Browsing by master's degree program "Magisterprogrammet i geografi"
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(2021)Geographical accessibility to sports facilities plays an important role when choosing a sports facility. The aim of my thesis is to examine geographical accessibility for sports facilities in Helsinki and Jyväskylä. The data of my study consists of the facilities of three different types of sports in Helsinki, Jyväskylä. The chosen types of facilities are ball parks, disc golf courses and fitness centers. I also use demographic data that cover the age groups of 7-12, 20-24 and 60-64. Mapple Analytics Ltd has produced geographical accessibility data covering whole of Finland which I also use as my data. In my thesis I analyzed geographical accessibility of sports facilities and compare the results to demographic data. Both the geographical accessibility data and demographic data is in 250 x 250 m grid level. the methods I used were Local Moran’s I and Bivariate Local Moran’s I. I applied the methods so that I combined the travel-time data and demographic data. The travel-times are from Mapple Insights API. The travel modes I have used are cycling and driving because people travel to sports facilities mostly by driving or by active methods, especially cycling. The travel-times to ball parks and fitness centers are overall good in both study regions. The good geographical accessibility is caused by that the service pattern is so dense for ball parks and fitness centers. The service pattern covers almost all of the inhabited area in both study regions. However, for some postal areas seem to have not so good geographical accessibility to ball parks. In some areas in Helsinki the geographical accessibility to disc golf course can be considered to be somewhat bad. For the chosen age groups only 20-24-year-olds have unsatisfactory travel-times to disc golf course either by cycling or driving. Other age groups do not show a similar pattern because of the different service pattern of ball parks and fitness centers. Demographic variables do not explain the travel times in this context. It is important to see which postal areas have good or bad geographical accessibility to sports facilities. This helps the future planning of sports facilities. In the future it is also possible to apply non spatial methods to the data I have collected or a similar dataset. It would also be possible to which demographic variable best explains travel-times. Because of Mapple Insighs API data is in 250 x 250 m grid level many applications can be developed using the data.
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Airbnb:n mahdolliset vaikutukset Helsingin vuokra-asuntomarkkinoihin : vuokra-aukkoteorian näkökulma (2020)Short-term rental platforms have become widely popular in recent years, but their growth has left cities to face a variety of problems. Studies have shown, for example, that short-term rentals have led to an increase in long-term rental prices. When more and more apartments are used as short-term rentals, the supply of long-term rentals decreases. This causes more pressure on the long-term rental market and leads to increased prices. In this study I examine the possible impacts of Airbnb, the biggest and most popular short-term rental platform, on the rental market of Helsinki. First, I analyse how many apartments have been removed from the long-term rental market to the Airbnb market, and second, how likely it is that the number of Airbnb rentals rises in the future. Presumably, renting through Airbnb becomes more popular when the potential income from Airbnb rentals is larger than from long-term rentals. In Neil Smith’s terms, this difference between actual and potential rental income constitutes a rent gap. Therefore, I also analyse whether renting short-term in Helsinki is more profitable than renting long-term. In addition, I discuss the current city and tourism policies of the city of Helsinki in the light of the results of the above research questions and give recommendations on issues to be taken into account in the future. This study uses AirDNA’s data of Airbnb rentals in Helsinki and long-term rental price data from KTI Property Information Ltd, and it focuses on data from year 2019. Data analysis is conducted using statistical and geospatial methods. The results of this study show that in 2019 there were a significant number of professional Airbnb rentals in Helsinki, 863 in total. However, their number varied substantially between the districts of Helsinki. There was a large amount of professional Airbnb rentals especially in the city centre and Kallio area. On the scale of the whole of Helsinki, professional Airbnb rentals comprise approximately 0,5 % of all rental apartments whereas in some districts in the city centre the percentage was considerably higher, in the Kamppi district as much as 3,9 %. Based on the results, the number of Airbnb rentals will likely grow in the future because Airbnb rental income was, on average, greater than long-term rental income in each of the study areas. In most areas, the rent gap was substantial. However, the size of the rent gap varied significantly, between 50 and 1350 euros, based on the location and amount of rooms of the apartment. Some policy recommendations can be made based on the results of this study. When designing future policies, it is important to acknowledge that a sizeable part of the Airbnb rentals in Helsinki is professional and that the number of professional rentals will probably continue to increase. Since the number of professional rentals is still quite small on the city level, the impacts of short-term rentals in Helsinki are presumably not yet significant. Nevertheless, in the future problems can arise especially in the city centre and Kallio area, as these areas have a lot of professional Airbnb rentals. Since only professional Airbnb rentals are disadvantageous for the long-term rental market, assigning certain restrictions would be justifiable in order to prevent future problems and to promote sustainable tourism. Restricting Airbnb activity could be done by enforcing current regulations more rigorously or setting a yearly renting limit like many other European cities have done. This would help to inhibit activity that is against the current legislation and to support the real sharing economy.
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(2024)The 2000s have seen major changes to the upper secondary school curricula and matriculation examinations, with subjects like sustainable development becoming increasingly topical. In addition to the changes in content, required thinking skills have changed over the years. There is now an increased emphasis on the application of knowledge rather than on memorising it. This master’s thesis investigates what kind of thinking skills are required in upper secondary school in relation to sustainability, particularly the food crisis, and what thinking skills students use. The different thinking skills and levels of knowledge required can be analysed according to Bloom's revised taxonomy. This is a classification system that can be used to determine the levels of thinking skills and knowledge required in test questions, for example. In contrast, the maturity of the answers and the thinking skills students convey can be classified using the SOLO taxonomy. The study analysed the thinking skills and knowledge levels required for the spring 2020 Finnish matriculation examination (geography examination food-crisis related task 6) according to Bloom's revised taxonomy. In turn, students' answers (n=130) to the task were analysed according to the SOLO taxonomy. The answers were classified according to their maturity into the SOLO categories that were best represented by the answers. The classification was based on factors such as the consistency of the responses and the number of perspectives addressed. The thinking skills required for the test question were comprehension and analysis. The answers mainly reached the level of the multi-structural and pre-transitional phase, i.e. only a small number of answers reached the level required by the task. The results suggest that a large proportion of students are not able to demonstrate in their responses the use of the required thinking skills, and many do not have the required level of knowledge of the content of sustainable development.
