Browsing by master's degree program "Maantieteen maisteriohjelma"

Subarctic ponds are important habitats for many freshwater species. The recent increase in global temperatures have stressed on the study of these habitats as rising water temperatures may have severe consequences to these cold and harsh ecosystems. Despite its importance, this topic has been largely overlooked in scientific research. Diatoms are microscopic, single-celled benthic algae, which are important indicators for environmental quality. Elevation is one of the main environmental variables controlling the composition and richness of diatom species as it shapes communities through several environmental variables such as temperature and water chemistry. The aim of this thesis was to illustrate the variability in diatom species richness and community composition along an elevational gradient in Kilpisjärvi and reveal the most important environmental drivers. As an additional focus, the applicability of the BenthoTorch sampling device was tested in measuring benthic algae biomass. Field and laboratory measurements were done using universal standards. Statistical analyses included multiple univariate and multivariate data analysis techniques. It was found that water pH, aluminium concentration and air temperature explained the variation in species richness and community composition the most. Elevation had only a secondary, non-significant role in shaping the diatom communities in subarctic ponds. Nearby sites showed similar compositions in terms of water chemistry and diatom communities. Biotope characterisation did not provide any further insight into the differences or similarities of diatom community composition or species richness. There were some differences in how genera responded to environmental variables. The centre of distributional range of many taxa was below the mid-point of the elevational gradient but species often occupied the whole elevational gradient. Rare taxa appeared at the ends of the elevational spectrum. The amount of singleton taxa was high (25.8%) and can be expected to increase with climate change. The BenthoTorch did provide reasonable results for benthic algae in the subarctic when compared to previous literature, but further research is required to grasp its full potential. More examination into the relationship between explanatory variables can be suggested (e.g. total phosphorus and ion balance) to gain better understanding on the changes in diatom species richness and community composition along elevational gradients.

Segregation is usually treated as a place-based phenomenon based on residential locations, but during the last ten years more emphasis has been put on understanding segregation as a multi-contextual phenomenon, where mobility in urban space affects the individual’s exposure to segregation. Such research has not yet been done in Helsinki, where socio-economic and ethnic segregation has been on the rise since the 1990’s, but there is anecdotal evidence of for example young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods not being as mobile in the urban space as others. The aim of this study is to find out how socioeconomic differences and experiences from the past are linked to how people move around and use urban space in Helsinki. A survey study was carried out (N=1 266) in spring 2020 for the purposes of this research. The study is based on a self-selected sample, so the results cannot be generalized for the whole population. Spatial mobility is analyzed with four measures: which parts of the city the respondent usually moves around in, how often they visit the city center, how many of their everyday activities are located near their home, in the city center and in other neighbourhoods and municipalities, and how many of the listed places in the survey they had visited during the last year. The main research methods are linear regression, correlation analyses and statistical tests. Spatial mobility varies based on education, age, family background and mobility practices in the youth. These factors explain at most a quarter of the variance in mobility. Cultural and economic capital also correlates with mobility, but their explanatory power diminishes when education and age are controlled for. The spatial mobility is low for them who had small activity spaces in their youth, and especially for them who still live in the same neighbourhood. Those who live in the outer suburbs are among the least mobile and many of the respondents in Northeastern and Eastern Helsinki do not regularly visit Southern Helsinki. Even though there are many different factors that influence the level of mobility that are not ad-dressed in this study, the results confirm that family background and past experiences affect the individuals’ mobility practices. The results indicate that people who live in disadvantaged neighbourhoods risk exposure to segregation in different contexts of everyday life as a result of low mobility. As people with low education are underrepresented in the study, it is possible that there are some kind of immobilities in the city that have not been covered in this study. The results underline the need for more research in multi-contextual segregation and the experiences and conceptions of the city, especially regarding children and young people.

