Group N - Collaborative Climate Adaption Project

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• Group N - Concept Mapping of Seminar Topics

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.

[1]

• 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.
• Helsinki has a surface area of 686.2 km2, of which 186.7 km2 is land area. Green areas account for around 40% of the land area. Around one fifth of the land surface area is used for residential buildings, other buildings account for 13%, and around one fifth is for traffic.
• 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.
• Infrastructure: Since the 1960s, Helsinki has benefited from underground construction. The region is well suited to rock construction because its bedrock is hard and near the surface. In a dense urban structure, many functions are placed underground (industry parks, traffic system, sevices networks, recreation facilities, etc), near existent infrastructure.

[2]

Cultural/social/political context

Cultural context

Helsinki has extensive cultural offerings and quality of life of residents. Culture plays an important role in the City’s strategy, policies and decision making. Activities in Theater, Cinema, Music, Dancing, Museums, Art education, etc., are supported by Cultural Office in cooperation with other organizers. In 2012 Helsinki was designated World Design Capital by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid). In Architecture, the city is a real treat for enthusiasts of classicism and art nouveau.

Social context

According to many international studies, Helsinki is one of the cleanest cities in Europe. It is high rated in health and sanitation with some of the best drinking water in the world. General Education and Early Childhood care are promoted for Helsinki’s residents, as well as Higher Education and Research institutions. Helsinki is a fast growing metropolitan area and its foreign-born population is growing rapidly. Housing construction and development of new areas for housing are main priorities. The city aims at 5,000 new housing units per year, and offers many alternatives of housing to suit different lifestyles and life situations. Employment in the service sector is higher than in the whole country. Information technology, logistics, business services, high-tech industries as well as education and research are major employers in the region.

Political context

Helsinki, like all other Finnish municipalities, has a City Council. Its primary task is to decide about the most 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 relevant City Department is responsible for preparing a proposal on the motion and, when complete, the proposal is submitted to the relevant committee or board for decision making. The execution of a decision is handled by the proper department or City Group company according to each matter.

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.

• 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.

Analysis of vulnerability

The challenges of climate change that the Helsinki Metropolitan Area will face include:

• Extreme weather & Temperature increase: during the 21st century the average temperature in Finland is expected to rise 3.2-6.4 degrees. The decrease of ice and snow cover will impact certain ecosystems. The air quality will decrease as a result of higher temperatures. Ultraviolet radiation will be more intensive, which could affect health and comfort of people. However, climate predictions do not give clear signal of lengthening of the dry periods in summer.

• Sea level rising: Exact regional projections are not conceivable, that give rise to the large un-certainties. Current estimates vary from 10 cm to 2 m by the end of the century. There will be impacts in coastal areas, including possible displacement of communities, social infra-structure, biodiversity and alterations to landform configurations.
• Flooding & - Storm water management: In Helsinki and metropolitan areas live approximately 1 million people that could be susceptible to exceptional seasonal flooding and need for evacuation. Road maintenance will also be affected by increasing rainfall.[3]
• Energy distribution and maintenance of services and social networks: 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. Other factors include living alone, chronic or severe illness, dependency on medications and social exclusion.
• Food security & Fresh water availability: Transport, storage, distribution and access to healthy food and provision of fresh water can be affected.
• Moisture damage in buildings: The milder winter with increasing probability of rain will create undesirable conditions for damp damages.

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches/photos/background notes

Proposals for Climate Change Adaption

• Strategic planning of Land use: The location of dwellings, workplaces and services affects the growth of traffic and access to district heating in Helsinki, what influences greenhouse gas emissions.

• Energy efficiency: Buildings need better insulation system which provides more stable cli-mate conditions and lower energy consumption, considering specially welfare of Elderly and Children. Tax benefits for such constructions could help to sustain this measure.

• Sea levels rise and flooding: New buildings and other urban development should be redirected to safer areas and follow the recommended lowest base floor of new houses. Bank dams, gates and canals, could be established like the successful experiences in Netherland. The success of the changes would show very fast with every flood and its acceptance amongst the people of Helsinki would grow more and more. In addition, dams and gates could be used to produce green electric energy.

