Browsing by department "Geotieteiden ja maantieteen laitos"

Over the last 30 years, the geology and paleohydrology has been examined at Olkiluoto as to predict how they may change in the future and affect the final placement of nuclear waste. Some knowledge about the hydrology can be seen directly from present groundwater and the fracture calcite reflect older environments from where they were precipitated. Calcite is the most used fracture mineral within paleohydrogeochemical studies since it easily precipitates during different conditions, including colder climate. The calcite at Olkiluoto has also earlier been examined and dating and grouping of the calcite has been carried out. The aim of the study was to further analyze the trace element composition in fracture calcite samples from earlier studies, in order to understand the influences of groundwater in calcite. The REE concentrations and their anomalies were of special interest. 31 calcite samples from a depth of about 12–660 m under the surface, from 20 different drill cores were analyzed. The calcite had been precipitated at pegmatitc granite, mica gneiss, migmatitic mica gneiss, quartz gneiss and veined gneiss. The calcite was analyzed with ICP-AES (Agilent MP4100), ICP-MS (Agilent 7500ce/cx) and LA-ICP-MS (Coherent GeoLasPro MV and Agilent 7900s). The ICP-AES method was found unsuited for trace element analyses of calcite. The trace element concentrations showed large variations. The later calcite had larger concentrations and more variation towards the surface than deeper in the ground. REE concentrations decreased over depth which can reflect the Ca in the groundwater that increases with depth. LREE showed higher concentrations than HREE since soluble HREE tend to stay in the groundwater during calcite precipitation as LREE migrates to the calcite. Larger LREE concentrations may have occurred from hydrothermal conditions. Usually the calcite had negative Eu anomaly but also positive occurred. Reducing conditions create negative Eu anomalies when Eu3+ takes divalent form. The positive Eu anomalies may also have occurred during hydrothermal conditions or may reflect plagioclase in the bedrock. No direct influence between bedrock and calcite trace element composition could however be determined. The calcite usually lacked Ce anomaly except for a couple near the surface which may be caused by oxidizing conditions where Ce3+ changes to soluble Ce4+. The negative Ce anomalies in calcite from meteoric water, may have inherited the anomaly from earlier seawater. A few La anomalies were observed. Negative La anomaly may occur if La has been taken by other minerals. Usually the calcite lacked Y anomaly except for the oldest calcite that had positive Y anomaly. Acidic conditions tend to cause Fe oxyhydroxation and reduce REE in comparison to Y which may have produced positive Y anomalies. Reducing conditions may also have caused the higher Mn and Fe concentrations in calcite while oxidizing conditions may have created the higher U concentrations. Bacterial activity and clay accumulations during calcite precipitation may have affected Mn concentrations and sulfide precipitation may have affected Fe. The U concentrations in groundwater tend to decrease with depth and at high salinity which may have affected the U concentration in calcite. Variations in Mg concentrations may have been caused by Mg ion exchange. High Sr concentrations may reflect hydrothermal conditions while low Sr concentrations may reflect low temperatures or precipitation of other minerals.

This paper studies discourses about suburbs that occur in newspaper writings about 1960s and 1970s infill development. The study aims to find out how writings about infill development are structured in the local newspaper Helsingin Sanomat between 2000 and 2016. The objective is to discover how a high-rise suburb appears as a site for infill development, and what kinds of discourses appear in newspaper writings about infill development. The paper uses discourse analysis to examine how high-rise suburbs built in 1960-1970 are discussed in Helsingin Sanomat between 2000 and 2016, using writings about infill development in Helsingin Sanomat in that period as research material. Due to the choice of newspaper, the addressed suburbs are found in the Helsinki metropolitan area. In recent years, Finnish urbanization has led to regional economic marginalization, which in the Helsinki metropolitan area is concentrated in the high-rise suburbs of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to economic marginalization, these suburbs are seen to suffer from decreasing and aging population, and a need for renovations. The stated aims of infill development include urban unification and social diversification of the suburbs in order to prevent the cycle of economic marginalization. Combined with deterioration of apartments built in the 1960s and 1970s, structural and social problems in high-rise suburbs have led to a societally challenging situation. The writings contained four discourses about suburbs: potential of the suburbs, defense of the suburbs, the suburb as problematic, and the suburb as a conflict-prone site for infill development. The most powerful discourse was about potential. The defense discourse emphasized the uniqueness and meaningfulness of the suburb as the environment and home of its inhabitants. The conflict discourse refers to writings where the suburb is seen as an infill development site that causes conflict. While most of the newspaper writings mention the age and deterioration of the period’s suburbs, the problem discourse did not dominate the research material. Based on the research, the ways of talking about the suburb depend on the speaker, the speaker’s motives, and the subject. The discourses allowed a crucial observation that the suburb is an arena for wielding power where a contradictory and naïve attitude towards developing suburban social life is a major problem slowing down the prevention of economic marginalization. Because the suburbs of the Helsinki metropolitan area are very different, the research doesn’t reveal what suburbs are really like. Instead, the research shows how the suburbs of the metropolitan area appear in the context of writings about infill development, and reveals the persons featured in writings about infill development as well as the suburbs that are interesting to the media. The study also examines how different parties react to infill development, and seeks to shed light on the motives behind the remarks of different parties.

