Water and Environmental Studies (WES)

WES is a nationally and internationally established centre for multi- and interdisciplinary research and education, where natural and cultural scientists collaborate in search for knowledge across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. The research covers a spectrum of environmental issues continuously examining its future role in facing new challenges.

WES will
- be an international research centre within the area of water and environmental research
- carry out interdisciplinary research and education relevant for sustainable development
- produce qualified graduates
- cooperate within academic networks, external partners and stakeholders.

 

News and updates

Isabel Galiana Guest Researcher in GovNAMAs project.

Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research/Water and Environmental Studies welcomes Isabel Galiana as a Guest Researcher in April. Isabel is a lecturer at the Department of Economics at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Her research focuses on innovation and diffusion of renewable energy technologies within the project Governing Namas: Matching design and support for low carbon trajectories (GovNAMAs). 

Bolivian students discussed climate change

Water and Environmental researcher Julie Wilk visited the Raqaypampa high school in central Bolivia and spoke to approximately 100 students about the challenge of climate change and its effects on local water resources. Students asked for concrete measures to protect their water resources in order to help their families and community. The village of two hundred and fifty inhabitants, lying in one of Bolivia’s dry regions relies almost exclusively on dryland agriculture for its sustenance. Lower rainfall in recent years has diminished crop yields and herd sizes, which has in turn taken a heavy toll on household incomes.

Researchers participating in the ISA Annual Convention 2013

International Studies Association (ISA) organizes an annual international conference with participants from more than 50 countries. The Convention will be held this year in San Francisco, California, USA April 3-6 on "The Politics of International Diffusion: Regional and Global Dimensions". WES / CSPR researchers present two conference papers: Constituting Climate Statehood: A Review of the Literature on Non-State Climate Politics and Governance by Eva Lövbrand, Naghmeh Nasiritousi and Bjorn-Ola Linner, Transnational Agency in Global Environmental Governance: Images and Self-images of Roles played by Non-State Actors by Bjorn-Ola Linner, Mattias Hjerpe and Naghmeh Nasiritousi and Knowledge and the Environment by Eva Lövbrand.

Phosphorus Platform

Tina Neset participates in the 1st European Sustainable Phosphorus Conference March 6-7th in Brussels, chairing a round table on 'Sustainable Phosphorus Research - What do we need?'.

Nord-star workshop

Anna Bohman and Tina Neset are co-organizing a joint NORD-STAR workshop on 'Climate Adaptation and Integrated Vulnerability Assessment', with researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. The workshop will comprise interactive discussions on vulnerability and adaptation to climate change with Norwegian stakeholders from national, regional and municipal level as well as an evaluation of the visualization tools developed in the NORD-STAR center of excellence.

New research initiative on technical manipulations of the Earth’s climate system

Linköping University Climate Engineering Program (LUCE) is a new research initiative which analyses technical manipulations of the Earth’s climate system. – The new research programme gives us a unique opportunity to study the shaping of perceptions of new technologies, which are largely unknown to the public, says Victoria Wibeck, who leads two of the LUCE projects. Click here form more information.

Knowledge Production about Planet Earth and the Global Environment as Indicators of Social Change

Ola Uhrqvist presents the paper: One model to fit all?: Mentalities enabling Earth system modeling in GAIM and AIMES’ at the conference Climate and beyond: Knowledge Production about Planet Earth and the Global Environment as Indicators of Social Change in Bern January 23rd – 25th.

LiU researchers to Doha climate conference

The role of non-state actors is growing. The pressure on developing countries is increasing. At the same time, hopes for a new international agreement are low now that the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period draws to a close. The situation prior to the Doha climate conference is complicated, says Eva Lövbrand, one of a handful of LiU researchers who will attend.

Research got the microorganisms going

Today ever greater amounts of biogas are being produced from each unit of raw material. One of the secrets is keeping the methane-producing microorganisms happy by giving them the right amount of food. Researchers at Linköping University know all about this.

The EU and Climate Change

The EU and climate change: the multilateral context at Climate change: the evidence and the EU’s response is the topic for Björn-Ola Linnér talk for the European External Action Service (EEAS) Brussels, 20 September 2012.