Parallel actions:

• Sustainable food supply: Is important to seek conditions to provide and improve food provision, such as self-sufficient production or alternatives like "Food Hubs".[4]

• Drainage: Water permeable asphalt in combination with efficient canalization and drainage system would help to accelerate water efflux. Those measures would help to cope in case of floods and increase road safety in strong rainfalls conditions.

Current Projects:

• The BaltCICA Project is designed to focus on the most imminent problems that climate change is likely to cause in the Baltic Sea Region. The concentration of large parts of the population and many larger cities in coastal areas make the region especially sensitive to climate change.[5]

• Julia 2030 - Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY)

The Julia 2030 project involves HSY, six municipalities of the Helsinki region, and the Finnish Environment Institute. The project aims to demonstrate how public sector services can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the use of premises and energy efficiency in procurement, and also reducing the region's carbon emissions resulting from waste disposal. [6]

• Helsinki Metropolitan Area Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. The cities of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, HSY and other regional actors have prepared a joint regional strategy for adapting to climate change. The preparation work started in 2009 and was co-ordinated by HSY. [7]

Proposals for Climate Change Mitigation

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to reduce global warming:

43 % of emissions in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area are due to heating buildings. Electricity consumption causes 28 % and transport almost 20% of emissions. [8]

• Promote district heating: Emissions of electrically heated buildings and of buildings with separate individual heating systems are clearly higher than those of buildings that use district heating.

• Awareness of regional residents: Improve the awareness about the importance of reducing electricity consumption. Monitoring of consumption must be improved so that users of electric power pay according to their actual consumption.

• Promote Public Transport instead of private motoring: Besides significant greenhouse gas emis-sions, increased traffic has other consequences such as traffic congestion, affected air quality, in-creased noise levels and deteriorating road safety. Low ticket prices, rapid transport connections, frequent services and high quality standards are the most important factors for the competitiveness.

• Alternative energy sources: Production of sustainable energy such as wind and wave power could be considered.

Scenarios

Visions for 2030 (According to Helsinki Metropolitan Area climate strategy)

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Visions for 2060 Scenario of Climate Change Adaptation in Helsinki Metropolitan Area.

Propose for Flooding Risk. Sketch by Andreia Oshiro.

What can be generalized from this case study?

• theoretical insights

Information and awareness of municipalities and decision makers, enterprises and communities are essential to achieve adequate policy definition, acceptance of adaptation and mitigation measures and general involvement.

Legislation changes and financial incentives are important to support adaptation strategies.

• generated questions

The information provided by researches, assessment and monitoring projects are very important to guide adaptation measures and strategies. However, under a global perspective, the implementation of such measures seems to be carried out without a proper urgency and comprisement. How to accelerate and drive the effectiveness of these actions?

• Short statement + background notes

Reducing Green Gas Emission in Helsinki Metropolitan Area is the first objective to achieve, regarding the Climate Change control as a fundamental element of urban planning.

A rise of even 2°C in average temperatures will have a major impact on the global environment, weather conditions, and social and economic conditions.

Besides the economic growth until 2008, emissions in this area began falling in 2007 because of lower emissions from district heating.

A compact urban structure creates opportunities for more efficient energy generation and distribution.

Presentation Slides

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References

http://www.oecd.org/environment/climatechange/36736773.pdf

http://www.naturvardsverket.se/upload/10_Forskning/poster-caravan.pdf

http://www.baltcica.org/casestudies/helsinki.html

http://www.oceansatlas.org/servlet/CDSServlet?status=ND0xODc3JjY9ZW4mMzM9KiYzNz1rb3M~

Landscape Architecture and the challenge of Climate Change http://www.landscapeinstitute.org/

http://blogs.usda.gov/2010/12/14/getting-to-scale-with-regional-food-hubs/

Helsinki Sanomat Internationl Edition – Metro https://www.hs.fi/english/article/Dozens+of+areas+at+risk+of+flooding+found+in+Helsinki/1135259632624

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