Helsinki sets pace for sustainable development with Kalasatama city
16 January 2017 |
1:51 am
A major stride towards stepping up world’s low carbon urban solutions has been recorded in Nordic countries, especially Helsinki in Finland, with property developers charting a new course for smart and sustainable city development.
New developments in the Kalasatama, an old harbour area in central Helsinki, Finland
A major stride towards stepping up world’s low carbon urban solutions has been recorded in Nordic countries, especially Helsinki in Finland, with property developers charting a new course for smart and sustainable city development.
Construction of the Kalasatama, an old harbour area in central Helsinki is an example of the latest smart city projects in Finland. The area will host a total of 20,000 people once construction is complete.
The physical construction runs in parallel with the development of Fiksu Kalasatama, or Smart Kalasatama, which seeks to provide the area with digital services based on open data, smart solutions, waste solutions, energy grid solutions and living lab working environments through the use of common use spaces. The innovation intermediary Forum Virium has been a key driving force in the process.
The development is part of Nordic Innovation, an institution that stimulates innovation and trade between the Nordic countries. Nordic Innovation is responsible for the design and management of the Nordic Built Cities programme, running from 2015-2017. The aim of the programme is to develop, visualise and export Nordic innovative solutions for sustainable, smart and liveable cities.
Ms. Anni Sinnemäki, Deputy Mayor, and City of Helsinki told visiting journalists recently that Kalasatama is a vibrant real-life testbed for smart and clean services to be scaled up elsewhere. By the beginning of the 2030s, Kalasatama district will offer a home for approximately 20,000 residents and jobs for 8,000 people. Currently, there are 2,000 people living in the area.
“The planning of urban spaces and smart cities has received considerable attention in Finland in recent years, and several governmental initiatives and programmes have been designed to assist the development of urban spaces.
“The underlying objective behind many of these initiatives is to encourage Finnish companies to develop new solutions for smart city spaces. A key method has been to encourage the construction and development of flagship city areas,” she said.
Specifically, Helsinki has a digital public transportation service that is integrated with parking facilities. Communication tags at bus stops enable passengers to receive information about the arrival times of the next bus, tram or train and information about the weather. Passengers can purchase a travel ticket on their mobile device.
The openness and transparency of the city planning process is regarded as a key strength. Today, Finnish cities value the opportunity to involve citizens and private companies in urban planning and develop-ment.
According to Michael Funch, Project Manager COP22/Communication, “Nordic Built Cities is a competition driven bottom up project that tried to mobilise both local communities, city governments and the business community via a three step approach: first it engages citizens and municipalities in proposing sustainable development projects needed in their local community; then it engages businesses to solve these challenges, and finally it promotes an export programme of the Nordic solutions emanating from this process.”
Related
Latest
27 mins ago
Germany's foreign minister called Tuesday for the European Union to impose fresh sanctions on Iranian drone technology after Tehran's weekend attack on Israel. The 27-nation bloc has hit Iran with a barrage of sanctions in recent years, including over its drone supplies to Russia, which has frequently used the Iranian-made weapons in its war against…
34 mins ago
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended the licenses of three private jet owners for carrying out commercial flight operations. The Acting Director NCAA Captain Chris Najomo who announced the suspension in a video press release poster on the official X handle of the authority did not mention the name of the suspended private…
36 mins ago
The Kano State Anti-Corruption and Public Complaints Commission has filed new charges bordering on corruption and maladministration against former governor, Abdullahi Ganduje. Chairman of the anti-corruption commission, Muhuyi Magaji, disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday. Magaji said the initial allegations against Gandujel were the tip of the iceberg…
59 mins ago
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has re-scheduled the 2024, National Common Entrance Examination into Federal Unity Colleges as well as Federal Government Academy, Suleja, NECO spokesperson Azeez Sani in a statement on Tuesday, said the National Common Entrance Examination which was earlier scheduled to be held on 20th April 2024, will now be held on…
1 hour ago
Ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Executive Committee meeting, scheduled for Thursday, April 18, a PDP support group, known as PDP Restructure Movement has endorsed former deputy governor of Kogi State, Phillips Salawu, as the next National Chairman of the party. The group led by Isa Mu'azu in a statement said that in…
1 hour ago
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has re-scheduled the 2024 National Common Entrance Examination into Federal Unity Colleges and the entrance examination into Federal Government Academy, Suleja. This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday by Azeez Sani, acting Director, Information and Digital Communication, of the council. Sani stated that…
1 hour ago
An 88-year-old man from the French island of Reunion was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison for killing his ill wife and her in-house carer, a judicial source said Tuesday. The accused, a retired teacher, said that he had acted out of compassion because his 78-year-old spouse suffered from Alzheimer's disease. The double…
1 hour ago
Manchester United have spoken to Alejandro Garnacho after the winger liked social media posts criticising manager Erik ten Hag over his handling of the player. The Argentina international, taken off at half-time in their 2-2 draw at Bournemouth on Saturday, liked two messages on X, by United fan and YouTuber Mark Goldbridge. One post accused…
2 hours ago
The Federal Government said it is planning to reduce the cost of tax expenditure and ensure tax incentives aimed at impacting the economy positively. The Ministry of Finance made this known on Monday in a statement by spokesperson, Mohammed Manga. Manga said to achieve this, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy,…
2 hours ago
Meta's oversight board said Tuesday it is scrutinising the social media titan's deepfake porn policies, through the lens of two cases. The move by what is referred to as a meta "supreme court" for content moderation disputes comes just months after the widespread sharing of lewd AI-generated images of megastar Taylor Swift on X, formerly…
×
Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox every day of the week. Stay informed with the Guardian’s leading coverage of Nigerian and world news, business, technology and sports.
0 Comments
We will review and take appropriate action.