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(2024)Terveyserojen tutkimus on keskittynyt väestön elämänvalintojen valintojen vaikutukseen terveydentilassa. Usein kuitenkin väestön ja alueen erottaminen terveyseroissa täysin toisistaan on mahdotonta. Terveyserot eivät häviä, vaikka väestörakenteet erotetaan toisistaan. Hyvinvoinnin tutkimuksessa on näkyvillä väestönosien välisiä terveyseroja mutta miten Suomessa näkyy alueellinen terveyden eriarvoisuus. Suomessa terveyserot sosioekonomisten ryhmien välillä on tunnistettu jo pitkään. Suomessa on ollut näkyvillä terveyserot myös alueellisesti. Maantieteellisesti Suomi jakautuu terveyserojen mukaan karkeasti lounaasta koilliseen: heikomman sosioekonomisen aseman alueet ja sairaimmat alueet sijaitsevat idässä ja pohjoisessa, terveimmät ja vauraimmat puolestaan etelässä ja lännessä Tässä tutkielmassa tarkastellaan mielenterveyteen liittyvää sairastavuutta ja kuolleisuutta sekä mielenterveys- ja päihdepalveluiden käyttöä kahdella Suomen hyvinvointialueella - Etelä-Savossa ja Pohjanmaalla. Tutkimuksessa on tarkoituksen pohtia millaisia alueellisia eroja Etelä-Savossa ja Pohjanmaalla tunnistettavissa mielenterveys- ja päihdehäiriöiden esiintyvyydessä, niihin liittyvässä kuolleisuudessa ja kyseisiin häiriöihin liittyvien terveyspalveluiden käytössä. Hyvä mielenterveys on olennainen osa kansallista terveyttä. Se korreloi myös fyysisen terveyden kanssa ja ennustaa usein vähäisempää kuolleisuutta, kun taas mielenterveyshäiriöt voivat johtaa suurempaan kuolleisuuteen. Koska mielenterveysongelmat, mukaan lukien päihdehäiriöt, ovat edelleen kasvava kansanterveydellinen haaste, on se hyvä esimerkki väestön terveydentilasta ja alueellisista terveyseroista. Tässä tutkielmassa käytettävä data on osa IMPRO- tutkimusta. jossa tavoitteina on kehittää työkaluja sotepalveluiden arviointiin sekä tukemaan sotepalveluiden tasa-arvoisempaa ja kustannustehokkaampaa järjestelyä ja kehitystä. Tutkimuksen pohjana toimii sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon rekisteritietoaineistot ja paikkatietoaineistot. Käytettävässä data koostuu Terveyden- ja hyvinvoinninlaitoksen (THL) kokoamasta hoitorekisteri-ilmoituksista. THL:n hoitorekisterin tiedot, jotka sisältävät potilaiden diagnoosit ja käynninsyytiedot on ryhmitelty IMPRO-tutkimuksessa Finnish Consulting Groupin (FCG) omittamalla asiakas- ja potilasluokittelu -ryhmittelijällä. Tässä tutkielmassa vertailtavaan aineistoon mukaan otetut episodit kuuluvat Aikuisten mielenterveys- ja päihdeongelmien hoitokokonaisuuteen. Alueelliset terveyserot ovatkin tämän tutkimuksen perusteella näkyvissä työssä vertailtavilla alueilla ja aiempi tutkimus Suomessa on todentanut näitä eroja alueiden välillä jo pidemmän aikaa. Tässä työssä erot kahden verrattavan hyvinvointialueen välillä olivat merkittävät. Jatkotoimena pitäisi tarkemmin selvittää, mistä tekijöistä erot johtuvat ja onko niihin mahdollista vaikutta joko kansallisin tai alueellisin politiikkakeinoin, jotta voitaisiin saavuttaa hyvinvointialueiden tavoitteet vähentävät alueellisia eroja ja lisätä tasa-arvoa hoidon saatavuudessa ja väestön terveydessä. Jos kuitenkin havaitsemme eroja esimerkiksi hyvinvointialueiden sairastavuudessa ja palveluiden tarpeessa, olisiko näihin mahdollista puuttua, vaikka budjetoinnissa ja hoidon suunnittelussa ja tarpeen arvioinnissa.
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(2024)Sub-arctic river ecosystems are recognized as biodiversity hotspots in the region. However, gaps exist in understanding the potential impacts of the current climate change on these sensitive environments due to a lack of local data and knowledge of suitable monitoring methods. Remote sensing offers a promising approach to map river bathymetry, a critical factor in monitoring river environments. In this study, I investigated the efficacy of three remote sensing methods – multibeam echo sounding, green-wavelength airborne laser scanning, and multispectral satellite imagery – for mapping bathymetry along the Tana River, located at the border of northern Finland and Norway. Multibeam echo sounding, and laser scanning offer high-resolution and good penetration capabilities for mapping shallow river bathymetry. Satellite imagery can cover large spatial areas, often more cost-effectively than other remote sensing methods, albeit with lower spatial resolution. The analysis involved processing field survey data from two study sites with varying topography, slope, and flow velocity. I conducted the bathymetric model generation by using Inverse Distance Weighting interpolation and Lyzenga algorithm methods. The validation was carried out through error assessment. Performance evaluation of the bathymetric models and their differences were conducted by calculating linear regression and Pearson’s correlation coefficient, vertical difference, and bottom roughness. The results suggest that all three remote sensing methods successfully captured the main characteristics of the river bottom shape, aligning with the geomorphological characteristics of the study sites. The multibeam echo sounding provided densest and most coherent bathymetric models (mean R2=0.57 and RMSE=0.80). The airborne laser scanning produced bathymetric models with highest uncertainty in elevation due to noise and gaps in the data and showed better accuracy above the water surface than below (mean R2=0.27 and RMSE=1.18, compared to R2=0.98 and RMSE=0.18). The comparability of the bathymetry derived from satellite imagery against other methods was not optimal due to notably lower spatial resolution, but the satellite-based bathymetric models were able to capture the general variations in river bottom elevation (mean R2=0.48 and RMSE=0.96). The study area that was shallower, had a slow flow rate, and had a sandy bottom yielded more accurate bathymetric models. This was evidenced by strong positive correlation coefficients (mean r=0.83, compared to r=0.23 in the other site) and fewer river bottom profile differences between the models. The findings highlight the importance of comprehensive validation data and proper data pre-processing. Addressing these challenges is important for advancing the understanding of how to map and monitor sub-arctic river bathymetry.
