Per-Olof Johansson

Per-Olof is a hydrogeologist with a doctoral degree from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, where he is also an associate professor. Since the 1980ies he has worked in the field of groundwater, as a scientist and lecturer at KTH and as a consultant at present SWECO Environment. In 2003 he started his own company, Artesia Groundwater Consulting, where he since then is active.

At present, Per-Olof is working mainly with groundwater supply, groundwater protection, vulnerability and risk analysis, and environmental court applications.

Ongoing projects and projects carried out in Sweden over the last few years include investigations for new groundwater supplies for the municipalities of Hudiksvall and Örebro, including environmental court applications, development of a groundwater model and a database for the water supply of the city of Uppsala as a basis for strategic planning, emergency water supply based on artificial groundwater recharge for northern Stockholm, development and protection of the groundwater supply of the municipality of Söderhamn, activity leader for hydrology and shallow hydrogeology at SKB:s investigations for a spent nuclear fuel repository at Forsmark, investigations for the groundwater heating and cooling storage at Arlanda airport, establishment of several municipal groundwater protection areas, studies of possibilities for coordinated use of groundwater and extraction of gravel and sand, and risk for negative impact from road construction on a spring of great historical value.

Projects carried out abroad include development of a groundwater protection strategy for the Managua aquifer in Nicaragua, lowering of groundwater levels at the Karnak and Luxor Temples in Egypt to prevent their destruction due to capillary transport of salt, and studies of possibilities to use artificial groundwater recharge to increase water supply safety and bridge droughts in Namibia and Botswana.

Per-Olof  also participated in a UNESCO work group that produced a guidebook for carrying out groundwater contamination inventories, which was published in 2002. The methodology has been developed, adapted to Swedish conditions and applied in projects on local and national level.

He has also worked with several R&D projects dealing with artificial recharge, vulnerability assessment, valuing of groundwater and designing filters for water treatment.

Per-Olof is annually teaching in the MSc-course in hydrogeology at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.