User:Adnank

Homework 1

1. What is the main purpose of environmental health assessment?

The purpose of environmental health assessment is to improve deliberate plans of actions that guide decisions aiming for desired outcomes. There are several different types of assessment approaches that address issues relevant to environment and health. These approaches have certain differences e.g. in emphasis, scope, theoretical basis, and context of development and application, but they all share the basic idea of science-based support for decision making on issues of societal relevance.

2. What is pragmatism?

It means that theory and practice are not perceived as separate entities, but instead the question in consideration is whether practices are intelligent or uninformed. Knowledge and action are thus seen as deeply intertwined.

3. What is impact assessment?

The purpose of an impact assessment is to evaluate all potential environmental impacts of a proposed large-scale project. The assessment should take into account health, environmental and social impacts as well as technical and economical issues. Problem owners are the ones with the intent to plan and execute the project and they have the legal obligation to initiate the assessment process. The impact assessment process addresses questions related to potential impacts of planned projects on human and animal health and well-being, environment (e.g. soil, water, air, climate, and vegetation), composition of society (e.g. building, landscape, cultural heritage) and exploitation of natural resources

4. What are the dimensions of openness?

The phases of open assessment process resemble those of most assessment approaches: (1) issue framing, (2) designing variables, (3) executing variables and analyses, and (4) reporting, through which the process progresses in iterative cycles. It considers assessments as open collaborative processes of creating shared knowledge and understanding. Openness means welcoming all types of knowledge, possessed by all kinds of actors and found from all types of sources, into a systematic analysis. Exclusion of participants or inputs is allowed only based on well-argued, explicated and cogent reasons. The open process brings scientific experts, decision makers, and stakeholders to the same collaborative process.

←# : Very good answers! --Mikko Pohjola 09:50, 28 January 2013 (EET)

⇤# Where are all other homework answers? If they are on someone else's page, add links here so they can be found. --Mikko Pohjola 09:50, 28 January 2013 (EET)

⇤# : added. --Mikko Pohjola 08:26, 9 February 2013 (EET)

--# : I am linking my partners page here --Adnank 11:08, 1 February 2013 (EET)

user:Soroushm

Homework 2

What is R code ? how and where is this R code written, programmed and executed ?

Homework 3

user:Soroushm

Homework 4

⇤# : Add here which strategy you looked at (Helsinki region adaptation, I believe). --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : The strategy was climate proof city by preparing helsinki metropolitan area to challenge against any kind of climate change events like storm, floods, increase in the temperature as well as other environmental issues. --Adnank 10:17, 7 February 2013 (EET)

←# : OK. Just write it out in your answer. --Mikko Pohjola 08:35, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q1. What are the aims/goals of the strategy/program, i.e. what are the desired impacts and outcomes striven for?

The main goal was to assess the impacts of climate change in the area and to prepare for the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. This can be done by reducing the vulnerabilities of the area to climate change. The aim of the strategy was well-being of citizens and functioning of cities in changing climate. The strategy was climate proof city by preparing helsinki metropolitan area to challenge against any kind of climate change events like storm, floods, increase in the temperature as well as other environmental issues.

--# : What does it mean to "reduce vulnerabilities" and "prepare for impacts of climate change" in practice? --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : To secure the well-being of the citizens and the functioning of the cities also in the changing climate conditions. --Adnank 10:24, 7 February 2013 (EET)

←# : OK, good enough explanation. --Mikko Pohjola 08:35, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q2. Who are those that benefit if the aims/goals of the strategy/program are reached? How?

Society and following organizations and government ministries will be most benefited if the strategy is achieved because the impacts of climate change will cause a lot of damage. Cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, HSY, HSL, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of the Interior, Rescue services, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities- Other interest groups: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Uusimaa ELY Centre- Research institutes. Citizens, business community, city infrastructure and natural environment of that area will also be benefited.

