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  • Accuracy Asse s sment of Leaf Area Density Estimation Methods. A Comparative Study Across Tree Species and In Relation to Canopy Transmissivity
    (2026-10-09) Einarsson, Emma; University of Gothenburg/Department of Earth Sciences; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för geovetenskaper
    An increasing rate of urbanization alongside the imminent effects of climate change is predicted to make cities more prone to extreme events such as heatwaves and thus more people being prone to be exposed to heat stress. Therefore, as cities continue to grow, it is especially important that city planners and developers implement preventive measures to work mitigating against climate change and minimize the effects of various heat related events. One way for city planners to do this is by implementing urban greenery. Urban greenery, especially trees, has long been recognized to provide numerous benefits to the urban environment through various ecosystem services. Regardless of whether it is single trees or a bigger consecutive green area, urban trees play a vital part in local climate and human wellbeing. A way of quantifying what ecosystem services that a singular tree can provide is to determine the canopy foliage through leaf area density (LAD). LAD is defined as the “total one-sided leaf area per unit volume“ [m2 m-3] creating a three-dimensional profile of the canopy that is frequently used to analyze the distribution and density of the canopy in individual trees. The objective of this study was to investigate if LAD estimates measured using different methods vary between species. LAD was therefore estimated for four different tree species; Cercis canadensis, Quercus palustris, Pyrus calleryana, and Eucalyptus scoparia. Furthermore, interest also immerged to compare the different ways to estimate LAD with gap fraction and transmissivity and investigate the possible effects of canopy structure and morphology on trees’ ability to hindrance and absorb solar radiation. The study gives multiple insights in how LAD can differ between species and methods but also how it effects solar transmissivity. The results found significant differences in LAD estimation between both species and methods, though the interaction between them did not. Indicating that the variations in LAD found in this study could partially be explained by differences among species and the methods independently. However, the interaction between species and methods was not significant, suggesting that the effect of the methods on LAD was consistent across species and that differences among species did not depend on the method. Furthermore, the study found that the shape and size of the trees also had a big impact when estimating LAD. Other morphological characteristics such as leaf orientation and clumping factor were found to have bigger impact on transmissivity of solar radiation rather than affecting the LAD estimations. Lastly, the study found negative correlations regarding the relation between LAD, gap fraction and transmissivity, suggesting that a decrease in LAD would lead to increase in gap fraction and transmissivity of solar radiation.
  • For Political Gain? Party Leaks and Whistleblowing in Swedish Print Media 2010-2024
    (2025) Bågenholm, Andreas; Dawson, Stephen; Niklasson, Birgitta; De Fine Licht, Jenny; Höök, Elsa; Quality of Government Institute
    Resisting autocratization requires mechanisms that can expose political elite misconduct and hold responsible actors to account. However, as fundamental actors of representative democracy—constituting the main channel between citizens and democratic institutions—political parties are comparatively closed entities for non-members. The only way for the public to gain insight into internal party activities is through social and news media, which thus constitute vital channels of information. Still, media reports largely depend on people on the inside being prepared to leak information about their party and party colleagues to journalists, information that may cause a public scandal to the detriment of the party, as well as to the source of the leak. We therefore ask the following questions: When and why are media disclosures concerning party misconduct made by insiders? Drawing on previous research and interviews with political and investigative journalists, we hypothesize that such media disclosures are more likely when: H1) party list nominations take place and H2) parties are losing popular support. The analysis is based on 709 newspaper articles of misconduct in political parties leaked to and published in Swedish print media between 2010 and 2024. The results are in line with H1 and H2. This paper thus contributes novel theoretical, as well as empirical insights to research on investigative journalism, political parties, political scandals, and whistleblowing by illustrating how a previously overlooked factor – media disclosures made by insiders of party-related misconduct – plays an important role in internal party struggles and is at least partially driven by political gain. This is something that journalists and the public should keep in mind when holding the political elite to account based on such reports
  • Whistleblowing in Political Parties: The Moral Dilemma of Fairness and Loyalty.
    (2026) Dawson, Stephen; QoG Institute
    Whistleblowing is increasingly viewed as a valuable mechanism to root out misconduct in organisations, yet we know very little about the conditions under which it is used in political parties. Building upon literature from social psychology, we argue that the decision to blow the whistle is the outcome of a trade-off between two basic moral values that are particularly acute in the case of politicians: fairness and loyalty. Using a novel pre-registered survey experiment with over 1,000 Swedish politicians, this paper establishes that priming values of fairness can increase politician’s willingness to blow the whistle against fellow party members. However, priming values of loyalty has no effect on whistleblowing intentions relative to control conditions, suggesting loyalty is the default value position for politicians. The results of this study have significant implications for understanding the impact of parties’ organisational cultures on the willingness to speak out against misconduct.