The thesis, 'Access to water: rights, obligations and the Bangalore situation', is based on a year of field trips to southern India. It deals with three inter-linked dimensions of rights in attaining and improving access to water: the right to water as a human right, water in terms of property rights, and the notion of 'water rights'. The study focuses on strategies for accessing safe (drinking) water in the urban and peri-urban setting, on rights and corresponding duties.
 
Dr. Grönwall has a degree in law and has previously worked with the Swedish EPA and as a lecturer in environmental law at the universities of Stockholm and Linköping

She is currently engaged as a researcher with the Urban social-ecological systems and globalization theme at the Resilience centre and a Sida-financed India project, mapping social ecosystem services in the Bangalore site for an 'Urban Social-ecological Atlas'.

Her research interests are issues of urbanisation, the role of public institutions, private vendors and perceptions around groundwater ownership, and regulation of responsibilities.