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(2023)The sixth wave of mass species extinction currently threatens biodiversity and life on Earth as we know it. Conservationists seeking to protect threatened species are tasked with raising awareness and achieving funding for these protections, often by appealing to the public. In modern-day conservation research, digital data holds an increasingly important role in understanding conservation goals, messaging, and impacts. The media especially is a key player in disseminating information to the public about conservation. The data for this thesis was retrieved by an automated pipeline that collects Google News articles on species in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) (Di Minin & Kulkarni 2021). I used a descriptive approach to assess species information and popularity online, as well as the location and temporality of that information and popularity. I supplemented the dataset with metrics from Facebook to investigate article popularity, Google to investigate species popularity, and Wikipedia to investigate temporal trends in species interest. The quantitative results show an expected bias towards large, terrestrial mammals. Large cats are cited frequently across all data metrics. Popular headlines employ emotional or political language to attract readers. Frequently used words in titles of popular articles highlight diminishing populations, new or rare species, and certain species like whales, pangolins, rhinos, and turtles. The majority of the news organizations in the dataset are based in the United States. The United States is also most frequently mentioned in the text of the articles, though India and China lead with the highest number of species with native ranges in their countries. Wikipedia pageviews reveal the fluctuations in online species interest, and possible reasons are investigated through the article titles. The results reveal that charismatic, large mammals receive the highest attention in the media, and among the public. Results also showcase the potential of the pipeline and database for further development and addressing research gaps. Overall, the investigations in this thesis provide avenues to improve conservation messaging and address conservation biases.
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(2023)The ongoing environmental change will cause changes in arctic-alpine environment affecting both abiotic and biotic processes and the distribution of arctic-alpine vegetation that has adapted to the cold environment. Former studies on the distribution of arctic-alpine vegetation have been conducted more from a macroclimatic point of view neglecting the microclimate perspective. Microclimate refers to radiation, temperature, humidity, and wind conditions near the Earth’s surface. These conditions vary notably in the topographically heterogenous mountain tundra. The effect of the microclimatic factors is particularly important when investigating low-growing arctic-alpine vegetation as the microclimatic variables can be expected to describe the climatic conditions of the biotically active layer better than the macroclimatic variables. The purpose of this thesis is to study how the microclimatic conditions vary across different biotopes within mountain tundra and to examine which microclimatic variables best explain the local distribution of the arctic-alpine vegetation. The microclimatic variation in the different biotopes of the mountain tundra was studied by examining the statistical key figures of air and soil temperature and soil moisture measurements. Species distributions modelling was used to examine the distribution of arctic-alpine vascular plants and species correspondence to the microclimate variables as well as the importance of those variables on the species distributions. The research material consists of the microclimate and species data collected on the field as well as data based on topography and remote sensing. The data for the study were collected around Rastigaisa mountain in northern Norway. The explanatory variables used in the species distribution modelling included freezing degree day (FDD), growing degree day, radiation, soil moisture, topographic position index and information on the snow cover persistence. Species distribution modelling was performed using generalized boosted regression. From the modelling results the relative importance of the predictor variables as well as the predicted distributions of the species were interpreted. Microclimate factors varied between biotopes. The biggest variation in air temperature was observed at mountain tundra heath. Soil moisture had a levelling effect on the minimum temperatures and the FDD’s. The species distribution modelling results show that snow and moisture variable have a significant impact on the distribution of the arctic-alpine vegetation. Snow controls both temperature and moisture conditions and hence affects the stress that vegetation undergoes as well as the supply of nutrients.
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(2020)Biomass is an important parameter for crop monitoring and management, as well as for assessing carbon cycle. In the field, allometric models can be used for non-destructive biomass assessment, whereas remote sensing is a convenient method for upscaling the biomass estimations over large areas. This study assessed the dry leaf biomass of Agave sisalana (sisal), a perennial crop whose leaves are grown for fibre and biofuel production in tropical and subtropical regions. First, an allometric model was developed for predicting the leaf biomass. Then, Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite imagery was used to model the leaf biomass at 8851 ha plantation in South-Eastern Kenya. For the allometric model 38 leaves were sampled and measured. Plant height and leaf maximum diameter were combined into a volume approximation and the relation to biomass was formalised with linear regression. A strong log-log linear relation was found and leave-one-out cross-validation for the model showed good prediction accuracy (R2 = 0.96, RMSE = 7.69g). The model was used to predict biomass for 58 field plots, which constituted a sample for modelling the biomass with Sentinel-2 data. Generalised additive models were then used to explore how well biomass was explained by various spectral vegetation indices (VIs). The highest performance (D2 = 74%, RMSE = 4.96 Mg/ha) was achieved with VIs based on the red-edge (R740 and R783), near-infrared (R865) and green (R560) spectral bands. Highly heterogeneous growing conditions, mainly variation in the understory vegetation seemed to be the main factor limiting the model performance. The best performing VI (R740/R783) was used to predict the biomass at plantation level. The leaf biomass ranged from 0 to 45.1 Mg/ha, with mean at 9.9 Mg/ha. This research resulted a newly established allometric equation that can be used as an accurate tool for predicting the leaf biomass of sisal. Further research is required to account for other parts of the plant, such as the stem and the roots. The biomass-VI modelling results showed that multispectral data is suitable for assessing sisal leaf biomass over large areas, but the heterogeneity of the understory vegetation limits the model performance. Future research should address this by investigating the background effects of understory and by looking into complementary data sources. The carbon stored in the leaf biomass at the plantation corresponds to that in the woody aboveground biomass of natural bushlands in the area. Future research is needed on soil carbon sequestration and soil and plant carbon fluxes, to fully understand the carbon cycle at sisal plantation.