The number of bike-sharing systems has increased rapidly during the last decade. These systems expand urban mobility options and provide a solution to the so-called “last-mile” problem. While new bike-sharing systems are opened and current ones expanded in Finland and elsewhere in large numbers, it is important to understand how these systems are used and by whom. Despite the wealth of bike-sharing literature, usage patterns by different user groups are still not yet well studied. This knowledge is needed to ensure that the benefits of bike-sharing systems distribute as evenly as possible to the citizens. In this study, I have employed a person-based approach to study mobility patterns of bike-sharing users in Helsinki. The system in Helsinki was opened in 2016 and the urban bikes quickly became popular among citizens. I have aimed to understand how equally the bike-sharing system in Helsinki is serving the citizens and how different user groups have differed from each other in their use. I have also studied how the system is linking to public transport in Helsinki and compared the bike-sharing system usage and users in Helsinki to other systems internationally. These specific questions stem from the systematic literature review on bike-sharing (n=799), which I carried out before the empirical study. In this study, I have used a dataset provided by Helsinki Region Transport, which contained all the bike-sharing trips (~1.5 million) from 2017. Besides the trip information, the dataset contained the basic demographic information of the user. The results of literature review show bike-sharing systems have been an active and extensive study topic even though the study areas are mostly concentrated to certain cities. Based on the empirical data-analysis, majority of bike-sharing users are young adults between 25-35 years old whereas the share of over 50 year olds is only 12 %. Both men and women use urban bikes actively but men are overrepresented both in the number of users and trips. The use of bikes is not equal but a small minority of users have generated the majority of trips. The users who live inside the bike station coverage area make around 80 % of the trips implying that the proximity of a station has a considerable impact on the use. Trip profiles of those living inside the system coverage area differ considerably from those who live outside the area. For example, the users living inside the area seem to combine urban bikes less with public transport and they use urban bikes relatively more on weekends compared to the other group. The subscription type and use activity are also important factors shaping usage patterns. Then again, age and gender are more important in determining whether someone chooses to become a user than in shaping usage patterns. The use of bike-sharing system in Helsinki has been high even when compared internationally. The results of this study show that the high usage rates still do not necessarily mean that the system would be equally used by citizens. Based on the systematic review, equity is a critical topic to address in relation to bike-sharing users. The user profiles in Helsinki seem to follow similar patterns of bike sharing as found in other cities with an overrepresentation of certain population groups. The use of young adults might promise well for the change of urban mobility. However, it is important to keep promoting cycling to a wider range of the population. The bike-sharing system in Helsinki will expand in 2019 to new areas. Based on the results of this study the expansion seems reasonable as a large part of the users live close to a bike-sharing station. The expansion will then bring the full benefits of bike sharing accessible to a larger group of people in Helsinki. The system seems both to replace and extend the public transport system, which is common to bike-sharing systems in many cities. From the data perspective, the origin-destination type of trip data, which was used in this study, provided a great deal of useful information about users and usage profiles. Even when accounting for limitations in this data type, it is still an excellent addition complementing existing cycling data sources.

