People have flocked to the seaside for different activities and relaxation for hundreds of years. Whether you like to fish, swim, dive, sail or just see and hear the waves, the seaside has been a popular place for people to spend their vacations.
The Baltic Sea is a very special place with varying conditions from beach weather in the summer to ice roads in the winter. The area also contains interesting geography like the Archipelago Sea between Åland and Finland which is the largest archipelago of the world by the number of islands.
With such a variety of conditions, it can be difficult to find the best location for a summer house or vacation. But no fear, HELCOM, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, collects and curates a wide number of datasets describing the nature, conditions, and activities on the Baltic Sea.
Key issues to questions to answer/investigate
HELCOM challenges you and your team to use this data and develop solutions to identify the best location for a seaside vacation!
It’s important to remember that vacationers want different things: some might want clear waters to dive while others want conditions suitable for ice fishing. In contrast, nobody wants to be around oil spills or illegal sewage dumps. Also, the planned vacation activities must themselves follow sustainable and responsible principles regarding the environment.
Offered datasets
HELCOM offers a wealth of data you can use. All data can be downloaded via HELCOM's map service. There is also a REST interface and WMS services.
For example:
Nutrients
Eutrophication (excess amount of nutrients) is the biggest problem for the Baltic Sea. Excess amount of nutrients leads to excess algae growth and increases oxygen consumption in water.
Shapefile of historical monitoring data until 2016, parameter ”Phosphate” is phosphate concentration which is a nutrient used by algae (higher amount of phosphate can produce a higher amount of algae in water)
Visibility of water (measured with white Secchi disk descended to water column) is measured to indicate clarity of water. Less visibility can be induced by clay turbidity, particles or algae.
Shapefile of historical monitoring data until 2016, parameter ”Secchi” is visibility in meters (higher visibility, more clear water)
Shapefile of historical monitoring data until 2016, parameter ”Chlorophyl” (higher chlorophyll a concentration, more algae in water)
Fish and commercial fishing information
Commercial fisheries landings reflect areas where commercially fished stocks are abundant, e.g. Herring abundance (raster dataset), higher value, higher amount of herring
Fish reproduction areas reflect areas where key fish species reproduce, e.g. Perch and pikeperch recruitment areas
Biodiversity related datasets
Eelgrass (Zostera) meadows represent a key biotope for many species and can be considered as interesting spot e.g. in recreational diving
The desired form of communicating with the teams is mail, MS Teams, Skype or telephone.
Desired outcome and presentation
Your challenge, should you accept it, is to build a web application or a spatial analysis or some other visual or interactive method of helping people find where to go for a successful vacation!
Offered benefits for the teams
All teams that submit a response to the challenge will get a HELCOM gift package for the entire team!
Submitting organisations
HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission - Helsinki Commission), Joni Kaitaranta (joni.kaitaranta@helcom.fi), Florent Nicolas (florent.nicolas@helcom.fi), Manuel Frias (manuel.frias@helcom.fi)
Summary
People have flocked to the seaside for different activities and relaxation for hundreds of years. Whether you like to fish, swim, dive, sail or just see and hear the waves, the seaside has been a popular place for people to spend their vacations.
The Baltic Sea is a very special place with varying conditions from beach weather in the summer to ice roads in the winter. The area also contains interesting geography like the Archipelago Sea between Åland and Finland which is the largest archipelago of the world by the number of islands.
With such a variety of conditions, it can be difficult to find the best location for a summer house or vacation. But no fear, HELCOM, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, collects and curates a wide number of datasets describing the nature, conditions, and activities on the Baltic Sea.
Key issues to questions to answer/investigate
HELCOM challenges you and your team to use this data and develop solutions to identify the best location for a seaside vacation!
It’s important to remember that vacationers want different things: some might want clear waters to dive while others want conditions suitable for ice fishing. In contrast, nobody wants to be around oil spills or illegal sewage dumps. Also, the planned vacation activities must themselves follow sustainable and responsible principles regarding the environment.
Offered datasets
HELCOM offers a wealth of data you can use. All data can be downloaded via HELCOM's map service. There is also a REST interface and WMS services. For example:
Nutrients
Visibility of water (Oceanographic dataset)
Algae (Chlorophyll-a, Oceanographic dataset)
Fish and commercial fishing information
Biodiversity related datasets
Data on human activities
Other relevant datasets
SYKE (Finnish Environment Institute) offers:
SYKE Open information
You can also combine HELCOM’s data with other sources such as:
Other possible stakeholders:
Offered personal resources
Desired outcome and presentation
Your challenge, should you accept it, is to build a web application or a spatial analysis or some other visual or interactive method of helping people find where to go for a successful vacation!
Offered benefits for the teams
All teams that submit a response to the challenge will get a HELCOM gift package for the entire team!
Submitting organisations