Sustainable water supply in coastal areas under climate stress

Project name: Sustainable water supply in coastal areas under climate stress
Project leader: Bo Olofsson, SEED
Participating universities/companies/other organisations: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Project period: 2018-2020
Financing: Formas

Sustainable access to water of good quality is one of the environmental goals established by the Swedish Parliament. Many peri-urban areas along the Swedish coasts exhibit water stress due to a fast growing permanent population, limited freshwater resources in soil and rock and increasing climate stress. Spatial planners and stakeholders require a better understanding of the behaviour of freshwater reservoirs during different climate and land use scenarios, as well as tools for evaluating groundwater quantity and quality. This project will develop decision support tools for groundwater resource management.

The project involves case studies in three coastal municipalities, using a groundwater balance approach developed for use in coastal areas which allows spatially oriented groundwater extraction and storage modelling and will be combined with statistically based potential mapping to identify areas which are at risk for environmental stress. This method utilizes GIS software to make the method accessible to stakeholders. The multidisciplinary approach comprises use of groundwater balances, modelling software and statistical analyses which influence local water supplies as well as analyses of planning strategies. Implementation will be carried out using workshops with planners and stakeholders. The project is a cooperation between KTH, NGOs and municipalities and the final part of a PhD-project.

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