City Of Espoo Research Articles

Stochastic Techno-Economic Optimization of Hybrid Energy System with Photovoltaic, Wind, and Hydrokinetic Resources Integrated with Electric and Thermal Storage Using Improved Fire Hawk Optimization

In this paper, a stochastic techno-economic optimization framework is proposed for three different hybrid energy systems that encompass photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), and hydrokinetic (HKT) energy sources, battery storage, combined heat and power generation, and thermal energy storage (Case I: PV–BA–CHP–TES, Case II: WT–BA–CHP–TES, and Case III: HKT–BA–CHP–TES), with the inclusion of electric and thermal storage using the 2m + 1 point estimate method (2m + 1 PEM) utilizing real data obtained from the city of Espoo, Finland. The objective function is defined as planning cost minimization. A new meta-heuristic optimization algorithm named improved fire hawk optimization (IFHO) based on the golden sine strategy is applied to find the optimal decision variables. The framework aims to determine the best configuration of the hybrid system, focusing on achieving the optimal size for resources and storage units to ensure efficient electricity and heat supply simultaneously with the lowest planning cost in different cases. Also, the impacts of the stochastic model incorporating the generation and load uncertainties using the 2m + 1 PEM are evaluated for different case results compared with the deterministic model without uncertainty. The results demonstrated that Case III obtained the best system configuration with the lowest planning cost in deterministic and stochastic models and. This case is capable of simply meeting the electrical and thermal load with the contribution of the energy resources, as well as the CHP and TESs. Also, the IFHO superiority is proved compared with the conventional FHO, and particle swarm optimization (PSO) achieves the lowest planning cost in all cases. Moreover, incorporating the stochastic optimization model, the planning costs of cases I–III are increased by 4.28%, 3.75%, and 3.57%, respectively, compared with the deterministic model. Therefore, the stochastic model is a reliable model due to its incorporating the existence of uncertainties in comparison with the deterministic model, which is based on uncertain data.

Managing portfolios of Co-creation projects in the public sector organization

ABSTRACT While co-creation is becoming increasingly popular among public sector institutions to solve problems and create public value, the question is, how the public sector institution can be successful when engaged in multiple (and often overlapping/competing) co-creation initiatives. In this article, we examine the theoretical terms of co-creation, meta-governance and portfolio management to analyse how portfolios of co-creation projects are best managed. We develop two propositions suggesting the link between different forms of portfolio management and co-creation and use the City of Espoo as an illustrative example of the value that can be derived from more adaptive approaches to portfolio management.

Are dental care records in childhood associated with financial hardship in adulthood?

Previous studies show that dental health is associated with educational and labour market outcomes, but it is unclear whether dental care records in childhood can serve as early markers of financial hardship risk in adulthood. Data on sociodemographic variables and dental records of all children born in Finland and who lived their childhood in the city of Espoo were obtained from national registers (n=1867). Debt defaults at the age of 23 years were used as a measure of adulthood financial hardship. Caries recorded in dental check-ups and unnotified absence from dental appointments in childhood were derived from electronic health systems. Logistic regression models were fitted to investigate the extent to which these variables were associated with financial hardship in adulthood before and after adjusting for parental social assistance use. The odds of adulthood debt defaults were higher for people with caries before the age of 13 years (odds ratio 1.37, compared with people without) and for people with significant caries multiple times (odds ratio 2.07). Unnotified absences from dental checks were strongly associated with debt defaults. These associations were substantially reduced after adjusting the models for parental social assistance use. The association between childhood dental care records and adulthood financial hardship mainly reflects the fact that parental socioeconomic status links to dental records. Nevertheless, data from dental care could be used in targeting appropriate measures to prevent financial hardship later in life.

Prenatal and early life exposure to air pollution and the risk of severe lower respiratory tract infections during early childhood: the Espoo Cohort Study

BackgroundThere is inconsistent evidence of the effects of exposure to ambient air pollution on the occurrence of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in early childhood. We assessed the effects of...

