understanding of human-cat interactions and the factors affecting them

Deflation of the Finite Pointset Method

In this thesis a deflation method for the Finite Pointset Method (FPM) is presented. FPM is a particle method based on Lagrangian coordinates to solve problems in fluid dynamics. A strong formulation of the occuring differential equations is produced by FPM, and the linear system of equations obtained by an implicit approach is solved by an iterative method such as BiCGSTAB. To improve the convergence rate of BiCGSTAB, the computational domain is divided into a number of deflation cells and a projection between the deflated domain and the original domain is constructed with the help of different ansatz functions, either constant, linear or quadratic. Also, the Moore Penrose pseudoinverse of the projection is computed. Applying the projection and restriction to the linear FPM system, a deflated system is obtained which can easily be solved with a direct method. The deflated solution is then projected onto the full domain. The deflation is tested for a number of test cases in one and two dimensions. Constant ansatz functions provide acceptable results for Dirichlet problems, but give big errors when deflating problems with mixed boundary conditions. Linear ansatz functions provide good approximations which converge to the exact solution as the number of deflation cells increases. Quadratic ansatz functions provide deflated solutions as good as the exact solutions for all test cases but are computationally expensive. The BiCGSTAB convergence rate is improved when using a deflated solution as initial guess, compared to using the zero-vector. The size of the improvement varies between which ansatz functions are used. Overall, the proposed method provides an increased convergence rate in the BiCGSTAB algorithm for FPM. However, the computational effort in the deflation process should also be taken into account

Quality changes in ’Elise’ apples after opening of ULO-Storage

För att kunna erbjuda konsumenter svenskproducerade äpplen över en stor del av året lagras frukten i sk ULO (ultra low oxygen) -lagring. Genom att temperatur, relativ fuktighet och atmosfär reglerass kan biologiska processer, såsom respiration och etylenproduktion, kontrolleras och sänkas vilket resulterar i att frukten håller längre och har bättre kvalité över en längre tid. Då lagret öppnas ändras förhållandena och därmed påverkas äpplets mognadsprocess. Syftet med detta arbete var dels att undersöka hur kvaliteten förändrades i ’Elise’-äpplen som efter att ULO-lagret öppnats fortfarande lagrades i utrymmet fast under normal atmosfär, dels att studera hur kvaliteten förändrades i dessa äpplen då de efter lagringen placerades i förhållanden motsvarande så kallad shelf-life, motsvaraande förhållanden i butik, under under några veckor. Arbetet ska ge både packerier och livsmedelsbutiker en djupare förståelse för kvalitetsutvecklingen hos sorten ’Elise’ då den varit i ULO-lagring och placeras i shelf-life. Försöket utfördes på Äppelriket i Kivik. Äpplen plockades ut ur lagret vid tre tillfällen (grupp 1: 28 mars, grupp 2: 11 april och grupp 3: 18 april) och placerades därefter i rumstemperatur. Fasthet, sockerinnehåll, vikt och förekomst av mekaniska eller fysiologiska skador bedömdes då äpplena plockades ut och sedan en gång per vecka i upp till fem veckor. Äpplen som placerades i shelf-life uppvisade en minskande vikt och fasthet med antal veckor, medan sockerinnehållet tenderade att minska i grupp 1 och 3, men inte i grupp 2. Trots att äpplen i grupp 1 låg längre tid i shelf-life var det färre äpplen som kasserades (8 st) än för grupp 2 (22 st) och 3 (17 st). Kvaliteten var också lägre (minskad fasthet, högre andel sjukdomsangripen frukt) för de äpplen som låg kvar i det öppna ULO-lagret jämfört med de äpplen som plockades ut direkt efter öppningen. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att ’Elise’-äpplen håller 4 veckor i rumstemperatur (shelf-life) efter att de tagits ut ur ULO-lagret. De ’Elise’ äpplen som fortsatt lagras i ett ULO-lager med normal atmosfär men med nedkylning har en kortare hållbarhet då de placeras i rumstemperatur (shelf-life).To offer consumers Swedish-produced apples all year around, the fruit is stored in so-called ULO (ultra-low oxygen) storage. By controlling temperature, relative humidity and atmosphere, biological processes like respiration and ethylene production can be lowered which results in fruit lasting longer and having better quality. When the storage is opened, the conditions change and thus the apple’s ripening process is affected. The aim of this work was to investigate how quality changed in ‘Elise’ apples which, after opening the ULO storage, were still stored in this facility but under normal atmosphere and with cooling and to study how the quality changed in these apples when they after storage were placed in conditions similar to shelf-life during a few weeks. The studies aim is also to give packers and grocery stores deeper knowledge and understanding of the quality development of ‘Elise’-apples when it has been in ULO-storage and then placed in shelf-life. Apples were taken out of storage on three occasions (batch 1: 28 March, 2: 11 April and 3: 18 April) and placed at room temperature. Firmness, sugar content, weight, and presence of mechanical or physiological damages were assessed when apples were taken out of storage and then once a week for up to 5 weeks. Apples in shelf-life showed decreasing weight and firmness, while sugar content tended to decrease in batches 1 and 3, but not in batch 2. Although apples in batch 1 were kept at room temperature for a longer time, fewer apples were discarded (8) than for batch 2 (22) and 3 (17). The quality was lower (reduced firmness, higher percentage of diseased fruit) for the apples that remained in the open ULO storage compared to the apples that were taken out immediately after opening. In summary, ‘Elise’ apples lasted 4 weeks at room temperature (shelf-life) after they were taken out of the ULO storage. The ’Elise’ apples that were still stored in the ULO storage with normal atmosphere and cooling had a shorter shelf life

