Tidigare forskningsprojekt (på engelska)

Extreme weather events inflict major losses and disproportionally affect lower income countries, yet conditions for accelerating implementation of public policy for disaster risk reduction (DRR) are poorly understood. The TRAMPOLINE project aims to investigate extreme hazard events as potential triggers for changes in DRR policy and development. Utilizing data on DRR policy from 2007-2018, a new dataset of climate extremes and disasters, interviews, and public sources, the project documented the extent to which these events prompt policy change worldwide and assessed whether variations can be explained by income-levels, event magnitude, regular exposure, diffusion effects, agenda-setting, political mobilization, and learning.

• Duration of the project: 2020-2022
• Funding: 4.5 Million SEK (Swedish Research Council)
• People involved: Daniel Nohrstedt (PI, UU), Charles Parker (Co-PI, UU), Giuliano Di Baldassarre (Co-PI, UU), Maurizio Mazzoleni (VU), Elena Mondino (UU) and Jacob Hileman (UU)

More information in Uppsala University website

Offshore renewable energy, in terms of offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy, is expected to become an important contribution to the future sustainable and fossil-free energy system. Whereas offshore wind turbines are being installed at shallow water depths at a rapid speed around the world, floating offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy are less mature technologies. Ensuring reliability for these systems still poses a challenge, in particular during storms and other extreme weather events. In this project, extreme offshore wave conditions are identified, and survivability and resilience of wave energy converters in these conditions is studied using numerical and experimental methods.

• Duration of the project: 2019-2022
• Funding: 5 M SEK (the Swedish Energy Authority)
• People involved: Malin Göteman (PI, UU), Eirini Katsidoniotaki (UU), Jens Engström (UU), Anna Rutgersson (UU), Erik Nilsson (UU), Zahra Shahroozi (UU), Claes Eskilsson (RISE), Pär Johannesson (RISE), Johannes Palm (Chalmers/Sigma Energy & Marine), Edward Ransley (University of Plymouth, UK), and more.

The overarching scientific questions to be addressed in this project were: To what extent does climate change alter the occurrence of extreme events, including storms, storm surges as well as heavy precipitation, and the severity of their impacts in the coastal zone; how can improved modelling lead to better preparedness, help mitigate consequences to society, and to understand key uncertainties; and what is the most effective method of communicating these risks to society?

• Duration of the project: 2018-2022
• Funding: 9.5 Million SEK (The Swedish Research Council Formas)
• People involved: Anna Rutgersson (PI, UU), Martin Drews (co-PI, DTU), Pasha Karami (co-PI, SMHI), Erik Nilsson (UU), Johanna Mård (UU-CNDS), Waheed Iqbal (UU), Elin Andree (DTU), Linus Wrang (UU-CNDS), Kevin Dubois (UU), Kiri Campbell, Ole Kleinschmidt (DTU)

The project studied how society can handle the impacts of a changing climate and remain resilient. Resilient here meaning an ability to retain steering and control and society's vital functions. The research contributed to societal utility by increasing the knowledge and understanding of societal resilience, but also through concrete and practical advice on what actions that is needed in terms of changed or reformed legislation, decision making processes, models of collaboration, and organizational structures.

• Duration of the project: 2018-2022
• Funding: Swedish Civil Contincencies Agency (MSB)
• People involved: Mikael Granberg (PI, KaU), Lars Nyberg (KaU)

More information in Karlstad University website

Atmospheric rivers are long narrow bands of large integrated water vapor transport in the troposphere. At land fall they are usually associated with extreme conditions in terms of wind and precipitation. There is a growing interest in atmospheric rivers, concerning their regional impacts on water availability, the modulation by climate variability and their representation in weather and forecast models. Air-sea interaction processes are major modulators, (i) in the source area over the large oceans and by (ii) coastal processes at land fall. How atmospheric rivers interact with surface conditions and coastal features is to a large extent unknown. The ultimate goal of the project is to quantify the importance of air-sea interaction on atmospheric rivers for better prediction of extreme events in the coastal zone.

• Duration of the project: 2018-2021
• Funding: 3.2 Million SEK (Swedish Research Council)
• People involved: Anna Rutgersson (PI, UU), Danqin Ren, Venu Thandlam, Lichuan Wu (UU)

Centre for Societal Risk Research (CSR) led this interdisciplinary research project on disaster modeling, focusing on flood risks in close collaboration with four companies. The project had three main objectives:

(i) To develop methods for disaster modelling, including descriptions of precipitation, exposure and potential damage 
(ii) To develop a secure method for managing insurance data on flood damage in order to better understand the relationship between precipitation and damage
(iii) The establishment of an arena for cooperation between academia, insurance trade association, and authorities in the blue light sector in order to reduce disaster risk in Sweden on a long-term basis. 

The work contributed to a better picture of the incurred costs in the event of heavy precipitation, which is needed for effective long-term prevention work. The project used Jönköping as a case study to conduct analyses of events and future risks.

• Duration of the project: 2018-2019
• Funding: 3.4 Million SEK (The Knowledge Foundation)
• Involved people: Lars Nyberg (PI, KaU-CNDS), Sven Halldin (UU), Jan Haas (KaU), Barbara Blumenthal (KaU), Thomas Gell (Brandskyddsföreningen Restvärderäddning), Daniel Knös (JLT Re Northern Europe), Jonas Ander (Länsförsäkringar Jönköping), Pär Holmgren (Länsförsäkringar Alliance)

More information in Karldstad University website (in Swedish)