Utgör en globalt högre havsnivå ett hot mot pågående miljöfarlig verksamhet? – En undersökning av hur tillståndspliktiga verksamheter i Skåne påverkas av stigande havsnivåer till följd av ett varmare klimat

Climate change has become a societal issue that has gained increasing attention in recent years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, presented in year 2007 its Fourth Assessment Report, pointing out different scenarios about the future climate, including the anticipated sea level rises during this century. More recent climate research has shown that sea levels are most likely to rise more than projected in the IPCC climate report. Scania - the southernmost county of Sweden - is expected to be more severely exposed by sea level rises, than other parts of the country because of the combination of its low-lying landscape and the fact that land uplift following melting of the ice sheet covering Scandinavia during the last glaciation has almost ceased in this part of the country. Population density in Scania is high in comparison with the rest of the country and the largest towns are located on the coast, which means that they are at risk of being affected by sea level rises. . The Unit of Environmental Inspections within the County Administrative Board has desired an analysis of the future situation regarding the impact on activities located within the projected exposed areas. The present thesis was developed in cooperation with this unit. The main objective is to identify activities, within the supervisory responsibilities of the unit, which may suffer impacts by rising sea levels, and how this issue is viewed by the different activities. An initial survey was conducted using WebbGIS, the internal geographic information system of the County Administrative Board, which is partly based on maps from the National Land Survey, in order to locate the various activities. A questionnaire was then sent to contact persons within each activity included in the study. Site visits were also carried out at three of these activities. The results of the investigation show that the studied activities are not at great risk of being affected by flooding, during times of extremely high water levels, in the current situation. The survey also revealed that a majority of the activities have not implemented any preventive measures. A visit was also made to Holland, in order to study how sea level rise issues are being dealt with in this country. Holland was considered appropriate for this purpose regarding the fact that the country has been exposed to severe flooding situations in the past because of its low-lying position. During this visit it became obvious that the country has well-developed strategies regarding this issue. Several preventive measures have already been implemented and decisions taken regarding future projects