Sojabönsorters groningsdynamik i förhållande till vanliga vårgroende ogräs

Soybeans are one the most traded crops in the world with main production areas in north and south America. Europe only produces 5 % of its domestic need for soybean. In the Nemoral zone of northern Europe no commercial cultivation of soybeans exists today. However, between 1940 -1960 there existed a breeding programme for soybeans in Sweden, but it never reached a commercial scale. Soybeans are interesting to introduce to Swedish organic farming for replacing imported soymeal in animal diets as well as for direct human consumption. To expand the soybean production further north more knowledge about soybeans maturity timing and temperature requirements during the major phenological stages needs to be acquired. An important trait for cultivation of soybeans in the Nemoral zone is capacity to germinate under the low temperatures which in this zone are common in spring. This thesis aims to study three germination dynamics parameters of soybeans; the base temperature for germination (Tb), growing degree days to 50 % germination (GDD50) and the maximum germination rate (b). Secondly, this study aims to investigate if there is an increased tolerance of germination under low temperatures for modern cultivars compared to historic Swedish cultivars. Thirdly, germination dynamic parameters of the most common weed species were studied with the aim to gather more information about weed-crop competition dynamics and possible implications on non-chemical weed management practices. In total 12 soybean cultivars and 10 weed species were studied. Germination experiments were carried out in climate chambers with 12 constant temperatures between 0 – 40 °C. Log logistic functions were used for estimation of the mentioned germination dynamic parameters. The results showed that there were significant differences regarding Tb, GDD50 and b between the studied soybean cultivars. There were also significant differences between modern cultivars and the historic cultivar ‘Fiskeby V’. Germination dynamic parameters of the studied weed species varied greatly. Based on the study results it can be concluded that a selection of soybean cultivars with contrasting germination dynamic parameters compared to the main weed species can help to optimise the timing of non-chemical weed management measures. Further it can be concluded that the studied parameters could be included in the future soybean breeding programs aiming for the adaptation of this crop to northern climates

Attitudes, norms and barriers of livestock trading : how does its use affect quality, competitiveness and added value in the beef industry?