Plant-plant interactions, i.e. biotic interactions, shape plant communities and the vegetation's succession along abiotic environmental factors. Positive interactions (e.g. facilitation) may expand species niches and enhance growth and reproduction. Negative interactions (e.g. competition, allelopathy) can interfere with growth and reproduction, even out competing some species from their niches. Negative and positive interactions co-occur, but research has shown that positive interactions are generally more common and important than negative ones in harsh environments. The theory of change of net-interaction from negative to positive along an environmental gradient is called the stress gradient hypothesis (=SGH). This work examines nordic crowberry's (Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum) effect on arctic-alpine species' sexual reproduction under different environmental stress levels. Crowberry is a dominant species in low-nutrient, acidic arctic-alpine ecosystems. Its competitive ability is based on allelopathic characteristics and a forming of dense mats. It is also unpalatable for herbivores. The species facilitative characteristics include providing shelter from the wind and maintaining an ericoidmycorrhiza community. In this research environmental stress is represented by geomorphological disturbance and soil moisture, with the interactions between crowberry and other species are examined as the relationship between crowberry cover and the fitness measures (e.g. abundance of flowers or fruits) of study species. Explanation for the variation in the effects of crowberry is tried to find from the traits of the study species. Data was collected in May 2011 from Kilpisjärvi, northernmost Finland. The study area comprised 960 1m2 cells. In each cell the cover of each species (including crowberry), the abundance of each species flowers or fruits, the cover of geomorfological disturbance and soil moisture were recorded. Generalized linear models (=GLM) were run for all species to identify the best model for predicting fitness (as selected by the AIC-criterion). Spatial autocorrelation was accounted for by repeating analyses using generalized estimation equation models (GEE), which explicitly account for the spatial structure of data. 17 species were included to the research based on the abundance of their flowers and berries in the research area. Crowberry is included in the best fit model for 14 out of 17 species. The effect of crowberry was positive for four species and negative for ten species based on the modeling results. Interactions of the crowberry and one of the environmental variables are included to the models 19 times. In ten of these cases the interactions agreed with the predictions of the SGH (i.e. effect of crowberry became less negative with increasing abiotic stress). No species traits were consistently related to the outcome of interaction between crowberry and environmental variable, although crowberry effects on dwarf shrub species appeared to be more commonly positive than on other growthforms. According to these results, crowberry has dominant role in arctic-alpine plant communities. The species effect on sexual reproduction of other plant species is commonly negative, but the effect can change to positive along environmental stress gradients, supporting the SGH. Dwarf shrubs may interact positively with crowberry because of sharing the same mycorrhiza type, while more generally species may benefit from crowberry due to its provisioning of shelter from the wind and increased soil moisture. The negative effect of crowberry might be related to its production of allelopathic compounds or its dense growth. The reason for crowberry having a facilitative affect under disturbed conditions might be an indirect effect of disturbance decreasing crowberry's allelopathic effects. These results show that the roles of crowberry and biotic interactions in arctic-alpine vegetation are important. Therefore understanding their effects and mechanisms is important in predicting how this vegetation will respond to changing climate.