Predicting context-sensitive urban green space quality to support urban green infrastructure planning

Urban green spaces (UGSs) support human health and well-being in diverse ways. In addition to their availability and accessibility, also the quality of UGSs is relevant for understanding human-environment interactions between urban populations and their local UGS. However, data on UGS quality are rarely available with the geographic coverage required for spatial decision making and urban green infrastructure (UGI) planning and management.This study uses data from a large-scale public participation GIS (PPGIS) survey to predict perceived UGS quality across the city of Espoo, Finland. The respondents (n 3,132) mapped over 8,500 frequently visited sites situated in UGSs. Generalized linear mixed models were used to study associations between the perceived place quality of the respondent-mapped sites and diverse objectively measured UGS characteristics. The presence of blue elements, high forest biodiversity, level of UGS maintenance, and low daytime noise exposure contributed to positive perceptions of UGS quality, while daytime noise exposure and decreasing UGS size were associated with negative perceptions.The model was extrapolated spatially to predict perceived UGS quality across the entire city, revealing local differences in the accessibility of high-quality UGS. The results exemplify how both UGS quantity and quality are relevant for understanding the mechanisms leading to UGS visitation and the health and well-being benefits gained from UGS use and exposure. Moreover, the study demonstrates how UGS characteristics valued by the local population may be identified to support local UGI planning and management.

Statistical approach to identify variables predicting sulphide clay occurrence in southern Finland

Acid sulphate soil and sulphide-bearing sediments cause various challenges in construction projects and land use planning, as well as harmful environmental effects. Fine-grained sulphide sediments were mainly formed in coastal areas during the Litorina Sea water phase at approximately 7000 BP in the capital region of Finland, but not all these sediments contain sulphide clay. In this study, environmental and material property variables related to the depositional conditions of sulphide clay were selected for statistical analyses to find their association with the occurrence of sulphide. The datasets consisted of sulphide investigations by the City of Espoo, the City of Helsinki, and the Geological Survey of Finland. Statistically significant associations were found in the study area between the occurrence of sulphide and enumerative variables (i.e., sediment organic content, total clay depth, topographic class in the Litorina Sea phase, and water depth) in the Litorina Sea phase. Locations where sulphide clay is especially likely to occur consist of organic-rich (≥ 2%) thick clay (≥ 15 m) deposits in a topographically narrow depression with deep Litorina water (≥ 30 m), or where there is a moderate depth clay (3–5 m) in a local depression with shallow Litorina water (10–20 m). The best individual predictor for sulphide clay occurrence in the study area was found to be the sediment organic content, and, together with sediment water content, these variables very accurately predicted the occurrence of sulphide clay. In addition, clay depth is a very good predictor and, together with the topographic class narrow depression and the Litorina water depth or current elevation, can be used to predict sulphide occurrence.

Stochastic optimization – based economic design for a hybrid sustainable system of wind turbine, combined heat, and power generation, and electric and thermal storages considering uncertainty: A case study of Espoo, Finland

This work-study deals with the economic planning of an island sustainable system that consists of a wind turbine, battery, combined heat and power system, and thermal storage to meet electrical and thermal loads at the same time. The approach attempts to find minimum capital cost, repair and maintenance cost, and operating cost, as well as minimize the pollution of these elements. It is also constrained by the operation-planning model of the mentioned resources and storage, provided that a wind turbine and combined heat and power system have priority in electrical load supply, a combined system of heat and power has priority in thermal load supply, and batteries and storage devices have the task of filling the gap between supply and demand profiles. Uncertainty parameters of the scheme include electrical and thermal load and power output of the wind system. The scheme adopts the unscented transformation method to provide proper modeling of the mentioned uncertainties. Moreover, the essence of the problem is integer nonlinear programming, which uses the combined gray wolf optimization and honey bee mating optimization algorithm to achieve the desired solution. Simultaneous supply of electrical and thermal loads, modeling of uncertainties, and adoption of a combined solver in the proposed scheme are among the contributions. Finally, by implementing this scheme on data from the city of Espoo, Finland, the numerical results indicate a reduction of 10%–11% in the planning cost of the proposed scheme compared to a design that only supplies electricity.

Using a Digital Twin as the Objective Function for Evolutionary Algorithm Applications in Large Scale Industrial Processes

In this paper, we describe how the up-to-date state of a digital twin, and its corresponding simulation model, can be used as a fitness function of an evolutionary algorithm for optimizing a large-scale industrial process. An ICT architecture is presented for solving the computational challenges that arise when the fitness function evaluation takes considerable amount of time. Parallel computation of the fitness function in a cloud computing environment is proposed and the evolutionary algorithm is connected to the computational environment using the Function-as-a-Service approach. A case-study was conducted on the district heating network of Espoo, the second largest city in Finland. The study shows that the architecture is suited for optimizing the operating costs of the large district heating network, with over 800 km of water pipes and over 14 heat producers, reaching a cost-saving of an average of 2%, and up-to 4%, over the current industrial state-of-the-art method in use at the city of Espoo.