The green transition is necessary in mitigating climate change. However, it is not a problem-free development pathway from global justice and social sustainability point of views, as the manufacturing of green technologies require great amounts of minerals from the developing countries. Competition for mineral natural resources is creating growing pressure to increase mining activities, which in many countries involves environmental and human rights issues. This is feared to cause environmental destruction, and inhumane working and living conditions for the people in the mining areas, creating new global inequalities. To avoid this trajectory, demands for a just green transition, in which the benefits and harms of energy systems would be more evenly distributed globally, have been presented. The political pressure to implement the green transition is great. Therefore, many actors worldwide have committed to various carbon neutrality goals and cities play a key role in this. By the decision of the majority of the city councilors, also the city of Helsinki has set an ambitious goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, which requires a fast implementation of the green transition. In this master's thesis, the discussion minutes of the Helsinki city council in the years 2019–2022 were studied with an interpretative approach using discourse analysis as a method. The purpose was to find out how the green transition is discussed in the council and which factors influence the perceptions of the green transition presented there. In addition, the purpose was to research whether the council discussions propose any solutions to solve the challenges of global injustice connected to the green transition or whether those problems were recognized at all. As a result, three different discourses of unproblematic discourse, critical discourse, and must-do discourse were interpreted from the data. The unproblematic discourse viewed the green transition in a positive and/or neutral light, emphasizing the possibilities in climate change mitigation. Economic perspectives were also strongly present in this context. The identified critical discourse covered economic and social grievances related to the green transition, which were considered to be related to security of supply, economy, and ecological and social sustainability. In the third, i.e., the must-do discourse, the meaning of green technology was formed through the mitigation of climate change, which was seen threatening all life on Earth. In this view, global warming itself was seen as the greatest social and justice issue. Discourses and perceptions of Helsinki's green transition are strongly influenced by the city's way of focusing its emission calculations only on reducing the city's direct CO2 emissions. Thus, the social global effects caused by Helsinki's green transition cannot be verified with the city's current evaluation methods. Consequently, the councilors discuss the green transition from a strong local perspective.

Globally, there is a constant shortfall of financial resources in conservation, which has partially been supplemented by combining conservation and conservation-compatible businesses. Many protected and conserved areas in sub-Saharan Africa are largely funded by revenues generated within the area, mainly through ecotourism. While ecotourism revenues are bringing in money into the system, dependency on this single type of revenue source is making conservation areas – or even the whole protected area system – vulnerable to changes in visitor numbers, which are prone to different political or socio-economic disturbances (such as conflicts, economic recession, and epidemics). A sudden substantial decrease in revenues or increase in costs may threaten the existence, extent, and quality of conservation areas in terms of biodiversity conservation. Collecting and analysing economic information on protected and conserved areas can help investigate their long-term sustainability and resilience to financial threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic outcomes. In this thesis, I assess how conservation costs and revenues vary between different types of protected and conserved areas, how financially self-sufficient they are, and how economically resilient these areas may be in the face of global changes. The analysis is based on financial data from different types of protected and conserved areas in South Africa: state-owned national parks (South African National Parks, later SANParks), provincial parks (Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, later Ezemvelo) and private conserved areas. With the use of simulation modelling and resilience theory, I discuss how potential economic resilience varies between protected areas. The findings indicate that there are significant differences in the cost-revenue structure of different kinds of protected and conserved areas, and especially between public and private. Ezemvelo receives most of its funds from the provincial government, whereas SANParks covers the majority of its costs from tourism revenues. Private game reserves again need to cover their costs independently. According to the findings, size is an important attribute to predict the per hectare net income and running costs of public protected areas but has no significant influence on those of private game reserves. For public protected areas, the running costs per hectare are significantly higher for protected areas less than 1000 hectares. Based on the economic modelling and resilience theory, I concluded that private game reserves are generally financially more viable, but their vulnerability lies in their lack of embeddedness within a larger system (e.g., a conservation organization) that could support them during difficult times and require and encourage a long-term commitment to conservation. The economic resilience of public protected areas is more closely tied to the political atmosphere regarding conservation funding: self-generated revenues form only a part of the budgets of public protected areas. In addition, protected areas which have large fixed costs and depend on high tourism revenues are likely to be less economically resilient. Because of the higher running costs and resultant sensitivity of net income to changes in costs and revenues, parks that are home to the “Big Five” species (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo) are in a more vulnerable position in the face of disturbances, as the pandemic. To address the threats that upcoming socio-economic disturbances pose to the funding base of protected and conserved areas, more focus should be given to the economic resilience of these areas, especially in countries and occasions where the areas rely on self-generated revenues.

