Water Resource Management - A qualitative case study of Swedish municipalities water resource management

Abstract

In recent years, water scarcity and water shortage have increased all over the world as a result of high stress on water systems like rivers, lakes and streams. Sweden is a developed country with plenty of available water resources but, due to droughts and less precipitation in recent years, it has experienced enormous negative effects on their water resources. Many local authorities have in the last years been forced to implement water irrigation prohibitions whilst others urged their citizens to be frugal when consuming water distributed to their home in order to not overexploit the resources. Scarce water resources is a local problem and therefore, tools, measures and adaptive strategies needs to be implemented by municipalities. This thesis aim is to analyse what challenges Swedish municipalities face with water resource management towards reducing the risk of water shortage and if they have implemented adaptive strategies. To answer the research questions and to fulfill the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative case study of two municipalities has been conducted. The theoretical framework is based on adaptive management and the analytical tools used was a SWOT-analysis which identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT characteristics were further used to establish the challenges that municipalities face with water resource management. This thesis is based on a qualitative case study analysis. The result is based on an analysis of the municipalities water supply plans, their water and waste plans, and through semi structured interviews held with the municipalities Head of the Water and Waste department unit and project managers in the Water and Waste department. Challenges that municipalities face with water resource management are mostly threats that are viewed as external elements. Municipalities implementation of adaptive management strategies due exists in some extent in both cases but seem to be related to how affected they are by water scarcity.