The potential of regional and thematic services Seen through regional development work in GI cooperation in SW Finland Lasse Nurmi, Cooperation Coordinator, Regional Council of Southwest Finland ENVIFACILITATE seminar, Tallinn,

Background of regional GI cooperation in Southwest Finland -Regional GI cooperation since Lounaispaikka – a regional GI service and network (est. in 2002)

Funding organizations Developing regional GI cooperation between GI users and producers Reduce duplication of effort through launching joint services and data exchange between organizations within the region € Maintaining Lounaispaikka in non-profit basis Creating and developing GI oriented services Mission:

Defining Lounaispaikka Lounaispaikka is built on a core of intense cooperation … …and parts realized by cooperation projects.

Defining Lounaispaikka So, according to a narrow interpretation, Lounaispaikka is an Internet portal, and in a wider sense, all the GI cooperation conducted by the SW Finland GI centre.

Data service model - Lounaispaikka is based on a three part data service model: - A GI Metadata Index for finding and documenting GI data - A data Archive at the University of Turku for achival and later use of produced GI data. Main interests: data produced in fixed-period projects - Thematic map services for visualization of data – two services, Archipelago Sea Map and SW Finland Atlas for Land Use Plans presented later. - All services are reached through Lounaispaikka internet portal

Lounaispaikka Data Service Model

Forms of activity GI Day -seminar GI Club Regional GI user network

Archipelago Sea Map -Developed by Life COASTRA project ( ) - Now the further developing work is done in ENVIFACILITATE project - Major themes: -Nature -Cultural features -Infrastructure -Sources of livelihood

Archipelago Sea Map Now: - The geographical area of the service is going to be expanded outside the region of SW Finland, probably towards Western Uusimaa - New thematic data of bird observations and floral species is going to be attached to the service. New main theme, aerial photos, have already been attached to the service. - Decentralized maintenace of the service is tested as a method to maintain the data sets in the service more up-to-date

SW Finland Regional Atlas for Land Use Plans - Developed by LOLLI-project ( ) in Inno-ELLI program funded by ERDF - Now developed further in a project called ”Further development of SW Finland Regional Land Use Plan Atlas and the development of a regional map service for pipelines” - The service contains plans of different levels (regional-municipal) in same service so that the plans can easily be compared.

SW Finland Regional Atlas for Land Use Plans Now: -New main theme, freshwater and sewer network, is under construction - An interactive, on-line and location- based participation tool for land use plans under planning process is under development and is going to be published for test use by the end of this year

Potential of regional thematic services - Potentials identified in the developed process of Archipelago Sea Map and Land Use Plan Atlas - The map services facilitate easy-to- use comparisons between datasets of different themes

Archipelago Sea Map service For example new aerial photos make interesting comparisons between interpreted and photographed data possible

Potential of regional thematic services -The producers of the data are more willing to give their data to a service in which it is only possible to view the data BUT - The techniques of some map services make it possible to download the actual data sets from the service, and this gives map services a new and exiting role as a source of GI data for multiple uses and users…

Potential of regional thematic services - Citizens and decision-makers: -visual general view maps with simple GIS tools to create own thematic maps from a selection of themes and sub themes - Professional GIS users: -source of data for work and analyses in full GIS

Potential of regional thematic services - In land use planning a larger general view of land use over the municipal borders lead to better planning when things like avoiding splinterness and possibilities of creation of unbroken green corridors easily are observed. - Regional map services give small scale GI producers, such as municipalities, a possibility to have their data presented without a need to invest in expensive applications and professional skills in GIS.

Land Use Plan Atlas A screen capture of Land Use Plan Atlas. Plans of municipalities Halikko and Sauvo visualized

Potential of regional thematic services - Thematic map services have great potential to be designed to different user groups at the same time: for example citizens could get a general view of land use planning through a thematic map service, and persons with special interest could express their opinion about the areas where planning is presently in process.

Thank you. Please visit Lounaispaikka and regional thematic GI services in