European Union is a notable political actor that strives for governing and producing EU territory through spatial policies and planning. So far, spatial planning has been a technology to govern the terrestrial environment, but now marine space is seen as the new frontier of spatial planning. In 2014, EU has given a directive of maritime spatial planning (MSP), which aims to that every coastal member state had established spatial planning practices to their national marine areas by 2021 according to EU’s spatial agendas. The MSP has been looked at as a managerial tool helping to enhance the ecological condition of the seas, but not as a policy that produces spatiality. In this research, EU’s MSP policy is used as to research Europeanization of space in ‘EU’rope. The aim of this research is to interpret how understanding of ’EU’rope as a territorial entity is shaped through the structure of the maritime spatial planning policy and the meanings attached to it, in order to create a perception of the future development of EU and marine areas in general. The research is conducted from a social constructionist approach as an interpretive policy analysis. The concept of policy integration is in-built to MSP and is used as an indicator to Europeanization in this study. The policy integration effort is seen to steer social networks of actors that create the MSP in practice. Therefore, semi-structured theme interviews were conducted to the actors carrying out the MSP process in Finland. These actors’ understanding of the Finnish MSP is seen to construct ‘EU’ropean space in and through the domestic MSP process. Accordance with the hermeneutic traditions, comprehensive contextualization is conducted in this research in order to understand the maritime spatial planning policy. The research suggests that the spatiality and territoriality of marine areas produces different kind of planning practices than is seen in the terrestrial environment. The EU’s MSP policy is a policy tool for the EU territory, but at the same time, it is used as a tool to carry out domestic regional objectives as well. In Finland, the coastal Regions have benefitted from MSP and gained more power over the Finnish marine territories and the MSP may be used as to reinforce Regional planning. By adopting MSP policy, EU has changed the spatial governance structure of marine Europe. It has transformed heterogenic marine areas in Europe into single entity in order to be spatially governable by EU. These spaces have therefore been submitted under larger decision-making processes than before and EU is able to harness the national marine territories for the benefit of the whole Europe, and mainly due increasing economic growth in the territory. By means of policy integration efforts, the MSP creates new kinds of socio-spatial dimensions to Europe in where political bargaining over domestic marine spaces becomes a norm for the domestic maritime spatial planners. The research suggests that the territorial policy integration efforts reinforce the objectives of the EU directive in transnational collaboration, and this new platform of negotiation can be predicted to unify neighbouring domestic planning practices and goals in some extent.

Finland and Estonia form a cross-border region in Europe. Unlike other cross-border regions, which share a land border with their neighbor, Finland and Estonia are separated by the Gulf of Finland. The distance is close enough to facilitate regular travel by ferry on a weekly or monthly basis, but for Estonian immigrants living in Finland, daily commutes are unlikely. Given that Finland is the top migration destination for Estonians, the cross-border region of Estonia-Finland poses an interesting case study. In this thesis, the integration and transnationalism of Estonians living in Finland are studied through a spatial mobility lens. First, a theoretical framework is proposed to facilitate empirical research. The framework jointly examines integration and transnationalism by partitioning them into separate domains: social, structural, cultural, civic & political, identity, and spatial. The aim of the framework is to narrow the socio-spatial gap in migration literature, by focusing on the interwoven nature of the social and spatial perspectives. Using data from a comprehensive survey about Estonian immigrants living in Finland, the proposed theoretical framework is operationalized for multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). Three MCA analyses are performed: 1) social integration with host society (Finland), 2) social transnationalism with the sending society (Estonia), and 3) spatial transnationalism between the host society (Finland) and the sending society (Estonia). MCA results show that transnationalism and integration vary both across and within domains. MCA results are connected to one another using correlation analysis and general linear model (GLM) analyses. Correlation analysis and GLM demonstrate that for the study population, integration in the host society and transnationalism with the sending society are inversely associated. This inverse relationship carries over into the spatial domain and can be seen based on which country an immigrant does certain activities (e.g., visiting family, working, accessing healthcare, enjoying leisure time). Immigrants with strong social connections to the host society are more likely to do activities in Finland whereas immigrants with strong social connections to the sending society are more likely to do activities in Estonia. Some immigrants exhibit a multilocal mobility pattern, in which they do activities equally in both Estonia and Finland.