Deliberation in Workshops in the Participatory Budgeting Process

Participatory budgeting (PB) is an increasingly popular method for enhancing citizen participation in allocating public resources and engaging citizens in urban development. This paper aims to examine deliberation as a part of a PB experiment called “My Idea”, which took place in the city of Espoo, southern Finland. The PB process is comprised of several phases, including informing citizens, submitting proposals, deliberating in workshops, and voting on a digital platform. The residents participated in workshops to upgrade their proposals to be more feasible and attractive with the help of experts and municipal authorities. Deliberation consisted of elements of citizens coming together, discussing and reflecting on real topics, forming opinions and exchanging views before making informed decisions. The results entail deliberation in the workshops. The findings suggest that the deliberation of residents’ proposals with experts and municipal authorities has the potential to engage citizens in urban development. The empirical data were collected from the workshop discussions and participants’ interviews. The current findings contribute to an understanding of the importance of deliberation and public discussion in the PB process and community development.

Approach for simulating vehicle-based supply of sellable data products in smart cities – Parking space data as a use case

Mobile devices, sensors, 5G networks, digital platforms and data marketplaces provide emerging possibilities for smart cities and data business. This paper introduces a novel Data Market Simulation (DMS) approach that assists data suppliers in the following: optimising vehicle-based supply of sellable data and creation of value from data; evaluating vehicle routes and the quality of data that the vehicles on these routes will produce; and reviewing how well the routes will serve the potential data users before beginning the supply of data in cities. The DMS approach supports iterative development and optimisation of routes and route parameters. If the goals are not achieved in the route plan, the data user can use the previous simulation results as a start point, develop the routes and route parameters in the simulation model, and then evaluate the updated route plan in simulations. The route development and simulation can be continued until the desired targets are met in the route plan. The DMS approach is evaluated in a small-scale experiment that simulated the use of autonomous busses and drones for the supply of parking space data in the LuxTurrim5G+’s smart pole pilot network in the city of Espoo in Finland.

Citizens and Positive Energy Districts: Are Espoo and Leipzig Ready for PEDs?

In urban transformation, no solution works without citizen support. With increasing numbers of building technologies and large-scale urban development on its way across cities, it has become vital to keep citizens informed, engaged, and content with the new changes. This paper looks at citizen engagement in Espoo (Finland) and Leipzig (Germany), and it determines whether the cities are ready for developing and implementing positive energy districts (PEDs). The authors studied the cities’ operations and current citizen engagement methods to understand how the efforts could be combined and improved. The analysis indicated that the city of Espoo already has a well-established system that continuously promotes citizen engagement at various levels, and combining the available infrastructure with company experts on citizen participation will allow Espoo to seamlessly transition towards PEDs in the near future. The city of Leipzig has a rich experience due to several national projects and participation in an earlier European project, which enabled the city to set clearer goals for the future and modify existing citizen methods. As lighthouse cities, findings from Espoo and Leipzig are also aimed at cities across Europe and beyond to boost development of PEDs together with citizens.

COVID-19 outbreak at a reception centre for asylum seekers in Espoo, Finland

Background shared accommodation may increase the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. In April 2020, an increasing number of asylum seekers at a reception centre in Espoo, Finland presented with COVID-19 despite earlier implementation of preventive measures. We decided to screen the entire population of the centre for SARS-CoV-2.Methods we offered nasopharyngeal swab collection and SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis to the centre's clients. Symptoms were recorded at the time of diagnostic sample collection using electronic forms and followed up for two weeks through phone interviews and a review of medical records.Findings 260 clients were screened. Of them, 96 (37%) were found positive for SARS-CoV-2 and isolated. The high attack rate prompted the local public health authority to set the other clients in quarantine for 14 days to prevent further spread. Of the positive cases, 61 (64%) reported having had symptoms at the time of the screening or one week prior. Of the 35 initially asymptomatic individuals, 12 developed symptoms during follow-up, while 23 (or 18% of all screened SARS-CoV-2 positive clients) remained asymptomatic. No widespread transmission of COVID-19 was detected after the quarantine was lifted.Interpretation in this large COVID-19 outbreak, voluntary mass screening provided valuable information about its extent and helped guide the public health response. Comprehensive quarantine and isolation measures were likely instrumental in containing the outbreak.Funding Finnish Institution for Health and Welfare, Finnish Immigration Agency, City of Espoo

Supporting Transformative Agency among Urban Actors in the Change Laboratory Intervention

This paper contributes to the study of residents’ and civil servants’ transformative agency in urban development with the aid of the framework of cultural-historical activity theory. The aim is to investigate the emergence of transformative agency in five workshops, based on the method of Change Laboratory®, in the city of Espoo, Finland. The formative intervention focused on exploring the collaboration of residents and actors in urban development. The workshop discussions were analysed with the help of the manifestations of contradictions in neighbourhood development connected to the expression of the types of transformative agency and elements of the human activity system. This enabled the identification of the topics of the discussions and the development of transformative agency through envisioning the developmental potential of the activity and taking action to transform it. The findings call attention to creating the tools and means to facilitate the participation and building the transformative agency through time.