This Planning Geography master's thesis studies the planned boulevardizations in Helsinki in the context of city-regionalism and land-use conflicts between municipalities. Interest conflicts inside regional growth machines are typical and the examination of these interest conflicts and their effects on the city-region and its growth dynamics is the corner stone of this thesis. The first objective was to examine how the planned boulevardizations can affect the local growth dynamics of Greater Helsinki Region in the context of sustainable development. The secondary objective was to examine what kinds of conflict types can be detected from the boulevardization induced interest conflicts and do they produce any positive outcomes. Boulevardizations have been implemented for various reasons. However, the new general plan in Helsinki aims to utilize the exclusion areas of highways to densify the urban structure and expand the urban core outwards. By turning urban freeways to boulevards, the exclusion areas can be built into residential areas that fulfil the need to densify the urban structure and cater to the need to produce housing into an urban environment. The research was carried out as a qualitative case study. The primary data was gathered from thirteen expert interviews. The interviewees were planning officials from the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Porvoo, Kerava, Hyvinkää and Lahti, and from the municipalities of Kirkkonummi, Sipoo, Tuusula and Vihti. The main theoretical background in this thesis rely on the neoliberalization of land-use and the growth machine theory, which were used to examine the inter-municipal land-use conflicts in the context of city-regionalism and sustainable development. The research shows that the Greater Helsinki city-region functions as a growth machine and the planned boulevardizations can affect its growth dynamics and can have an influence on where and how the regional growth will occur. The boulevardizations could also affect the growth dynamics between the surrounding municipalities. Infact, some of the municipalities can gain from the boulevardizations directly, when the first boulevardizations are implemented. The order in which urban freeways are turned into boulevards is a significant issue regarding the municipalities surrounding Helsinki and creates an interesting temporal aspect to the boulevardizations, which can induce conflicts and tensions in city-regionalism. The research revealed set of different conflict types that were categorized as interest, informational and value conflicts. The location of future growth in the Greater Helsinki region is the most obvious interest conflict in the process. Also, freeway infrastructure is seen as common property, which was a cause of conflicts. Experienced lack of participation is a source of informational conflicts. In this case municipalities were participated in the planning process in some extent, but the level of participation varied. Direct interaction and participation in the future could make a difference and brought a more substantial feeling of participation and regionalism. A significant reason behind land-use conflicts between officials seems to be a paradigm shift, that has occurred as planning in Helsinki has become more inclined to carbon neutrality and walkability, in other words, sustainable development. Also, the change of generation can lessen the probability of successful communication between officials as well. The planned boulevardizations have strengthened the communication between municipalities and legitimized existing organizations for cooperation, which can be seen as a positive outcome.

Parisian cycling increased importantly in the past twenty years. Reviewing fifty years of Parisian transport planning and details of the bike-sharing programme Vélib’, I argue in the background research that municipal biking planning and the public bicycles Vélib’ can explain this development of urban biking (1997-2015). The city also has high ambitions for the biking modal share, aiming for fifteen per cent of all Parisian transport by 2020. I want to discover what the determinants of Parisian biking are, and if the latter can be modelled and predicted; thereby, I can verify if predictions match municipal objectives for 2020. I calculate correlations between the Parisian cycling index and its possible determinants with annual values on biking and other variables from 1997 to 2015 in the first part of the analysis (chapter V). This analysis shows that cycling infrastructure, Vélib’ memberships and gasoline price are the strongest positive biking determinants, while car traffic is the strongest negative determinant. In the second part of the analysis, knowing these determinants, I can find multiple linear regression models with high R-squared values (around 0,97 and 0,98) and low standard errors. The best regression model combines linear infrastructure, car traffic volume and Vélib’ memberships. The predictions in the last part of the analysis chapter reveal that in the current tendencies, the Parisian biking modal share will reach about 7 per cent by 2020, instead of the 15 per cent aimed. But I illustrate how the objective can be accomplished, by either improving drastically one of the determinants or the three of them simultaneously to reach a modal share of 15 per cent. The results and the models found appear to be more satisfactory and accurate than the ones of previous researches, presented in the literature review. The findings may be useful for public authorities and decision-makers during processes of biking planning, and it might contribute to future research in this topic.

The Pleistocene (2588-11,2 ka) is known as the time of the ice age. The ice age ended at the beginning of the warm and more humid Holocene. Large carnivorous predators, which survived the transition, have adapted to the current new environments. The goal of this thesis was to compare the osteological changes in the large carnivores from the Pleistocene to present. The data consists Finnish Recent and Central European fossil carnivore carnassial teeth, the calcaneum and the femoral head. Body mass estimates and carnivory indexes were taken from the carnassial tooth, the calcaneal indices were used to determine environmental openness and femoral head measurements indicated locomotory category. The femoral head changes have not been tested on carnivores, so the applicability to carnivores was also tested. The wolf (Canis lupus), the wolverine (Gulo gulo) and the bear (Ursus arctos) are smaller Recently than in the Pleistocene. Wolf's diet has changed to more omnivorous, and changes in the calcaneum indicate more closed habitats. There are no significant intraspecific differences in Finnish carnivore populations between latitudes. The femoral head indices confirm the benefits of certain osteological traits in terrestrial animals (the wolf, the wolverine, the bear) compared to the traits of a more scansorial ambush predator, the lynx (Lynx lynx). The decline in the body masses from Pleistocene to Recent has been known previously. The changes in the body masses in Finland have not been made. The lack of intraspecific differences reflects constant environmental conditions throughout Finland. The differences between fossil and Recent wolf bring new insight on the matter. The more closed environments in Finland are reflected in the wolf, and differences in locomotion between species can be detected from the material.