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(2020)Global warming is expected to have detrimental consequences on fragile ecosystems in the tropics and to threaten both the global biodiversity as well as food security of millions of people. Forests have the potential to buffer the temperature changes, and the microclimatic conditions below tree canopies usually differ substantially from the ambient macroclimate. Trees cool down their surroundings through several biophysical mechanisms, and the cooling benefits occur also with trees outside forest. Remote sensing technologies offer new possibilities to study how tree cover affects temperatures both in local and regional scales. The aim of this study was to examine canopy cover’s effect on microclimate and land surface temperature (LST) in Taita Hills, Kenya. Temperatures recorded by 19 microclimate sensors under different canopy covers in the study area and LST estimated by Landsat 8 thermal infrared sensor (TIRS) were studied. The main interest was in daytime mean and maximum temperatures measured with the microclimate sensors in June-July 2019. The Landsat 8 imagery was obtained in July 4, 2019 and LST was retrieved using the single-channel method. The temperature records were combined with high-resolution airborne laser scanning (ALS) data of the area from years 2014 and 2015 to address how topographical factors and canopy cover affect temperatures in the area. Four multiple regression models were developed to study the joint impacts of topography and canopy cover on LST. The results showed a negative linear relationship between daytime mean and maximum temperatures and canopy cover percentage (R2 = 0.6–0.74). Any increase in canopy cover contributed to reducing temperatures at all microclimate measuring heights, the magnitude being the highest at soil surface level. The difference in mean temperatures between 0% and 100% canopy cover sites was 4.6–5.9 ˚C and in maximum temperatures 8.9–12.1 ˚C. LST was also affected negatively by canopy cover with a slope of 5.0 ˚C. It was found that canopy cover’s impact on LST depends on altitude and that a considerable dividing line existed at 1000 m a.s.l. as canopy cover’s effect in the highlands decreased to half compared to the lowlands. Based on the results it was concluded that trees have substantial effect on both microclimate and LST, but the effect is highly dependent on altitude. This indicates trees’ increasing significance in hot environments and highlights the importance of maintaining tree cover particularly in the lowland areas. Trees outside forests can increase climate change resilience in the area and the remaining forest fragments should be conserved to control the regional temperatures.
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(2022)The African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) as a renowned “ecosystem engineer” modifies its habitat by sometimes destroying woody vegetation. Their destructive effect intensifies during the dry seasons, when they form larger herds and seek to consume woody plants, especially near permanent water sources. If this happens season after season in a restricted area, such as a wildlife reserve, the tree cover is reduced. Since elephants tend to make smaller trees to fall more easily than the larger ones, this “elephant problem” harms the regeneration ability of the ecosystem in a long run, even turning savannas into grasslands. With less and less trees available, elephants and other fauna in conservation areas could end up being at a fatal risk. Multi-scale vegetation structure can be studied with airborne (ALS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). Although both types of LiDAR have been applied in studies on trees, most of the ALS studies concern biomass and none of the TLS research cover elephants. Tree structure on the individual tree level can be modelled using TreeQSM modelling that has not yet been applied in savanna vegetation. This study can be considered pioneering as it attempts to provide answers to these two study questions: (1) How does tree density derived from airborne laser scanning data correlate with elephant density, elephant path proximity, and river proximity? (2) How do tree architecture metrics derived from terrestrial laser scanning data correlate with elephant path proximity and river proximity? The study area is Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, a small privately-owned wildlife conservancy in southeastern Kenya that falls within an area scanned with ALS in 2014. The vegetation of the reserve has been changing for many decades, and the latest changes in the vegetation cover are visible from satellite images. The “elephant problem” near the area was scientifically discussed already in 1960’s, so their damage may have been taking place for a long time. There are two datasets from the area for estimating elephant occurrence (elephant density based on elephant observation points and elephant track proximity based on elephant tracks) and one for the proximity to the river. Tree density was calculated based on detected treetops from the ALS point cloud and its correlations between the elephant predictors and the river proximity was analyzed. TLS measurements of 72 individual trees of Vachellia tortilis and Newtonia hildebrandtii were made in January and February 2020 in Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. 53 were successfully modelled with TreeQSM. The correlations between the tree structure metrics and elephant density, elephant track proximity, and the river proximity were analyzed. The values for crown ratio, the metric that correlated significantly with the elephant track proximity were predicted to assess the meaning of the results in practice. The overall findings from both analyses (ALS and TLS) may suggest that trees in Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary may have suffered from elephant damage, since lower tree density correlates with both the elephant density estimates and the elephant track proximity. The trees scanned with TLS seem to be somewhat larger in closer proximities to the elephant tracks, while smaller trees are more able to survive in areas further away. Quantifying elephant damage in more detail, such as torn or hanging branches, was still not achieved by this study. Regardless, it can be concluded that there is enough foundation for further research on the important issue, the phenomenon that can turn dangerous to many species that were supposed to be protected.
