Group N - Collaborative Climate Adaption Project
| Area | Helsinki Metropolitan Area | |
| Place | Helsinki | |
| Country | Finland | |
| Topic | See level rise, GHGs Emissions | |
| Author(s) | Andreia Oshiro, Carolina Esteves, Diana Cota | |
| ||
|
| ||
Rationale: Why have you selected this case study area?
- Today, around 44% of world’s population lives within 150km of shoreline (UN Atlas of the Oceans). There are 3,351 cities in the low elevation coastal zones (UN-Habitat) and they will face strong impacts due to rise see level.
- As Finland is the pioneer in the implementation of adaptation policy (since 2005), we believe that the study of Helsinki and metropolitan area can bring us a valuable examples of measures and strategies for adaptation to Climate Change in coastal areas.
- Finland has already some adaptation actions happening on local level and that gives us a clear picture of how to implement such measures and get communities involved.
Authors' perspectives
- Landscape architects should provide an interdisciplinary approach to protection, conservation and management of urban and rural landscapes, considering environmental, social and economic factors.
- This approach contributes to elaboration of strategies to support sustainable communities and improve our adaptation capacity to Climate Change.
- We believe that local actions in different sectors coordinated by an integrated plan are an important instrument to ensure effective results.
Landscape and/or urban context
- Helsinki – the capital of Finland - is situated at the mouth of the river Vantaa, in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The city is spread across a number of bays and peninsulas and over about 315 islands.
- The metropolitan area involves also the cities, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, covering around 745 sq. km, with a total population of approximately one million. Only in Helsinki live 602,200 people, making it by far the most populous city in Finland. Therefore it has a density of 2,800 inhabitants per sq.km, which is relatively low in comparison with other European capitals (e.g. London: 5,206/sq.km; Stockholm: 4,600/sq.km; Brussels: 7,025/sq.km).
- Approximately one of four Finns, live in the metropolitan area of Helsinki representing an important center of population, jobs, public and private investment, infrastructure construction, administration and research.
- The public transport system is much spread and consists of trams, commuter rail, the subway, bus lines and two ferry lines. There were only 240,175 cars registered in Helsinki, which means about 403 cars per 1000 inhabitants.
- The symbol animal of the city is the squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and their symbol plant is the maple (Acer platanoides).
Cultural/social/political context
Cultural context
Helsinki offers a big variety of culture and is home of innovative international enterprises like Nokia or Marimekko. One of the oldest centres for architecture in Europe, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, is located in Helsinki as well as the National Museum of Finland and the National gallery. Seen from the architectural point of view, Helsinki is a real treat for enthusiasts of classicism and art nouveau. The classicist buildings were all built under the russian government after the model of St. Petersburg. As a consequence of the vast culture and innovative power in Helsinki, the finnish capital has been elected to be World Design Capital of the year 2012.
Social context
Helsinki, the capital of Finland since 200 years ago, is a very old and traditional city in the north of Europe. Founded by the swedish king Gustav I. Wasa in the 16th century with the purpose of becoming an important place for maritime trade and competitor of the estonian city Tallinn, the town grew and became more important. The history has always been in constant change and several bloody battles concerning the owning of Helsinki had been fought in between Sweden and the Russian Empire until it finally became russian in the 19th century. It was the Russians who made Helsinki the capital of Finland replacing Turku. After the fall of the czar, modern Finland was finally founded in 1917. These influences are still easily visible today as Helsinki is officially bilingual with swedish and finnish. For example, all the street names are written in both languages. Furthermore the russian language still plays a role in the city’s lifestyle.
Political context
Helsinki, like all other Finnish municipalities, has a City Council. Its primary task is to decide about important issues concerning education, city planning, health care and mobility. Every four years municipal elections take place to elect the 85 member council.
There are 3 large parties in the council of Helsinki. The National Coalition Party with 23 members, the Social Democrats with 15 members and the Green League with 19 members. The National Coalition Party has been the strongest party in the recent years.
The current mayor of Helsinki, Mr. Jussi Pajunen, is a member of the National Coalition Party. The mayor gets elected by the City council and his primary task is to monitor the city’s budget.
Illustration: Bullet points, image, background notes
Local Climate
- The whole Helsinki area has a semiboreal humid continental climate with both continental and oceanic characters. Although the far northern location might indicate some very low temperatures, because of Baltic Sea and the Gulf Stream, these are pretty high, with the average in January and February around -5 °C. Extreme temperatures – minus 20 °C – occur rather rare, a week or two in year, mostly in the coldest month of the year February, with an average temperature of -6,6 °C. The hottest month is July, with an average temperature of 17,2 °C, when also temperatures over 30 °C might be possible. Because of the offshore wind the real feel is consistently lower than the real temperature, especially in winter. The average temperature around the whole year is 4,8 °C and the yearly amount of precipitation is about 689 mm (the most rainy month is January, about 73 mm and the driest March – 36 mm). The first snow falls in the middle of November, but a persistent layer of snow is only from December until march available.
- Because of the geographical position, days last less than six hours around the winter solstice with really low sun rays, and the very cloudy weather at this time of year accentuates the darkness. Conversely, Helsinki enjoys long days in summer, close to nineteen hours around the summer solstice.
- 2000
Temperatures reaches almost record heights; compared with other years of the 20th century, 2000 is among the top six, depending on the locality (1934 holds the record). Precipitation were slightly above average all over the country (In June and July the number of days with precipitation was between 3 and 10 above average). The month of June ended with violent thunderstorms, and except for the last week in July, there was almost daily thunder in different parts of the country. In connection with the thunderstorms, there were a number of local tornadoes. With the tornadoes in the Gulf of Finland a number of powerful waterspouts occurred in early August.