Land use practices are changing at a fast pace in the tropics. In sub-Saharan Africa forests, woodlands and bushlands are being transformed for agricultural use to produce food for the rapidly growing population. Although food production is crucial for the survivability of the people the uncontrolled expansion of agricultural land at the expanse of natural habitats may in the longer term decrease food production due to disturbances in water balance, increased land erosion and eradication of natural habitats for pollinators. Before the impacts of land use/land cover changes on the ecosystem can be studied the study area needs to be mapped. The study area of this thesis is located in the Taita Hills, Kenya. In previous studies the land use/land cover was mapped on higher hierarchical level in classes such as agricultural land, forest and bushland. In this thesis high spatial and spectral resolution AisaEAGLE imaging spectroscopy data was used to map the common agricultural crops found in the study area. Ground reference data was collected from 5 study plots located in the study area. Over 50 plant species were mapped but only 7 of these were used in the classification. The AisaEAGLE data was acquired in January–February of 2012 and was radiometrically, geometrically and atmospherically corrected. Minimum noise fraction (MNF) transformation was applied to the data to reduce the noise and the dimensionality. Optimal number of MNF bands was defined based on analysis of the information content of the bands. The classification was done with support vector machine (SVM) algorithm using radial basis function (RBF) kernel. Gamma, penalty and probability threshold parameters for the classifier were defined based on analysis of different combinations of these values. The analysis showed that gamma and penalty values had only minor impacts on the classification result. Based on the analysis an optimal threshold level was defined where pixels that were not likely to belong to any of the classes were left unclassified while maximum number of the known targets were correctly classified. Study area was classified with the optimal threshold value 0.90. Classification with threshold value 0.00 was done for reference. The overall accuracies for the classified pixels were 91.52% and 99.70% for the classifications done with probability threshold values 0.00 and 0.90. As the threshold was increased to 0.90 61% of the pixels were left unclassified. At the optimal threshold level between classes misclassifications were almost completely removed whereas the total number of correctly classified testing samples decreased. Applying MNF transformation to the data before the classification increased the overall accuracy from 80.58% to 91.52% while other parameters stayed the same. Results of this thesis showed that SVM classifier used with MNF transformation yielded high overall accuracies for the crop classifications. Adjusting the probability threshold to an optimal level was important since the study area was heterogeneous and only fraction the species were classified. For further applications the possibilities of object-based classification should be considered. The results of this thesis will be shared with the Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services and Food Security in Eastern Africa (CHIESA) –project.

Kawah Ijen is the picturesque crater of the Ijen volcano located in Eastern Java, Indonesia. However, it is not just any volcano crater, as it happens to be the locus of labour-intensive sulphur mining operation. Each day up to 15 tons of sulphur is extracted from the Ijen crater by the 350 men working as manual miners. These men carry even 100 kilogram loads of sulphur out from the crater with bare brawn and the work is with no doubt burdensome. Kawah Ijen's natural beauty has also caught the interest of tourists', and the crater has become commodified as a tourism destination, visited by hundreds of international tourists each day. Thus the storyline of this master's thesis is two-fold. The first research objective scrutinizes the Kawah Ijen sulphur mine from a commodity chain perspective, emphasizing the tough work the sulphur miners have to bear in order to satisfy the needs of the consumers at the end of the chain. The second, and the essential objective of this research in turn interrogates how the presence of the sulphur miners has become also an inevitable part of the Kawah Ijen tourism experience. In this the aspiration is to elucidate how the sulphur miners have become aestheticized as a Global South tourism attraction. In other words, this research aims to interrogate the peculiarity of this reality, by exploring how both trade and culture, and human and commodity mobilities are entangled and enshrouded within the crater of the Ijen volcano. In human geography, a research framework of 'Follow the thing' has been adopted by scholars in order to study the geographically far-flung production chains of consumer goods. As a framework it aims to make critical political-economic connections between the consumers and distant, and often also underprivileged, producers. In this Marxist-influenced undertaking emphasis is placed particularly on commodity fetishism. This notion has been mobilized to illuminate how consumers have become alienated from the means of production, in their symbolically-laden everyday consumption. As sulphur is a raw material needed in the production processes of many goods such as white