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(2024)Tree microhabitats are important in assessing forest biodiversity and ecological value. Knowledge of what types of forests and trees bear the most microhabitats can be useful in sustainable forest management and conservation. Based on research that has been done on assessing the main drivers of microhabitats, tree age, size and developmental stage have been established as the main driving factors for microhabitats. Terrestrial laser scanning data has been used in microhabitat modelling, either at forest stand scale, or by directly detecting certain microhabitats from the data using machine learning. However, high precision individual tree level architectural data facilitated by terrestrial laser scanning and quantitative structure modelling has not yet been tested in microhabitat related research. In this thesis I use the detailed tree-level information that the quantitative structure models provide to determine whether high precision tree architectural data improves the modelling performance of tree microhabitats. Terrestrial laser scanning data was collected from ten plots in a hardwood riparian forest area near Leipzig, Germany. Two tree microhabitat inventories from these ten plots collected in the winter of 2020-2021 and January 2023 respectively as reference data sets. Running increasingly complex models for predicting microhabitat richness for the two datasets I found that 1) While the performance gets better with addition of more tree structural variables, the difference was not substantial between models using only variables attainable by less labour-intensive methods and models with more complex, TLS-derived variables. 2) Comparing the performance metrics between the two datasets showed that the models performed very differently between the inventories, suggesting that microhabitat inventory data collection is susceptible to subjectivity, and the surveys are prone to having observer biases. These discrepancies between the datasets further reinforce the established consensus that tree microhabitats are hard to detect. Difficulties with creating reliable reference data sets, along with the inherently random nature of tree microhabitat occurrence can make microhabitat modelling difficult. This thesis concludes that high precision tree structural data might not increase the microhabitat prediction power in a way that justifies the cost. The results support the established consensus that microhabitat occurrence is mainly driven by tree size and living status. Variables such as species, tree neighbourhood metrics and stand level metrics were not included in this study, but should be researched more, as for example, tree structural characteristics and compartmentalization capacity vary between tree species. Additionally, based on the findings in this thesis, further effort into the standardisation of microhabitat inventories and their collection should be done. There should be little to no room for interpretation regarding the typologies of microhabitats and their related field work methodologies, leading to less observer biases and more comparable and comprehensive data.
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(2023)Kaupunkien toiminnalle on tärkeää tunnistaa asukkaiden kokemukset omasta asuinympäristöstään. Mun Espoo kartalla -kyselystä mielenkiintoisen tekee se, että asukkaat itse tuottavat tiedon suunnittelun tueksi. Kyselyn avulla arjen kokemukset saadaan kanavoitua suoraan kaupungille. Tässä tutkielmassa tarkoituksena on analysoida asukkaiden esittämiä ideoita siitä, miten omaa asuinympäristöä toivotaan kehitettävän. Tutkielman keskeinen kysymys on, mihin espoolaiset vetoavat kehitysideoissaan ottaen huomioon, että tarkoituksena on vakuuttaa suunnittelijat oman idean puolelle. Tutkielmassa pohditaan, miksi asukkaat ovat valinneet tietyn tavan oikeuttaa oman ideansa ja eroavatko käytetyt oikeutukset toisistaan sosioekonomisesti. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan osallisuutta suomalaisessa kaupunkisuunnittelussa, sillä myös kyselyyn vaikuttavat vakiintuneet ideologiat siitä, miten kaupunkeja tulisi suunnitella. Tämän jälkeen tutkielmassa perehdytään Boltanskin ja Thévenot’n oikeuttamisteoriaan, jonka mukaan osallistujat perustelevat väitteensä käyttämällä suhteellisen rajoitettua joukkoa moraalisia periaatteita. Teoria havainnollistaa, mitä pidetään perusteltuna argumenttina erilaisissa sosiaalisissa konteksteissa. Työn aineistona on Espoon ja Aalto-yliopiston yhteistyönä syksyllä 2020 käynnistetty Mun Espoo kartalla -kysely. Kyselyyn jätettiin yli 4600 avovastausta kehitysideoista. Lisäksi kyselyssä kerättiin sosiodemografisia yksilöitä kuvaavia taustamuuttujia. Menetelmänä on teorialähtöinen sisällönanalyysi, jossa avovastaukset koodattiin vastaamaan käytettyjä oikeutuksia. Kehitysideoista nousi esille toistuvia aiheita, joita asukkaat oikeutuksesta riippumatta toivoivat. Eniten kehitysideoita liittyi liikkumiseen, liikuntaan ja virkistysalueisiin, paikallisluontoon ja asuinalueiden kehitykseen. Lähes puolet vastaajista pyrki esittämään oman ideansa koko yhteisön etua ajaen, eli julkisen oikeuttamisen kieliopilla. Kehitysideoissa käytettiin erityisesti kodin ja teollisuuden oikeutusmaailmojen argumentteja. Tulosten perusteella vastaajat omaksuivat julkisen oikeuttamisen maailmojen logiikan ja ajattelevat niillä olevan eniten kommunikatiivista valtaa vaikuttaa suunnittelijoihin. Avovastauksista merkittävä osa oli myös teknisiä kommentteja, joissa vastaaja ei perustellut kehitysideaa lainkaan. Sosiodemografisten muuttujien analyysin perusteella ihmisten kokemukset omasta ympäristöstään eivät ole irrallaan sosioekonomisista eroista. Analyysin keskeisimmät tulokset olivat, että julkisen oikeuttamisen kieliopin käyttö sekä perustelut ylipäätään kasvoivat koulutuksen myötä. Tulokset myös osoittivat, että kyselyn vastaajat edustavat melko rajattua espoolaista väestöä. Vastaajista rakentuu kuva kotimaisia kieliä puhuvina, korkeasti koulutettuina ja työssäkäyvinä espoolaisina. Ideoille keskeistä on myös, että vastaajat ovat toimijoina strategisia. Vastaajat tiedostavat, että hyvin muotoillulla idealla ja oikeutuksella voi parantaa mahdollisuuksia sille, että kaupunki toteuttaa idean. Kuten tulokset havainnollistavat, usein kuitenkin vain tiettyjen ryhmien ideat pääsevät esille. Pyrinkin tutkielmalla tuottamaan keskustelua, jossa tunnistetaan, että osalla asukkaista on muita enemmän resursseja ja kommunikatiivista valtaa ottaa osaa osallisuuden hankkeisiin.