--# : Looks like this lists the participants in making the strategy. On the other hand, perhaps they will also benefit if adaptation to climate change in Helsinki region will be successful. However, can you think of anyone else? Citizens, businesses, etc.? --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : Citizens, business community, city infrastructure and natural environment of that area will also be benefited. --Adnank 10:30, 7 February 2013 (EET)

←# : OK. Write it out in your answer. --Mikko Pohjola 08:35, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q3. What are the actions that are needed/intended to take in order to progress towards the aims/goals?

Background studies were done in order to collect data about the regional climate and sea level scenarios, modeling of river floods in climate change conditions and a survey of climate change impacts in the region. Existing programmes, legislation, research and studies concerning adaptation were collected.

There were seven actions that were proposed by authorities and organizations, these are 1) Land use, 2) Transport and technical networks 3) Building and climate proof local environment 4)Water and waste management 5)Rescue services and safety 6)Social and health services 7)Cooperation in producing and disseminating information.

⇤# : Applies to questions 3-6: Do not think of how was the strategy made and who did it. Think of what the strategy says that should be done in order to successfully "prepare for climate change…" and "reduce vulnerabilities…". What are those actions, who does them, who decides about them, …? --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : There were seven actions that were proposed by authorities and organizations, these are 1) Land use, 2) Transport and technical networks 3) Building and climate proof local environment 4)Water and waste management 5)Rescue services and safety 6)Social and health services 7)Cooperation in producing and disseminating information. --Adnank 10:47, 7 February 2013 (EET)

--# : OK. Please update your answer to Q3-6 (and below if applicable) accordingly. --Mikko Pohjola 08:35, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q4. Who are those that actually realize these actions?

The work was carried out with close cooperation with the experts of themetropolitan area cities, regional emergency services, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region TransportAuthority and other regional organizations.

Q5. What are the decisions that are needed to make in order to enable/promote the actions?

Some of the decisions that might improve the actions would be assessment of air quality, health impacts, biodiversity, economic impacts and greenhouse emissions.

Q6. Who are the decision makers?

Organizations like the environment ministry, board of HSY, Government or other local organizations.

Q7. What direct or indirect health impacts, positive or negative, these decisions and actions (may) have?

Climate change causes adverse effects mostly such as effects in drinking water, air quality, food chain which most of them are negative. Also flood risk and thunderstorms could be the other indirect problems in other words natural disasters could be another indirect factor. The impacts of stretegy includes the economical impacts, demolishing the infrastructures that are in the way of flood and constructing new building would make environment much polluted.

--# : This a good list of some foreseen impacts of climate change. They are the reasons why an adaptation strategy is made (to avoid or reduce them). Now, the adaptation strategy proposes actions to be taken accordingly. Do these actions (that aim for avoiding certain health and other impacts of climate change) have other health impacts? E.g. it could be the case that due to a change in emergency services, rescue personnel accident risk increases etc. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : The impacts of stretegy includes the economical impacts, demolishing the infrastructures that are in the way of flood and constructing new building would make environment much polluted. --Adnank 11:07, 7 February 2013 (EET)

--# : All right, try to update your answer accordingly. --Mikko Pohjola 08:35, 9 February 2013 (EET):

Q8. Where and how do these impacts take place, who are those that face these health impacts in practice?

The community,the citizens, both of them can be affected by negative results of climate change but the level of exposure for people can be higher because due to the disaster and natural hazards, the injuries and disease will affect the people and also communications, heating, water supply and traffic and food system will be disturbed.

--# : See above. You may also think whether certain impacts are distributed equally across whole population or only relate to some subpopulations, organizations or groups. Picking some specific actions as examples could be enlightening in working out these things. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : People living near the seaside would be much vulnerable to floods as well as storm. People working outdoor areas are more vulnerable to the climate change impacts. --Adnank 11:07, 7 February 2013 (EET)

--# : So, will these groups benefit or suffer from the implementation of the strategy? How about the impacts of the strategy you identified above in Q7? --Mikko Pohjola 08:35, 9 February 2013 (EET)

--# : these groups will be benefited after the implementation of strategy for example those people who live in flood area will be given accomodation in other parts of the city. --Soroushm 21:52, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q9. Are the health impacts big or small in relation to other impacts (e.g. economic, social, climate, other environmental ...)?