sugar, fertilizers, medicines, and rubber, this research shows how these commodities were 'followed' into their origins to this particular sulphur mine. During a period of field work, a method of participant observation was utilized to get contextual understanding of this production site. The initial research objective is therefore to make connections and create awareness of the inequalities within commodity production networks. In the final research objective of this master's thesis, a postcolonial approach is mobilized to critically interrogate this initial setting, in which the miners are seen as poor and stagnant producers. Thus the Kawah Ijen tourists are taken under lens in order to gain understanding of this touristic encounter nuanced with cross-cultural and socio-economic differences between the tourists and the miners. Therefore the setting of Kawah Ijen will not only be observed as a place of production, but also as a site - and object - of consumption. By analysing blogged travel stories written by the tourists themselves, this research aims to illuminate what the tourism experience of the Kawah Ijen is about in the realm of consumption. Special attention is given to how the encounter with sulphur miners has become a constitutive part of the adventurous and authentic tourism experience of Kawah Ijen. The blog post analysis on the Kawah Ijen tourism narrative shows how the imaginaries of the sulphur miner as the 'Other' are adhered to, as the tourists construct their travel identities, make meaning of their experiences and finally represent their experience to the outside world. Finally this research aims to make ruptures to Global South fetishism by elucidating how the Kawah Ijen sulphur mine has become both commoditized and fetishized in its own right. In this fetishzation process the sulphur miners are depicted as poor and primitive, which as categories act as symbols for authentic tourism consumption in the social frameworks of the tourists. However, the aim is not to demonize the tourists, but to give recognition to the nuanced personal and social realities they are embedded in their consumption. Hence, the tourism experience of Kawah Ijen is constructed through a point of view more sensitive to the subjective negotiation of authenticity. It is argued that the Kawah Ijen tourism experience is a process in which the meaning of the experience is negotiated in a wider framework, which is vicariously embedded in postcolonial discourse. Finally, it is concluded that although there is some unequal power relations at presence in the tourism consumption of Kawah Ijen, the tourism can be the means to make more sustainable living for the miners. The leapfrog from the mining to tourism has to be only carried out in a deliberate way with respect to all of the stakeholders.

The Baltic Sea is a popular cruising area during the summer months (April till September) with international cruise lines. During these months cruising ports of the Baltic Sea handle the cruise ship generated waste. As the cruising business has been rapidly growing the waste streams has become larger. Present laws and regulations prevent most discharges into the Baltic sea. According to these regulations a ship has to discharge all waste at the port of call produced on board since last port of call. Thus, ports have different waste management strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it is here argued that an updated collaboration among the ports where individual ports would be specialized in specific types of waste handlings ought to benefit the environmental work of the port and the cruise lines and thus also the environment. The thesis will through experts' ideas and opinions from each port study whether an updated waste management can be introduced in the ports of the study. The individual ports are Port of Helsinki, Port of Tallinn, Ports of Stockholm and Copenhagen Malmö Port. Cruise ship generated waste has been study to some extent around the world, but there are only a few studies in the Baltic Sea area. Secondary data and semi structured thematic professional interviews was used to find answers on the research questions. Secondary data in form of waste streams quantities from cruise ships 2010–2014 in the ports of the study was gathered. The gathered data enabled comparisons among the ports and shows in what way the fractions are divided among them. The interviews were held at each port with one to three participants at the time. In total 12 persons were interviewed at nine occasions. The transcribed material was analysed through thematising. The research shows cruise ship generated waste fractions are unevenly distributed among the ports in the Baltic Sea. Hence, this also means the ports are already specialized in receiving special types of waste fractions. The ports are receiving sorted waste and different fractions are being handled. The ports have a close cooperation regarding cruise ships but the study shows the ports are open for new sustainable solutions. This thesis opens up the discussion on cruise ship generated waste in the Baltic Sea. The study shows there is little research done on this matter and further studies are needed. The waste management of all parties involved are important in order to act environmentally friendly and harm the surrounding areas the least. This research provides the Baltic Sea cruising ports with one possible solution on an updated waste handling management in the area.