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(2023)Suomen aluekehityksen myötä maaseutualueet hiljenevät ihmisten keskittyessä suuriin kaupunkeihin ja kehyskuntiin. Matkailulla on pyritty monilla maaseutualueilla parantamaan elinvoimaa ja taloudellista kehitystä. Matkailun myötä syntyy uusia palveluja sekä työpaikkoja. Matkailun kehittämisen ja onnistumisen kannalta on tärkeää, että paikalliset asukkaat suhatutuvat siihen positiivisesti ja tukevat sen kehittämistä. Tutkimukseni kohdistuu Rantasalmen kuntaan, joka on maaseutumainen kunta Etelä-Savossa. Matkailu on Rantasalmella kasvattanut taloudellista merkitystään tasaisesti ja sen matkailukohteet ovat saanet näkyvyyttä myös eri medioissa. Vaikka Suomessa kotimaanmatkailu on merkittävä matkailualan kannalta, COVID-19 pandemian myötä kasvanut kotimaanmatkailu on vaikuttanut matkustajamääriin Suomen sisällä. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää mitä mieltä Rantasalmen asukkaat ovat kuntaan kohdistuvasta matkailusta ja miten he kokevat matkailun vaikuttavan kunnan kehitykseen. Ihmisten suhatutumista matkailuun tutkin sosiaalisen vaihdon teorian avulla. Tutkimusaineistona on internetissä jaetun kyselylomakkeen vastaukset, jotka analysoin laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella vastaajilla on yleisesti ottaen positiivinen suhtautuminen Rantasalmelle kohdistuvaan matkailuun. Matkailu koetaan taloudellisesti merkittävänä ja sen kehittämiseen suhtaudutaan positiivisesti. Matkailijoita toivotaan saapuvan enemmän ja matkailun laajenevan kunnan alueella nykyistä laajemmalle alueelle. On kuitenkin myös negatiivisia asioita, kuten matkailusta aiheutuneet haitat ympäristölle. Kunnan kehityksen suhteen matkailun koetaan olevan hyvin merkittävässä roolissa kunnan taloudellisen selviytymisen suhteen. Tämän tutkielman perusteella Rantasalmella vastaajat suhtautuvat matkailuun pääosin positiivisesti, mutta huolenaiheitakin on. Huolenaiheet tulisi ottaa huomioon matkailualaa kehitettäessä. Matkailua ollaan valmiita kehittämään tulevaisuudessa lisää ja matkailun koetaan olevan kunnan kehityksen kannalta hyvin merkityksellinen. Matkailua halutaan kehittää yhteistyön voimalla sellaiseksi, että se hyödyttää laajemmin koko kuntaa ja eri toimijoita.
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(2022)Megatrendit muuttavat asumistarpeita, jolloin kaupunkien asukkaiden vaatimukset ja toiveet muuttuvat. Samalla yritykset pyrkivät vastaamaan tähän muuttuneeseen kysyntään. Vastaavasti yhteiskunnallisilla toimijoilla, kuten valtiolla ja kunnilla on muuttuvat asuntopoliittiset tavoitteensa, joilla pyritään vastaamaan megatrendien tuomaan muutokseen. Helsingin kaupungilla on tavoite kehittää kerrostaloasumista houkuttelevammaksi. Uusien asumisratkaisujen kehittelyssä nähtiin kaupungilla hyödylliseksi myös kokeiluja koordinoiva ohjelma, joka kartoittaisi yhteistyökumppaneita ja alati muuttuvia asumisen tarpeita. Ratkaisuna luotiin Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelma. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelman taustalla olleet asuntopoliittiset tavoitteet ja ohjelman hankkeisiin vaikuttaneet yhteiskunnalliset muutokset. Neljä megatrendiä, jotka selkeimmin esiintyvät Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelman hankkeiden tavoitteissa ovat: asuntokuntien muutos, kulutuskulttuurin muutos, ilmastonmuutos ja ympäristökysymykset sekä teknologioiden ja prosessien muutos. Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelman hankkeet olivat kehitysteemoiltaan hyvin monipuolisia vastaten lukuisiin tutkimuskirjallisuudessa ja yhteiskunnallisessa keskustelussa olleisiin ilmiöihin ja megatrendeihin. Hankkeissa itsessään oli myös samaan aikaan useita erilaisia kehitysteemoja. Helsingin kaupungin Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelman merkitys osana asuntopoliittisia interventioita on yhdistää eri sidosryhmät samaan ohjelmaan. Vaikka tavoitteet olivat eri toimijoilla erilaiset, on mahdollista kannustaa rankentajia ja muita yrityksiä innovaatioihin. Käytännössä pelkällä säätelyllä ei pystytä takaamaan innovaatioiden toteutumista, sillä säädöksien kaltainen ohjaus määrittää lähinnä rakentamisen minimitason. Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelman kaltainen interventio helpottaa innovaatioiden syntyä sekä mahdollistaa kunnianhimoisemmat asumiskonseptit. Vaikka tässä tutkimuksessa käsiteltiin sitä, kuinka lakien ja säädösten avulla voidaan ohjata rakentamista toivottuun suuntaan sekä sitä, milloin nämä muutokset ovat tapahtuneet, näiden muutosten vaikutus itse Kehittyvä kerrostalo -ohjelman hankkeisiin on yhä selvittämättä.