Glaciers and ice caps (GICs) excluding Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets account for large proportion of potential future sea level rise and are losing great amount of their mass in high confidence by 2100. Glacier elevation change observations covering whole Greenland’s GICs are limited to the 21st century and regional geodetic mass balance estimates are scarce. Recent development of photogrammetric software and rediscovery of old aerial photographs has been increasingly used to extend temporal resolution of glacier change studies. Besides for extended mass balance observations, historical photographs may be used in observing glacier surge events to improve their coverage in glacier inventories. In this study, 320 historical aerial photographs from 1953/1954 were photogrammetrically processed to create new digital elevation model (DEM) of the 1953 surface. Comparing the 1953 DEM with 1985 and 2016 DEMs extended the geodetic mass balance records on Nuussuaq peninsula to 63 years. Moreover, differenced DEMs were used with orthophotomosaics to identify glacier surface changes and advances and their possible relation to glacier surges. The study also explored the usage of Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM) with user defined input data for simulating future glacier changes in small scale regional setting. The geodetic mass balance results showed clear change from near equilibrium mass balance in 1953-1985 to overall mass loss in 1985-2016. Glacier surface lowering was found to shift to higher elevations along with the change to negative mass balance and occurred throughout the elevation range in 1985-2016. In contrast to generally retreating glaciers, advancing and/or surface elevation increases at the glacier fronts with glaciomorphological evidence of surging were observed on 5 glaciers. OGGM model is easily applicable for smaller regions but correcting the OGGM calibration with a fit to the geodetic mass balance data didn’t provide explicit result of the re-calibration efficiency. Historical photographs provide source to extend geodetic mass balance estimates and means to observe past glacier changes in more detail. Therefore, their incorporation in glacier change studies should be continued and create consistent datasets over larger regions. More research is needed with additional reference data to assess the reliability of the OGGM performance on a region without the reference data from default reference glacier network and the effect of re-calibrating with geodetic fit.

Pääsääntöisesti maaperän keinotekoisen kuivattamisen seurauksena muodostuneet happamat sulfaattimaat ovat ympäristön kannalta erittäin ongelmallinen maaperätyyppi. Niiden ongelmallisuus johtuu sulfaattialueiden maaperässä esiintyvistä rautasulfideista, jotka vapauttavat hapettuessaan maaperään sulfaattia. Kun sulfaatti liukenee maaperän veteen, muodostuu hyvin hapanta rikkihappoa. Maaperän lisääntynyt happamuus liuottaa maaperästä runsaasti eri metalleja, joilla voi etenkin voimakkaaseen happamuuteen yhdistettynä olla hyvin haitallisia vaikutuksia esimerkiksi vesistöjen ekologiselle tilalle, ja akvaattisille eliöille. Sulfaattimailta huuhtoutuu happamuutta ja metalleja kuitenkin hyvin episodimaisesti, tyypillisesti korkean valunnan aikaan, syksyisin ja keväisin. Tämän seurauksena sulfaattimaiden aiheuttamat vesistövaikutukset vaihtelevat ajallisesti hyvin paljon. Jos sulfidipitoisia maaperäkerroksia ei alun perin kuivatettaisi, eivät maaperän rautasulfidit hapettuisi, eikä happamia