Waste heat recovery from a data centre and 5G smart poles for low-temperature district heating network

The city of Espoo, Finland is planning to develop Kera as a green suburb with high level of energy efficiency and low CO2 emissions, using a high share of renewable energy and recycled or reused energy. For reaching this target, in this study, renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and waste heat are investigated for the study region. Two different technologies comprising heat pump (HP) and heat-only boiler (HOB) are investigated to retrieve waste heat from a data centre and LuxTurrim5G smart poles to use in a low-temperature district heating network. We investigate various scenarios to supply the required energy for the HP (which receives electricity from the electricity market, photovoltaic (PV) system, wind turbine (WT) and hybrid PV/WT; 4 scenarios) and HOB (which works with electricity, forest fuel wood, biogas, ammonia, wood pellets and industry wood residue; 6 scenarios). We found that the heat pump scenario is an efficient and cost-effective way to retrieve waste heat from the data centre and 5G smart poles with an LCOE of 3.192 ¢/kWh if electricity is produced by the PV system, and 3.516 ¢/kWh when the heat pump receives its electricity only from the electricity market.

Effects of Air Pollution on the Risk of Low Birth Weight in a Cold Climate

There is accumulating evidence that prenatal exposure to air pollution disturbs fetal growth and development, but little is known about these effects in cold climates or their season-specific or joint effects. Our objective was to assess independent and joint effects of prenatal exposure to specific air pollutants on the risk of low birth weight (LBW). We utilized the 2568 children of the Espoo Cohort Study, born between 1984 and 1990 and living in the City of Espoo. We conducted stratified analyses for births during warm and cold seasons separately. We analyzed the effect estimates using multi-pollutant Poisson regression models with risk ratio (RR) as the measure of effect. The risk of LBW was related to exposure to CO (adjusted RR 1.44, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04–2.00) and exposure to O3 in the spring–summer season (1.82, 1.11–2.96). There was also evidence of synergistic effects between CO and O3 (relative risk due to interaction (RERI), all year 1.08, 95% CI: 0.27–4.94, spring–summer 3.97, 2.17–25.85) and between PM2.5 and O3 (all year 0.72, −0.07–3.60, spring–summer 2.80, 1.36–19.88). We present new evidence of both independent and joint effects of prenatal exposure to low levels of air pollution in a cold climate on the risk of LBW.

Is dental caries associated with lower respiratory tract infections?

Design This study comprised an analysis of data from a cohort, born in the Finnish city of Espoo between January 1 1984 and March 31 1990.Objectives The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of dental caries on the risk of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in participants aged 20-27, using data collected during the 20-year follow-up conducted in 2010-2011.Data Dental caries experience was determined by asking study participants 'Estimate, how many teeth with a filling you have?' LRTI was defined as at least one occurrence in the 12 months prior to the administration of the 20-year questionnaire. LTRI data were obtained by asking participants if they had suffered from influenza or pneumonia, bronchitis, bronchiolitis or unspecified lower respiratory tract infection. In addition, data were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Register. Risk ratios were determined using Poisson regression models.Results Having a high number of filled teeth was associated with an increased number of LRTIs (adjusted relative risk 1.24) and was not modified by the family's socioeconomic status or by smoking.Conclusions The authors suggest that dental caries increases the risk of LRTIs, but concede that common risk factors might explain at least partly the observed relation between filled teeth and LRTIs.

Highly Renewable District Heat for Espoo Utilizing Waste Heat Sources

The district heating operator Fortum and the city of Espoo have set a goal to abandon the use of coal in district heating production and increase the share of renewable sources to 95% by the year 2029. Among renewable fuels and heat pumps, waste heat utilization has an important role in Fortum’s plans for the decarbonization of district heating production, and Fortum is considering the possibility of utilizing waste heat from a large data center in its district heating network. The goal of this paper is to investigate the feasibility and required amount of waste heat to achieve this goal. Two different operation strategies are introduced—an operation strategy based on marginal costs and an operation strategy prioritizing waste heat utilization. Each strategy is modeled with three different electricity price scenarios. Because the low temperature waste heat from a data center must be primed by heat pumps, the electricity price has a significant impact on the feasibility of waste heat utilization. Prioritizing waste heat utilization leads to higher production costs, but a lower waste heat capacity is needed to reach the goal of 95% renewables in production. The higher electricity price emphasizes the differences between the two operation strategies. Waste heat utilization also leads to significant reductions of CO2 emissions.