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(2022)In the current trajectory of human induced global warming, the domains of climate change mitigation and adaptation remain fundamental to the future of human and natural systems. Mitigating the global warming is not only vital but coping with the unavoidable impacts of the global temperature rise will be less disastrous. In terms of the realities of climate change impacts, the climate policies must be implemented. However, the success of mitigation and adaptation efforts might be dependent on how the people and communities are encountered in climate policies. Thus, it is not only crucial how the distribution of climate change burdens and benefits continues, but as important to recognize the multiple entry points to just transition. This thesis contributes to the emerging field of scientific climate justice debate that raises questions of just adaptation and in which ways it is addressed in climate change adaptation policies under the agenda of just transition. The focus of the thesis is particularly on European climate change adaptation dialogue, in the platform of a public consultation organized by the European Commission. With an interpretive approach, the study explores the perceptions of just adaptation in a number of 22 position papers contributed by European and international civic organizations. The analysis is guided by the (1.) the addressment of adaptation injustices and (2.) just adaptation as a transformative pathway. In the prism of environmental and climate justice concerns, and transformative features of adaptation, the results are discussed under the geo-graphy of Carriers of Just Transition. The civic organizations who contributed to the public consultation consider adaptation and just transition important to achieve. At the same time, the civic organizations seem to have adopted a strategy of no-regrets: they actively reclaim on adaptation measures to prepare for the medium and long-term climate impacts while considering that the mitigation efforts of today seem to be failing. At the same time, just adaptation is considered as a way of conserving the present state, while the agenda of just transition seems to be adopted as the desired pathway of fair adaptation. The European adaptation policy dialogue nests in the carriers of just transition – the systemic pathways of consolidating the current European state rather than transformational change.
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(2023)In my thesis I look at how persons living without an own car experience their daily mobility and what kind of strategies and practices concerning daily mobility are their households using to manage their daily lives. In focus is also a question of the significance of the place of residence to mobility, which I investigate through the concepts of urban structure and car dependence. I chose the city of Porvoo as my study area, because as a small city it does not have the public transportation services at the level of the largest Finnish cities, but on the other hand its dense city center may support carless daily mobility. I use the concept of accessibility strategies, which means the ways in which individuals can maintain access to the variably time and space bound activities of their everyday lives and overcome or adapt to their time-geographic constraints. Knowing the practices of carless households is important for the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of transportation in Finland. It is still important to remember the nature of carlessness as varying from being voluntary to being involuntary. Urban structure sets the conditions which may favor some travel behavior and prohibit other kinds. These conditions include distances between activity locations, or the relative ease of using different travel modes. Urban structure may enable alternatives in travel mode choices or prohibit them and support mostly private car use. Discussions may also consider car dependence, which has been defined as the dependence on private cars of areas, urban structure, transport systems, as well as individuals and daily trips. As a method for data collection in this qualitative thesis I used thematic interviews. Interviews may help to understand the practices and subjective experiences of a group of people in a certain place, and meanings they attach to an activity of a geographical nature. I interviewed seven persons living in Porvoo, representing their carless households, of which some lived in the city center and others outside of it. I analyzed the interview transcriptions using coding, thematic analysis and typification. Almost all of the interviewees utilized a strategy in which they had taken proximity to daily destinations and activities into consideration when moving to their current place of residence, which enables short distances by walking or cycling. I studied the use of information and communications technologies to substitute physical mobility by looking at remote work practices: high levels of remote work were done, and more than before, when the remote work possibilities were expanded due to COVID-19 pandemic. All of the households had received support for mobility from their social relations, but the significance of this strategy to everyday life varied considerably, from a weekly need of getting car rides to a rare occasion of borrowing a car. Central daily mobility practices were walking and cycling, trip chaining, and choosing activities from a close proximity to home. The daily mobility experiences of households living in Porvoo city center, or its immediate surroundings were characterized as being problem-free. City center’s short distances and bus connections to Helsinki were seen as advantages to mobility. The most pronounced challenges to daily mobility appeared within those living outside of the city center, due to experiences of a decline in the service level of local public transportation. Local buses did not offer satisfying levels of accessibility to those who would have needed them for their daily trips. The finding of the problem-free nature of daily mobility of the ones living in or next to city center is in line with a finding from literature, which sees downtown areas of middle-sized Finnish cities as representing a car independent urban structure.
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(2021)Due to the harsh conditions in high latitude alpine and arctic regions, climate or land use changes make them very vulnerable. Thus, it is vital to study the habitats of these regions and increase our understanding of what factors impact species distributions. Species distribution modelling can be used to predict possible habitats for species and further inspect the relationships between different environmental variables and species. Generally, these species distribution models have been created using variables describing the topographical and climatic conditions of the study area. Recently there has been more evidence supporting the inclusion of biotic variables to species distribution models at all scales. Including biotic variables can be difficult, as these relationships can be challenging to quantify. This study uses the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as a surrogate for plant biomass, thus representing biotic interactions. This study aims to answer what are the relationships between environmental variables and the predicted distributions and will including a biotic variable improve the species distribution models. The study data includes observational data from 683 arctic and alpine plant species from Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The observation data were collected from the three national databanks of Norway, Sweden and Finland and completed with observations from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and observation data collected by the BioGeoClimate Modelling Lab. The cohesive study area was outlined with the biogeographical regions defined by the European Environment Agency. Overall, six environmental variables are used in this study: annual mean temperature, the maximum temperature of the warmest month, annual precipitation, elevation difference in a cell, bedrock class, and NDVI. The NDVI data was gathered by NASA’s MODIS sensors. The observations and the environmental variables were projected into a grid consisting of 1 x 1 km cells covering the whole study area. This study uses the ensemble modelling technique with four individual modelling methods: generalized linear models (GLM), generalized additive models (GAM), generalized boosted models (GBM) and random forests (RF). The modelling process consisted of two modelling rounds so that the impact of NDVI could be evaluated. The first modelling round included all the environmental variables except NDVI (the topoclimate model) and the second modelling round included all the environmental variables (the full model). The two temperature variables, annual mean temperature and the maximum temperature of the warmest month, had the highest mean variable importance values. With the topoclimate model, annual precipitation ranked third with the rest of the climate variables, but when NDVI was added to the models, it rose above annual precipitation. Overall, among the studied arctic and alpine species, the variable importance values of both the edaphic and topographical variables were low. In general, both the topoclimate models and full models performed very well. The mean AUC- and TSS-values were all higher for the full models, indicating that including a biotic variable improved the models. When the binary predictions of both modelling rounds were compared, it was clear that NDVI refined the projected distributions for most species. The results from this study confirm the discovery that including a biotic variable, such as NDVI, has the potential to increase the predictive power of species distribution models. One of the main problems with including biotic variables in species distribution models has been the difficulty of quantifying biotic interactions. NDVI can thus be a promising tool to overcome these difficulties, as it is one of the most direct variables to describe ecosystem productivity, can be acquired at various scales, and as remotely sensed data, it can also cover areas that are difficult to access.
