LS - County Administrative Board of Skåne
The County Administrative Board of Skåne, in the very south of Sweden, is a regional management and development authority working directly under the Swedish government.The County Administrative Board of Skåne dates its history back to the year 1634. We have a broad area of responsibility. The Board works on issues concerning the environment, urban development, the labour market, competence sourcing, the business community, social development, gender equality, human rights, integration and migration, transport, infrastructure, housing and spatial planning.
The County Administrative Board’s task is to coordinate these and other areas of public responsibility to achieve efficient solutions for a sustainable society in which economic development, the environment and social welfare are interlinked. The County Administrative Board also has the task of ensuring that the county’s citizens receive the level of service the Government has decided on, that municipalities and companies comply with laws and regulations and that nationwide objectives adopted by the Government are achieved in Skåne County.
The major city in Skåne is Malmö; other major cities in the region are Lund and Helsingborg and we also have a large rural area in the county. The population in the county is 1,3 million. By the bridge to Denmark we have direct access to the Copenhagen area.
One of our major responsibilities, in collaboration with local communities, is to encourage and develop the planning process of the future society. For us it is very important that the development of future cities, towns and rural areas is done in close collaboration with citizens living in the area.
The role of our organization regarding water management work in the region is
- to oversee the municipalities spatial planning
- to coordinate climate adaption activities
- to coordinate EU:s flood directive
- to give permits to easy measures like smaller dikes
- and to oversee the security of dams.
The core value for us in this project is knowledge sharing in a regional, national and international context.
Two municipalities from the region will participate in the FAIR Project - Kristianstad and Helsingborg.
Kristianstad is sometimes called a Dutch example in Sweden. It is the only town in the country which is dependent on flood infrastructure daily. A part of the city is situated in a former lake and is protected by dams and dikes. Now it has been observed that the most crucial part of the construction has moved lateral, the material below the dam could not cope with the weight.
The case from Kristianstad has raised some issues like which criteria will be used for dimensioning in a changing climate, which methods are suitable and sustainable and how does the risk of the construction collapsing affect the inhabitants and the prospect of expanding and developing the city?
Helsingborg struggles with another kind of difficulty. The city has repeatedly been affected of flooding by high water level from the sea. Now Helsingborg is planning flood infrastructure for three areas which can work as case studies.
The first case is the central station where the railway tunnel can be affected from flooding from the sea. The second case is a part of the city called Strandvägen which is situated at low level open to the sea. The houses in this area have been flooded repeatedly before in storm events. The third case is a part of the city called Råå which is situated at low level and can get flooded both from the sea and from the stream Råån.