Rapid intensification of global struggle for land

Björn-Ola Linnér is a member of the evaluation committee when Kenneth Hermele is defending the dissertation Land Matters. Agrofuels, Unequal Exchange, and Appropriation of Ecological Space at Lund University on September 22.

Eva Lövbrand appointed as university docent

Dr. Eva Lövbrand CSPR, has been appointed as university docent in Water and Environmental Studies.

Climate Change Adaptation Conference

Tina Schmid Neset and other researchers from Tema-v and CSPR will participate in the conference Climate Change Adaption Conference Research Meets Decision-Making in Helsinki August 29-31.

NORD-STAR PhD course Climate Adaptation Policy 13 - 17 August 2012.

LiU Professors Björn-Ola Linnér and Richard Klein are course leaders for a PhD course on Climate Adaptation Policy by NORD-STAR together with University of Iceland. LiU Honorary Doctorate Roger Pielke, University of Colorado is one of several lecturers. Ph.D. Candidate Lotten Wihren is one of the participants. More information can be found here: http://www.nord-star.info/index.php/graduate-training/graduate-courses/42

Researchers and students from Brazil

We are happy to welcome; Juliana Valle, Master student. She will be at the department from August 22 to August 25. She is going to participate at the sampling with Michael Gonsior along Sweden. Leandro Pontual. PhD student, he will be at the department on August 27 and will stay until November 3. He is going to attend the Biogas course. Humberto Marotta. Associate Professor. He will be at the department from August 27 to October 15. Viviane Figueiredo. PhD student. She will be at the department from August 30 to October 3. 

Grants from STINT-CAPES

David Bastviken, Henrik Kylin, Alex Enrich Prast and Angela Sanseverino received a long term grant from STINT-CAPES for international cooperation.
The organic carbon (OC) availability for aquatic food webs is central for fish and thereby to humans. We hypothesize that methane (CH4) carbon can be utilized by fish, and that food web carbon availability is greater than believed. This project aims to further test the ability of fish to indirectly access CH4 carbon among species and latitudes. We will combine stable isotope and fatty acid tracers to compare food web interactions in tropical and boreal aquatic environments. Moreover, we will investigate new potential molecular tracers of food web interactions such as chlorinated fatty acids.
Through frequent exchange of researchers and students we want to establish a strong, long-term collaboration between Sweden and Brazil.
 

2012 ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting

Reasearcher Lars Rahm and Åsa Danielsson from Water and Environmental Studies will participate in the conference: 2012 ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting 8-13 July 2012 Lake Biwa, Otsu, Shiga, Japan.

New Publication

Ivo Achu Nges, Annika Björn, Lovisa Björnsson. Stable operation during pilot-scale anaerobic digestion of nutrient-supplemented maize/sugar beet silage. Bioresource Technology (2012), doi: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852412008498?v=s5

Civil Society Organizations Fighting Corruption

Hans Holmén will participate in the workshop Civil Society Organizations Fighting Corruption: Theory and Practice Workshop July 9th-10th at University of Surrey. He will give a speech with the title: Corruption-whose values count?

New publication

Benskin JP, Muir DCG, Scott B, Spencer C, de Silva A, Kylin H, Martin JW, Morris A, Lohmann R, Tomy GT, Rosenberg B, Taniyasu S, Yamashita N (2012). Perfluoroalkyl acids in the Atlantic and Canadian Arctic Oceans. Environmental Science & Technology 46:5815-5823

Nord-Star annual meeting

Anna Jonsson, Anna Bohman, Tina Neset and Björn-Ola Linnér will participate in the annual meeting of the Nordic Centre of Excellence NORD-STAR, May 23-25 at Aalto University, Helsinki. For more information please visit www.nord-star.info.

New co-worker at Water and Environmental Studies

We are happy to welcome Dr. M. S. Kalpana, she is a visiting researcher from National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) Hyderabad, India. The topic of her research here will be analyzing lipid biomarker records preserved in stalagmites from northeast India to investigate the past climatic changes and identify the fluctuations in the vegetation regimes in comparison with the isotope derived climatic records. She will stay here for 6 months and is associated with Dr. Joyanto Routh and his group.

