Flood risks and consequences on water quality in a changed climate

Author: Sweco Environment AB, 2020

Deliverable No. 18. 30/06/2019 (Action C3)

Full report (in Swedish)

Summary

The report presents a method for assessing risks with contaminated areas that overlap with climate risk areas, i.e. areas that may be affected by flooding or landslides.

The method is developed to answer the following questions:

  1. Which contaminated areas close to a watercourse are most at risk of negatively impactingwater quality in the event of a flooding in a changed climate?
  2. What is the aggregated load on the water quality and what is the property of thepollutions?

Information on potentially contaminated areas that are registered in the national EBH database is used as a basis for the method. A large part of the development work has consisted of describing the information in the database and how it can be used for administrators who do not work with contaminated areas. The simplified description is based on both the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance and the County Administrative Board’s experience of working with inventory of contaminated areas. The work to develop the method has also included an in-depth study because the information in the database has been linked to a rough classification of industries that contribute to certain types of pollution risks. This part is crucial to be able to use information on potentially contaminated areas in the EBH database to assess the risks of pollutions to spread in a changed climate, considering the characteristics of the pollutants.

Table of Contents