sulfaattimaita tai niiden aiheuttamia ympäristöongelmia muodostuisi. Tämä tutkimus toteutettiin Etelä-Pohjanmaan alueelta, valuma-alueiltaan pääsääntöisesti joko osittain tai kokonaan mahdollisilta sulfaattimaa-alueilta sijainneista ojista ja puroista vuonna 2019 kerättyjen vesinäytteiden ja mitattujen veden fyysiskemiallisten suureiden pohjalta. Tutkimuksessa oli 42 näytepistettä, joille rajattiin valuma-alueet 10x10 metrin korkeusmalliin perustuen. Tilastollisessa tarkastelussa pyrittiin selittämään tutkittujen näyteuomien pH-arvon ja sinkin pitoisuuksien vaihtelua GLM-mallien ja korrelaatiopohjaisen tarkastelun avulla, etenkin tutkittujen valuma-alueiden eri maankäyttömuotojen, ojitusmuotojen ja sulfaattimaiden esiintymistodennäköisyyden näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin myös mitattujen vedenlaadun muuttujien selittävyyttä pH-arvon ja sinkin pitoisuuksien suhteen. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa kartoitettiin tutkituilta valuma-alueilta vapautuneen happamuuden voimakkuutta ja metallien pitoisuuksia, ja selvitettiin pH-arvon kykyä selittää 14 eri metallin pitoisuuksien vaihtelua GLM-mallien avulla. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että tutkituilta valuma-alueilta vapautui tiettyjä metalleja (Fe, Mn, Zn, Ni, Co) korkeina pitoisuuksina, ja joidenkin tutkittujen uomien vesi oli myös hyvin hapanta (pH 3–4). GLM-mallinnuksessa eri maankäyttömuuttujat, ojitusmuodot ja sulfaattimaan esiintymisen todennäköisyys selittivät kuitenkin vain pienen osan pH-arvon vaihtelusta, kun taas veden sähkönjohtavuuden ja liuenneen aineksen pitoisuuden tilastollisesti hyvin merkitsevä kyky (p < 0,001) selittää pH-arvon vaihtelua viittasi sulfaattiperäiseen kuormitukseen tutkituilla valuma-alueilla. Sinkin pitoisuuksien vaihtelua pystyttiin selittämään pääosin vahvemmin kuin pH-arvon vaihtelua, mutta tulokseen vaikutti sinkille ennen GLM-mallinnusta suoritettu logaritmimuunnos. Sinkin pitoisuuksien vaihtelua selittivät parhaiten valuma-alueen muuttujista peltojen ja suuren/kohtalaisen todennäköisyyden sulfaattimaiden osuus valuma-alueen pinta-alasta, sekä salaojien määrä. Vedenlaadun muuttujista sinkin vaihtelua selittivät parhaiten liuenneen aineksen pitoisuus, veden pH-arvo ja sähkönjohtavuus, mikä osoitti sinkin korkeiden pitoisuuksien olleen sulfaattiperäisen happamuuden mobilisoimia. pH-arvon vaihtelulla voitiin myös selittää suuri osuus tutkimuksessa tarkasteltujen 14 eri metallin pitoisuuksien vaihtelusta, ja molybdeenia lukuun ottamatta kaikkien tutkimuksessa tarkasteltujen metallien pitoisuudet kasvoivat pH-arvon laskiessa. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat selkeän yhteyden sulfaattimaiden aiheuttaman happamuuden ja metallipitoisuuksien välillä Etelä-Pohjanmaan sulfaattialueilla sijaitsevissa uomissa. Vaikka pH-arvon tai sinkin pitoisuuksien vaihtelusta ei voitu selittää suurta osuutta valuma-alueen muuttujilla, viittasivat tulokset sulfaattiperäiseen kuormitukseen ja siihen, että etenkin pohjaveden pinnan tasoa laskeva salaojitus ja peltojen osuus valuma-alueesta kasvattivat happaman ja metallipitoisen huuhtouman määrää. Tulokset korostavat happamien sulfaattimaiden aiheuttamaa kuormitusta ja niistä seuraavien ympäristövaikutusten merkitystä vesistöille ja niiden ekologiselle tilalle. Kokonaisuudessaan tutkimuksen tulokset tuovat esiin tarvetta löytää sulfaattialueiden viljelyyn kestäviä ratkaisuja, jotka voisivat rajoittaa sulfaattiperäisen kuormituksen muodostumista ja edistää vesiekosysteemien terveyttä ja ekologista tasapainoa.