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(2021)The number of people belonging to a language minority in Finland is increasing and people are becoming more and more spatially mobile. This has also led to an increase in transnationals and higher rates of cross-border mobility. With new methods involving social media big data, we can map spatial mobility patterns in new ways and deepen the understanding of how people relate to space. Differences in spatial mobility can for example give us an indication of the rate of integration into society. Some claim that a more spatially mobile life is a sign of success, but can we see differences in spatial mobility between people in Finland? The three language minorities considered in this thesis are Swedish, Russian, and Estonian. The history and culture of these groups are different as well as their status in Finnish society. Swedish speakers, with a national language status, have a different role in society, but do this well integrated minority differ from the other ones spatially? By using Twitter data and looking at the spatial mobility within Finland, we see where differences occur between language groups. To understand how strong ties the language groups have with neighbouring countries, we look at cross-border mobility to Estonia, Russia, and Sweden. The results show that there are differences in the spatial mobility of language minorities in Finland. Estonian speakers most frequently visit Estonia, while at the same time they are less mobile within Finland. The variation was large for Russian speakers, with some visiting Russia often and others almost never. Swedish speakers seem to have relatively weak ties to Sweden, compared to the other language groups and have very similar spatial mobility to the majority Finnish speaking population.
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(2024)Cartographic interaction, the dialogue between a human and a map, is a process enabling indispensable ways of reasoning with spatial information. Interactive maps are digital applications, increasingly often made with web technologies. Studying and crafting cartographic interaction calls for user-inclusive studies designed around interactive map use, also necessitating the assessment of the rapidly evolving technologies enabling interactive maps. This study combines the technology- and user-centric aspects of cartographic interaction. I ask what the performance bottlenecks of a web map application are, and how different web mapping libraries compare as a platform for real-time cartographic interaction. I also ask how users interact with a highly interactive map interface, and whether cartographic interaction changes the way they perceive the mapped phenomenon. Developing a web map application, a map interface to a massive dataset on spatial accessibility (the Helsinki region Travel Time Matrix), is central to this study. I answer my technology-centric questions by assessing the technological aspects of interactive maps through the development process. To answer my user-centric questions, I carry out a user survey (n=31) by combining the web map application with an online questionnaire. My results show that the geometrical complexity of data, i.e. the number and detail of geometries to render, was the main factor limiting map responsiveness. Notable differences between web mapping libraries existed in the context of dynamic real-time interaction. Survey participants preferred to use the most dynamic mode of map interaction, and perceived the mapped phenomenon differently depending on how they interacted with the map. These results illustrate the dependence between map interface capabilities and technological design choices such as data simplification and software selection. The results also support the wider call for more dynamic map interfaces, indicating that real-time cartographic interaction can be a functional approach to exploring complex data. As a whole, the results highlight the need for the ongoing study of both mapping technologies and map use in order to discover and utilize the potential of cartographic interaction.
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(2021)Urban environments are constantly changing and expanding. They grow, evolve, and adapt to society and residents’ needs. Environmental changes have an impact also on urban green such as trees. This is because the increase of building stock and expanding cityscape will target these green spaces. However, the significance of those green spaces is understood as they have a positive impact on the residents’ well-being and health. For example, urban trees are known to improve the air quality and to provide mentally relaxing environments for residents. As this importance is emphasized, changes in the areas must be monitored, which increases the importance of the change detection studies. Change detection is a comparison of two or more datasets from the same area but at different times. Principally, changes have been detected with various remote sensing methods, such as aerial- and satellite images, but as airborne laser scanning technology and multi-temporal laser scanning datasets have become more common, the use of laser scanning data has also increased. The advantage of the laser scanning method is especially in its ability to produce three-dimensional information of the area. Therefore, also vertical properties can be studied. The method’s advantage is its ability to detect changes in urban tree cover as well as in tree height. The aim of this study was to investigate how tree cover and especially canopy height have changed in the Kuninkaantammi area in Helsinki during 2008‒2015, 2015‒2017, 2017‒2020, and 2008‒2020 from multi-temporal laser scanning data. One of the starting points of this study was to find out how airborne laser scanning datasets with different sensors and survey parameters are suitable for change detection. Also, what kind of problems the differences between datasets will raise and how to reduce those problems. The study used laser scanning data from the National Land Survey of Finland and from the city of Helsinki for four different years. The canopy height models were produced of each dataset and changes were calculated as the difference of each canopy height model. The results show that multi-temporal laser scanning data require a lot of manual processing to create datasets comparable. The greatest problems were differences in point density and in classification of the data. The sparse data from the National Land Survey of Finland affected how changes were managed to be studied. Therefore, changes were detected only in general level. In addition, each dataset was classified differently which affected the usability of the classes in the datasets. The problems encountered were reduced by manual work like digitizing or by masking non-vegetation objects. The results showed that the change in the Kuninkaantammi area has been relatively large at the time of the study. Between 2008 and 2015, 12.1% of the tree cover was lost, 9.9% between 2015 and 2017, and 13.2% between 2017 and 2020. In addition, an increase in canopy height was detected. Between 2008 and 2015, 44.2% of the area had greater than 2 m increase in canopy height. Similarly, increase occurred in 11.1% and 3.5% of the area in 2015‒2017 and in 2017‒2020, respectively. Although the changes were observed at a general level, it can be concluded that the used datasets can provide valuable information about the changes in urban green that have taken place in the area.
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