Economic, social and environmental impacts are much bigger than health impacts because they will be long lasting.

⇤# : See comments on Q7 and Q8 and reconsider. Also provide some reasoning to support your statement. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : The most adverse health impact, death, is also very long lasting. In fact, permanent. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

Q10. Do the intended policies result in win-win, win-lose, lose-win, or lose-lose situations with regard to health and other impacts?

The storms of recent years have demonstrated the vulnerability of the Finnish society to natural hazards and the importance of preparing for them. Our society is very dependent on electricity, and long-lasting power cuts can have a significant impact on such things as communications, heating, water supply and traffic. The significance of co-operation between authorities and other actors in the prevention of natural disasters and in the recovery of them is now being highlighted. Preparing in advance for disasters and their consequences is worth doing, as it reduces the damages and costs that arise from them. And in my opinion this is a lose-win situation as the Finnish authorities have learnt from the previous disasters and have planned the strategies for any upcoming natural disaster.

--# : A good recognition of the needs for an adaptation strategy. However, please also consider the actions proposed by the strategy. Do they seem like delivering positive or negative health impacts while delivering either positive or negative other impacts (environmental, societal, economical, …)? Pick one or two specific actions as examples to be considered here. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET) --# : After the implementation of strategy, there are many positive health impacts from this strategy like rescue operations and safety will be improved, social services and health will also improve and sustainable use of land must be adopted. --Soroushm 21:58, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q11. Formulate a plausible and meaningful specific assessment question that takes account of (some of) the aspects considered in above questions?

What other alternatives are available to cope up with the disasters resulting from climate change?

⇤# : A sensible approach, but a lot of sharpening is needed. First, define which options are already assumed to be known. Second, narrow down the list of alternatives to a specified and manageable set to be assessed. Third, determine the (kinds of) disasters to be considered., Fourth, define what "cope up" would mean in this case and how could it be measured or otherwise explicated. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : One of the alternatives is building dams to protect the city from flood and also educating people about climate change or shelters can be made in order to take people to those shelters to protect them against any kind of possible disasters. --Soroushm 22:30, 9 February 2013 (EET) --# : The disasters like storms, flood and extreme weather condition. --Soroushm 22:32, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q12. Extra question: In what ways your answers do or do not represent "shared understanding"? (The climate program/strategy can be considered a compilation of contributions by many experts and attempting to reflect the views and needs of different decision makers and stakeholders).

Shared understanding probably points out in here because the ideas and thoughts of City of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa and Kauniainen, HSY, HSL, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of the Interior, Rescue services, Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities- Other interest groups: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Uusimaa ELY Centre- Research institutes and experts are gathered together in order to make the best decisions however some changes might be required to modify and update the information but all the comments from the interviews are collected so that a better source of data will be available.

←# : It is probably a relatively well prepared and balanced strategy paper. Perhaps not every citizen or business in Helsinki region would agree that their perspective would be explicitly included and taken account of, but maybe the majority is happily accepting it. --Mikko Pohjola 17:01, 5 February 2013 (EET)

user:Soroushm

Homework 5

Q 1. Who are the relevant participants of the assessment?

Experts of the metropolitan area cities, regional emergency services, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region Transport Authority, Community, experts, and HSY --# : Can you specify which experts and which other organisations? --Marjo 10:45, 5 February 2013 (EET)--# : answer elaborated --Adnank 11:34, 7 February 2013 (EET)

Q2. What roles the different participants (may) take in the assessment?

Experts and other participants are interviewed about the climate change and their opinions for the preparations for climate change were taken. ⇤# : Who is the interviewer and what is his/her role? What is the role in which experts and other participants (please specify them) are interviewed? Is it e.g. decision maker, source of information, facilitator.. --Marjo 10:45, 5 February 2013 (EET) --# : interview means gathering the data from different participants. Decision maker like HSY gather the data from experts and participants by interviewing them. --Soroushm 22:38, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Q3. What kind of relevant knowledge they (may) have regarding the assessment?