The topic of this thesis is participatory budgeting and its connection to the discussion between neoliberalism and participatory governance in the context of city development. Helsinki started its own model of participatory budgeting in 2018 and has pledged to continue the concept in the future. I examine whether Helsinki’s participatory budgeting has the potential to support the ideologies of neoliberalism or participatory governance. In practice, I am exploring the views from the city government and active members of Helsinki’s neighborhood associations. Neighborhood associations had a significant role in the original participatory budgeting of Porto Alegre. I used interview and qualitative survey to collect my data. Neoliberalism has influenced the inequality between regions and the so-called crisis of democracy. Direct involvement of citizens is seen as a solution to these problems. Neoliberalism and participation have a paradoxical relationship: they have received similar criticism. In participatory governance participation means deliberative decision-making based on exchange of knowledge, but in neoliberalism participation can be a rhetoric tool to cover up actual decision-making or a city branding technique. Porto Alegre’s original model of participatory budgeting is seen as a part of participatory governance, but many of the international models seem to be more compatible with neoliberal ideology. The city government has not reserved enough resources to the participatory budgeting. The execution was rushed and showed signs of rationalization. According to the interview and the qualitative survey, inequality between regions might be the downfall of Helsinki’s participatory model. The active members of neighborhood associations see the benefits of participation budgeting but only from the perspective of certain regions. Currently, Helsinki’s participatory budgeting works better as a branding technique than as a method of decision-making. It seems to be more compatible with neoliberalism than participatory governance.

Glacial meltwater potholes are cylindrical and often remarkably smooth-walled pits in the bedrock, formed as a result of the evorsion caused by eddy currents of water released by the melting of the continental glacier, and possibly also by the cavitation due to the meltwater rushing to a glacial moulin or crevasse. This study examines how the location, topography, orientation according to the direction of ice movement, bedrock and the distance from the fault lines and eskers explain the occurrence and abundance of potholes in the province of Uusimaa in southern Finland. This study also provides a unified database of potholes that have been found in Uusimaa, which have not been compiled to this extent before. The research material with location and characteristic data was collected in July-October 2020 and in May-June 2021. A total of 320 potholes were selected for the research group, of which 206 were determined from fieldwork and 114 from source data. There were a total of 116 sites around Uusimaa, where the number of potholes varied from one to twenty (1–20). Moreover, especially in the archipelago spreading off the southern coast of the study area, there are numerous potholes marked only in sporadic old articles. As some potholes were located in areas that were too difficult to reach or in private yards, for example, the work also required the use of databases and reports published by research institutes and municipalities. The above-mentioned sources were also utilized in the field when searching for potholes and later in slope and distance analyses. In addition, one hundred (100) comparison sites were drawn from somewhat evenly across the study area in order to interpret how the location and characteristic data of pothole sites differ from rock formations where potholes are not known to occur. The location and characteristic data of pothole and comparison sites were compiled into a material. Based on the data, diagrams as well as regression and correlation analyses were made to visualize the results and their interrelationships, and statistical models (generalized linear model, GLM) were used to model several variables simultaneously. The results showed that many physical geography-related factors simultaneously affect the occurrence and abundance of potholes. Since potholes are glaciofluvial landforms, they often occur in north-south or northwest-southeast queues because these directions are equivalent to the direction of ice movement. The proximity of bedrock faults of tectonic origin strongly explains the occurrence of potholes, as the faults, like glacial moulins and crevasses, were favourable locations for meltwater flows. On average, there are more potholes in the sites located on the lee sides (downstream sides) compared with those on the stoss sides or central parts, because there were cavities and cracks as well as more space between the ice and the rock in the rough and plucked lee sides. The thin, non-uniform soil and the abundance of rock outcrops have led to the discovery of many more potholes in the lower southern parts of the study area and especially in the archipelago than in the higher northern parts. A significant proportion of potholes, which were not known to be located near bedrock faults, were located in the archipelago. In contrast, inland potholes typically occurred in steeper and rugged terrain near the fault lines. However, there was a weak negative correlation between the proximity of the eskers and the occurrence of potholes, which is probably due to the fact that the formation of potholes requires faster flows in glacier rivers than the formation of eskers. Most of the potholes in Uusimaa are quite small, up to about 120 centimetres in diameter and depth, but approximately one in eight potholes were more than three (3) meters deep or wide. The steepness of the slope was most strongly associated with the occurrence of large potholes. Potholes formed on rock consisted of granodiorite were, on average, larger than potholes formed on microcline granite, probably due to the granodiorite minerals are more prone to dissolve.