Honorary Doctor Roger A. Pielke Jr lecture.

On May 24 Professor Roger Pielke will held his honorary lecture in TEMCAS at 10 am with the title: The Triumph of Expertise

New co-worker at Water and Environmental Studies

We are happy to welcome Anna Bohman, post doc, to our department. Her research interests are: Urban water supply and sanitation services developemt in low-income settlements. Policies and Institutions for Climate Adaptation

New co-worker at CSPR

The Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research is pleased to host intern William Acworth for five weeks this summer. William will assist in research on the Non-State Actor project. He currently undertakes a Masters of Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin.

The Brazilian ambassador visits Tema

Today, April 2, the Brazilian ambassador pays a visit to the Department of Thematic Studies. She will meet David Bastviken and his brazilian collegues, they will present their research cooperation.

Planet under pressure

Several researchers from Water and Environmental department will participate in the conference, Planet under pressure, which is a major  international conference focusing on solutions to the global sustainability challenge. The conference takes place in London March 25-29.

Baltic University Programme

Tema water researcher Teresia Svensson will participate in the first national Swedish BUP meeting on March 8 2012. During the meeting questions on cooperation and support within the network will be discussed. Expectations and suggestions for improvements of the network and more will also be treated.

Guest research at Oxford University

Björn-Ola Linnér is professor in Water and Environmental Studies. Currently he is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at Oxford University.

Mastersstudent from South Africa on a temporary visit

AndreaBaker, Andrea received her Bachelor of Science degree (Cum laude) in Geology from the Stellenbosch University, South Africa in 2009, and obtained an Honours degree in Environmental Geochemistry in 2010 from the same university. She is currently undertaking a MSc. Degree in Biogeochemistry, which commenced in early 2011 at Stellenbosch University, where her research interest is geared towards Palaeo-climatic & environmental variations in Southern Africa during the late Pleistocene / Holocene. Field studies included the Congo River plume in the equatorial Atlantic off West Africa, where an ODI core was studied for its geochemical properties and down core variations as part of her honours thesis and currently the a Mfabeni Peatland core at St Lucia, Northern KwaZulu Natal for application of biomarkers (n-alkane, n-fatty acids, sterol & lignins of soil organic matter) and stable isotope analysis (C & N) to explore the palaeo-climatic variations and their ensuing (delayed) effects on the palaeo-environment during the late Pleistocene and Holocene periods. Andrea will stay here for 2 months and her supervisor at Water and Environmental Studies is Joyanto Routh.

Centre Koyré d'Hist. des Sciences et des Techniques in Paris

Björn-Ola Linnér, professor in Water and environmental studies, is invited speaker at the Centre Koyré d'Hist. des Sciences et des Techniques in Paris, where he will deliver a talk on  on Tuesday February 7 "The global governance of the environment 1945 to 2012: Approaches to analyze historical trends" http://koyre.in2p3.fr/spip.php?article626

Seminar

We are happy to be visited by Dr Norbert Hertkorn, University of Munich, recognized worldwide for his work with various analytical techniques such as NMR and ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry. He will give a presentation about analyzing very complex mixtures of organic matter, such as those found in nature, using these techniques. The time will be 13:15 on Feb 2, in the room TEM21, in the Tema buidling.

New PhD-student

We are happy to welcome our new PhD-student Sivakiruthika Natchimuthu

She has a Masters in Science for Sustainable Development: Climate, Energy and Recycling, Linköping University, 2009-2011, from the Unit of Water and Environmental Studies.

Greenhouse gas emissions from aquatic systems is her area of interest and she is also involved in the project ‘Landscape Greenhouse Gas Exchange (LAGGE) - Integration of Terrestrial and Freshwater sources and sinks’. Her PhD research is concerned with the exchange of greenhouse gases like CH4, CO2 and N2O between water and atmosphere and how they counteract the land sink at a landscape level.
 

Seminar

Professor Henrik Kylin, Unit of Water and Environmental Studies, will participate as a keynote speaker at the Seminar on Organic Pollutants in Food, Agricultural Products and Environment. University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, January 17-18.

 

 News 2011