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Helsingborg - A case study

Helsingborg that is situated on the south coast of sweden is the 8th largest city with a population of 132 000 (2013), and it is a city that is undergoing a lot of changes and expansion over the nearest future. This brings with it some concern for the water managers as the municipal sewer system and waste treatment already are prone to be flooded, and as more induced stress is caused by expansion, the system might fail (Semadeni-Davies et. al., 2008).

An environmental sketch showing what we think the region of Helsingborg looks like and what kind of environmental influences it has.

A map showing where in Sweden Helsinborg is located. Source Google.

To be able to assess the problems in Helsingborg we are going to use Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) modeling and Regional Risk Ranking (RRR). More info about this in the Method section.

Helsingborg is a city with an important trade hub in Sweden and is characterized by the shuttle ferries across the strait to Helsingør around the clock. In Helsingborg there are environmentally hazardous activities undergoing, such as landfills, illegal and legal, contaminated ground from the oil-harbour and landfill areas. Helsingborg have classified these hazardous activities by a ranking of A through C, where A is most hazardous and C the least. The main area of hazardous activity A is the industrial area south of the harbour and trade hub where hazardous activity B is which is a larger part of Helsingborg and the C activities are located further in on the coast, which is not shown in figure 1 (Stadsbyggnadsförvaltningen, 2012).

The purpose of this case study is to model shore line environmental risk chiefly as recipients from terrestrial point and non-point contaminant sources. The hypothesis is that there are three different main outflows that depend on the activities and hydrologic/geohydrologic conditions. The three different regions are Råån (Agriculture), Knähaken Harbor (Heavy Metals), and Helsingborg Harbor (Filborna landfill). These regions are then compared to Grollegrund, which is considered to be a rural area, and not heavily contaminated.

Most of Helsingborg is located on postglacial sand with till more towards land  and filling material in the harbour. Sand and till are ideal material for forming aquifers and therefore also have great hydraulic conductivity (SGU, 2017). This is a risk if there is a flooding of the town, that the landfill areas are flooded and contaminants are dispersed and pollute aquifers and other water sources. In the Helsingborg harbour and industrial area called “Sydhamnen” there is an oil-terminal that is a potential threat if there is an accident and it starts to leak, with potential organic contaminants, such as oil (Helsingborg, 2017).

A map of Helsingborg showing risk activites and landfills.

Environmental atlas over Helsinborg region showing the different types of shores.

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