Strategic Assessment of Sweden’s Water An exploratory study of municipal water supply, climate change, and population growth
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Johansson, Hanna
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Global water use is increasing due to economic development, changing consumption
patterns, and population growth. Meanwhile, changes in temperature and
precipitation as a result of climate change are expected to decrease water availability
while further increasing the demand for freshwater. Sweden only uses a small
percentage of its water resources but the resources vary regionally and several regions
are already experiencing recurring water stress. In Sweden, the responsibility
to supply drinking water in urban areas is assigned to the municipalities, which
includes managing strategic planning and securing future water supply. This means
managing the challenges of climate change and population growth, which are both
complex issues. This thesis has been an exploratory study of climate change effects,
population growth, and water supply focusing on the municipal supply in Sweden.
By using literature, reports from governmental agencies and interviewing five case
municipalities, four thesis questions have been analyzed. Thesis question 1: Where
is water stress likely in Sweden under climate change and population growth? Thesis
question 2: What are the consequences of water stress for water quality management?
Thesis question 3: How well is Sweden equipped to cope with changes in
water quantity and quality? Thesis question 4: What potential do different water
supply technologies and other solutions have in the Swedish context? The thesis
work has resulted in a water stress factor for thesis question 1, showing that water
stress will occur in southeast Sweden, particularly around the Stockholm region.
The analysis of thesis question 2 produced a compilation of unwanted water quality
effects found in the literature, a handbook aimed at municipalities, and examples
from the case municipalities. Increasing DOM and DOC concentrations were found
to be a hot spot in the Swedish literature. The increasing concentrations of harmful
microorganisms was the unwanted effect most frequently mentioned by the case municipalities.
Thesis question 3 resulted in four important factors in the analysis of
whether Sweden can cope with changes in water quantity: water availability, water
treatment and delivery system capacity, population growth and demand, and intermunicipal
cooperation. For thesis question 4, alternative solutions and technologies
from the literature are presented along with the solutions and technologies used or
potentially used by the case municipalities. The case municipalities were likely to
stay with the current water supply technologies and the case municipality Gotland
has the most experience with alternative solutions for water supply. Even though
Gotland uses desalination plants to boost the supply, the interviewees believed water
retention measures would be the best direction for future expansion of the municipality’s
water supply.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
water supply , municipality , water resources , climate change , population growth , water quality