I svensk nötköttsproduktion råder stor diversitet i avelsmaterial och produktionsformer. Diversitet gör att det finns en rad olika kvalitetsegenskaper och mervärden för livdjur i ett förmedlingsstadie. Majoriteten av förmedlingen sker genom de två största slakterierna i Sverige, HK Scan och KLS Ugglarps. Slakterierna har i regel åtaganderättförbehåll på de djur de förmedlar, vilket påverkar lantbrukarnas förhandlingsutrymme. I länder som Storbritannien, Kanada och USA har, man istället för förmedling genom slakterier, fysiska auktioner där slutproducenterna får buda mot varandra om högsta pris. I takt med digitaliseringens frammarsch har användandet av digitala auktionsplattformar ökat i en rad olika branscher. Exempel på digitala auktionsplattformar i nöttköttsbranschen är Svensk köttrasprövnings tjurauktioner och Boskapstorget, som riktar in sig på förmedling av avelsdjur och livdjur. Intresse för digitala auktionsplattformar, så som Boskapstorget, finns bland livdjursproducenter. Dock har den faktiska användningen genom sajten varit svag. Undersökningens syfte var att, med teorin om planerat beteende, identifiera vilka attityder, normer och hinder som påverkar användningen av förmedlingsavtal och digitala auktionsplattformar. Studien har också att berört hur alternativen påverkar arbetet med kvalité, konkurrenskraft och främjandet av mervärden i nötköttsbranschen. Detta för att det finns en uppfattning bland producenter att det finns möjlighet till förbättring inom dessa tre områden. Studien innefattade 13 st. telefonintervjuer med ett standardiserat frågeformulär. Studien har konstaterat att återleveranskrav och ett litet förhandlingsutrymme är de två största hindren för producenter att använda förmedlingsavtal. Dock gör bristen på alternativ, den uppleva ekonomiska tryggheten och tryggheten i att alltid kunna sälja eller köpa djur att de allra flesta producenter ändå väljer förmedlingsavtal. Om förmedlingsavtalen ska stimulera kvalité, konkurrenskraft och mervärden behöver avtalen utvecklas så att mervärden och kvalité premierar uppfödaren ekonomiskt. Vilket i förlängningen kommer underlätta producenternas konkurrentsituation. Intentionen med digital livdjursförmedling är att den fria prissättningen kommer underlätta förmedling av mervärden och stimulera producenter att producera djur av god kvalité. Det kommer i sin tur förbättra konkurrenssituationen för de producenter som satsar på mervärden och kvalité. Avgörande faktorer för en utbred användning är säkerställandet av en säker betallösning och smittuppföljning. Skulle varumärket skadas i ett tidigt stadium skulle det bli förödande för fortsatt användning och utveckling. Dock går det inte att utesluta att det kan finnas andra oanade och oönskade konsekvenser av digitala auktionsplattformar för livdjur. Konsekvenser som upptäcks vid en omfattande användning.Swedish beef production contains a big diversity when it comes to breeding materials and types of production systems. Due to the diversity there is different quality and added value in the livestock trading. The majority of the livestock trading appears through the two biggest stakeholders of Sweden (HK Scan and KLS-Ugglarps). The stakeholders have the right to slaughter the cattle that they have sold to the farmer though their livestock trading service. In countries like Great Britten, Canada and USA is the norm to buy or sell the livestock though livestock auctioneers. Where the byers compete against each other about having the highest offer. In times of the digital evolution has the use of digital auctions increased in different industries. Examples of digital auction platforms in the beef industry is Svensk köttrasprövning and Boskapstorget. There is interest of using digital auction platforms among the beef producers rather than using the traditional livestock trading by the stakeholders. Despite the interest, the actual use of the digital auction platforms has been low. The purpose of the study was to identify which attitudes, norms and barriers which effects the use of traditional livestock trading and the possible use of a digital auction platform. The study has also identified how the alternatives affects the work whit quality, competitiveness and added value in the beef industry. The study included thirteen respondents who participated through telephone interview. The conclusions of the study were that the reservation of the slaughter and the small space of negotiation are the two biggest barriers of using traditional livestock trading. However, the lack of alternative ways of trading livestock, the sense of economical trustiness and ability to always trade animals makes the livestock trading through the stakeholders attractive. If the livestock trading through the stakeholders should simulate quality, competitiveness and added value the system needs to develop so the added value and quality makes a financial difference for the calf producer. The financial difference will stimulate the competitiveness of producers. The intention of digital auction platforms is that the market-based pricing of cattle will stimulate added value and stimulate producers to breed cattle of good quality. It will improve the competitiveness for the producers that invests in added value and quality. The main factor of using is the ensuring of a safe financial transaction and infection control. If the trademark harms in an early stage, it will be devastating for a continues use and develop. However, the study cannot exclude the fact that it can be other unwanted consequences with the use of digital auction platforms for trading livestock