Short-term prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of preterm birth - A population-based cohort study in Finland

BackgroundPrevious studies have provided evidence that prenatal exposure to low-level air pollution increases the risk of preterm birth (PTB), but the findings of the effects of short-term exposure have been inconclusive. Moreover, there is little knowledge on potential synergistic effects of different combinations of air pollutants. ObjectivesTo assess independent and joint effects of prenatal exposure to air pollutants during the week prior to the delivery on the risk of PTB. MethodsThe study population included 2568 members of the Espoo Cohort Study, living in the City of Espoo, Finland, born between 1984 and 1990. We assessed individual-level prenatal exposure to ambient air pollutants of interest based on maternal residential addresses, while taking into account their residential mobility. We used both regional-to-city-scale dispersion modelling and land-use regression–based method to estimates the pollutant concentrations. We contrasted the risk of PTB in the highest quartile (Q4) of exposure to the lower exposure quartiles (Q1-Q3) during the specific periods of pregnancy. We applied Poisson regression analysis to estimate the adjusted risk ratios (RRs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for season of birth, maternal age, sex of the baby, family's socioeconomic status, maternal smoking, and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke during pregnancy, single parenthood, and exposure to other air pollutants (this in multi-pollutant models). ResultsThe risk of PTB was related to exposures to PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 during the week prior to the delivery with adjusted RRs of 1.67 (95%CI: 1.14, 2.46), 1.60 (95% CI: 1.09, 2.34) and 1.65 (95% CI: 1.14, 2.37), from three-pollutant models respectively. There were no significant joint effects for these different air pollutants (during the week prior to the delivery). ConclusionOur results provide evidence that exposure to fairly low-level air pollution may trigger PTB, but synergistic effects of different pollutants are not likely.

Synergistic effects of prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) on the risk of preterm birth: A population-based cohort study

BackgroundThere is some evidence that prenatal exposure to low-level air pollution increases the risk of preterm birth (PTB), but little is known about synergistic effects of different pollutants. ObjectivesWe assessed the independent and joint effects of prenatal exposure to air pollution during the entire duration of pregnancy. MethodsThe study population consisted of the 2568 members of the Espoo Cohort Study, born between 1984 and 1990, and living in the City of Espoo, Finland. We assessed individual-level prenatal exposure to ambient air pollutants of interest at all the residential addresses from conception to birth. The pollutant concentrations were estimated both by using regional-to-city-scale dispersion modelling and land-use regression–based method. We applied Poisson regression analysis to estimate the adjusted risk ratios (RRs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) by comparing the risk of PTB among babies with the highest quartile (Q4) of exposure during the entire duration of pregnancy with those with the lower exposure quartiles (Q1-Q3). We adjusted for season of birth, maternal age, sex of the baby, family's socioeconomic status, maternal smoking during pregnancy, maternal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke during pregnancy, single parenthood, and exposure to other air pollutants (only in multi-pollutant models) in the analysis. ResultsIn a multi-pollutant model estimating the effects of exposure during entire pregnancy, the adjusted RR was 1.37 (95% CI: 0.85, 2.23) for PM2.5 and 1.64 (95% CI: 1.15, 2.35) for O3. The joint effect of PM2.5 and O3 was substantially higher, an adjusted RR of 3.63 (95% CI: 2.16, 6.10), than what would have been expected from their independent effects (0.99 for PM2.5 and 1.34 for O3). The relative risk due to interaction (RERI) was 2.30 (95% CI: 0.95, 4.57). DiscussionOur results strengthen the evidence that exposure to fairly low-level air pollution during pregnancy increases the risk of PTB. We provide novel observations indicating that individual air pollutants such as PM2.5 and O3 may act synergistically potentiating each other's adverse effects.

Residents’ Agency Makes a Difference in Volunteering in an Urban Neighbourhood

In this case study, we aimed to investigate residents’ agency through their participation in the development of their residential area in the city of Espoo, Finland. With the aid of seven themes, we identified by thematic analysis five types of residents in terms of agency: free floaters, home troops and helpers, representative information brokers, informed reviewers, and change agents. Relational agency, rooted from the cultural-historical activity theory, necessitated recognizing the available resources, understanding the motives of others, and collaborating in joint activities. The results of 30 interviews showed that residents are willing to participate, and they need space and structure to exploit their relational agency in order to build common interests in their neighbourhood. The findings are discussed with reference to the potential of residents’ agency while participating in neighbourhood governance and volunteering. Our study contributes to the understanding of residents’ relational agency in community development and in volunteering.