- 2001
The most important weather-related events of this year were two storms of extremely rare force in November. Moreover snowfalls hit the southern part of the country and a lasting snow cover was recorded in the metropolitan area of Helsinki as early as on November 20, a month earlier that on average. The rainfall was exceptionally abundant, but it was connected to the 2 storms mentioned above. The temperatures were again above normal, but they didn’t reached the level of the previous year.
- 2002
From January until August the temperatures were higher than the average, and of the summer months August reached record warmth. The low precipitation in the Helsinki region was another feature of this year and combined with the high evaporation rates for July and August, this resulted in places in severe drought on nearing the end of the year. August provided a new national record for the average monthly temperature for Helsinki-Vantaa: 19,3 °C.
- 2003
The annual mean of the temperature was very typical for Finland, but the precipitation less than normal, causing again drought. In Helsinki area the precipitation deficit was more than 100 millimetres from the average of the reference period of 1971-2000.
- 2004
It was slightly warmer than average, the annual mean temperature for the whole year was about half a degree higher than the average in the southern parts of the country. The annual precipitation was generally 1.2-1.3 times the long-term average.
- 2005
This year will be remembered as an exceptionally warm year in the whole Finland. Starting with this year more and more people and scientists begun to realize the climate change is visible in their country too. August was the rainiest month of the year, but in winter there were registered also more days with precipitation that the average. For instance in January, there were 14 rainy days in Helsinki, the mean being five.
- 2006
This year was pretty unusual: the summer was exceptionally hot and dry, and the weather in December was record mild. The last months of the year brought heavy rains and led to floods. In December, throughout Finland, the mean temperature for the month was as much as 7-8 degrees higher than the average for the reference period 1971-2000. "According to extreme value calculations, such mean temperatures occur in the current climate a couple of times in a millennium. The temperatures of December 2006 will become quite common by the year 2100 unless climate warming can be halted," Anneli Nordlund stresses.
- 2007
Year 2007 was again unusually warm, with few winter days and a mild autumn. The Helsinki area registered the record-high mean for March: +3.1 °C and temperature record for March: +17.5°C. Although the rainfall in June-August was very unevenly distributed, the precipitation measured during the year in the whole of Finland was typical, or slightly higher than the average for the reference period 1971-2000.
- 2008
The year 2008 was the sixth warmest year on record. Helsinki measured the highest annual mean temperature in history, 7,6°C. The previous record, 7.2 °C, was from 2000 and 1934. The annual precipitation was 700-900 mm in southern and eastern regions, which is pretty much, considering that the yearly mean amount of precipitation is about 689 mm.
- 2009
This year was a warm and dry one. This year was approximately 0.5….1.5 degrees warmer that the average. The annual precipitation was less than the average, but in the other hand only very few storms were registered in comparison with other years.
Analysis of vulnerability
Measures of Vulnerability consider normally the following aspects:
- Exposure to climate change: relates to the scale and rate of change in climatic variables such as temperature, rainfall, wind, snow or humidity that are known to cause impacts on natural systems and society.
- Sensitivity to its effects: is the degree to which a system (e.g. water resources, agriculture production, forest growth, human health) is affected by climate variability or change.
- Adaptive capacity: is a measure of society’s resources and capabilities to compensate the effects of climate change or exploit possible benefits. The processes of adaptation can involve complex social, economic and cultural adjustments.
Climate Changes have an impact on animal and plant life. Also society face direct and indirect impacts like water supply and food security. Economic sectors such as energy supply (e.g. hydropower), agriculture, tourism, fishing and forest industry, are at a risk of several impacts.
Focused themes:
- Temperature increase: According to climate projections for Europe, the average temperature increase is likely to be higher in Europe than the world average, with the highest temperature increases in the northern and eastern Europe. The decrease of ice and snow cover will impact certain ecosystems.
- Flooding: A total of 21 areas in Finland have been designated as being at risk of considerable flooding. In Helsinki and metropolitan areas live aproximately 1 million people that could be susceptible to exceptional seasonal flooding and need for evacuation.
- Agriculture: contributes a relatively minor share to the economy of the Nordic region but nevertheless plays an important role in maintaining rural population, providing local employment and preserving cultural landscapes.
- Elderly: The population aged 67 and older is growing rapidly, meaning that there are more older people who are living longer. This can be considered an emerging vulnerability to climate change in Nordic countries that will require new adaptation strategies. Elderly can be especially vulnerable to certain weather events such as high temperatures, freezing on pavements, or storm-related damage that cuts off access to essential services and social networks. Some of these events are expected to become more frequent under a changing climate. Other factors include living alone, chronic or severe illness, dependency on medications and social exclusion.
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches/photos/background notes
Proposals for Climate Change Adaption
- How could your case study area become more resilient to climate change?
- Which measures would need to be taken to adapt to the new situation?
- How could you assure sustainability of these measures?
- Please describe 2-3 measures
Proposals for Climate Change Mitigation
- Which measures would need to be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other drivers of climate change within your case study area?
- How could you assure sustainability of these measures?
- Please describe 2-3 measures
Your scenario
- How will this area look like in 2060?
- Please forecast one potential future development taking climate change into account
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes
What can be generalized from this case study?
- Are there any important theoretical insights?
- Which research questions does it generate?
- Short statement plus background notes
Presentation Slides
- Addnewimagename.jpg
Slide One
- Addnewimagename.jpg
Slide Two
- Addnewimagename.jpg
Slide Three
Image Gallery
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
- Yourimage.jpg
your image text
References
About categories: You can add more categories with this tag: "", add your categories