Some useful information from the previous studies and experiences from the past might be helpful⇤# : You should specify which knowledge each participant has or may have. --Marjo 10:45, 5 February 2013 (EET)

Q4. What needs and aims do they represent in the assessment?

To get ready for the worst climate change disasters by interviewing and taking opinions from different government and non-government organizations and by sharing their ideas and understandings. ⇤# : You should specify which aims and needs each participant has. --Marjo 10:45, 5 February 2013 (EET)--# : Environmental organizations decides what actions must be taken, public transportation organization should have concern with local transport and people can also share their opinions and thoughts. Emergency services are interested in betterment of their quick response service in the time of emergency. --Adnank 11:34, 7 February 2013 (EET)

Q5. Consider also the following questions about facilitating collaboration:

Q6. How could the relevant participants be involved in the assessment in an effective way?

Their thoughts and comments can be collected and published on organization’s websites.←# : Might be useful. --Marjo 10:45, 5 February 2013 (EET)

Q7. How can the quality of an assessment be assured if anyone can participate?

After collecting the information from the people, experts and assessors will analyze the weak points and positive points of their ideas can make the best decisions before implementation and also some of them can be modified.←# : Good ideas. --Marjo 10:45, 5 February 2013 (EET)

Q8. How can you prevent malevolent contributions where the purpose is to vandalise the process?

By acquiring of the updated information and examining the methods which going to be used

Q9. How can you make the outcome converge to a conclusion, because all issues are uncertain and controversial?

One of the efficient ways would be implementation of adaptation policies to get the valuable data about the effectiveness of the policies and actions as well as using the latest climate change information other than that the operating methods should be scrutinized carefully.

Q10. How can you ensure that the outcomes are useful for the users?

By defining a logical adaptation practices

Homework 5, part C: Prepare following tables from the climate programme of your selection. Instructions for table structures can be found at

Training assessment. • Decisions table • Endpoints table

Decisions

Obs decision maker Decision option variable cell change description 1 HSY, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region Transport Authority Assess the impacts of climate change in the area Reduce vulnerability Environmental impacts, Health impacts year 2020 2 HSY, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region Transport Authority Prepare for the impacts of climate change and to extreme weather events Reduce vulnerability Environmental impacts, Health impacts year 2020 4 HSY, Ministry of the Environment, Helsinki Region Transport Authority To reduce the vulnerabilities Reduce vulnerability Health impacts year 2020 5 Helsinki city Health promotion reduce the vulnerability training costs year 2020 6 Helsinki city Health promotion reduce the vulnerability year 2020

⇤# : There is only one decisionmaker for one decision. --Jouni 15:09, 6 February 2013 (EET)

⇤# : The Decisions table describes what actions can be taken and by whom. The column Variable describes the primary targets of these actions, i.e. things that are changed by actions. In contrast, the Endpoints table describes the things that are of primary interest to different stakeholders. It is unlikely that the Variable columns would contain same things in both tables. --Jouni 14:39, 6 February 2013 (EET)

Endpoints

Obs Stake Holder variable cell Model Result Description

1 HSY, Ministry of the Environment, Environmental impacts, Health impacts year 2020

2 Helsinki Region Transport Authority Training costs year 2020

4 HSY, Ministry of the Environment Development or Maintenance cost year 2020

5 Helsinki city Training costs year 2020

6 Helsinki city Maintenance cost year 2020

user:Soroushm

⇤# : Use the table formats below to make the Decisions and Endpoint tables. See Training assessment for further instructions. --Marjo 10:51, 5 February 2013 (EET)

--# : Fill in only columns Decisionmaker, Decision, Option, and Variable; and Stakeholder and Variable. Other columns are just details. --Jouni 15:09, 6 February 2013 (EET)

Decisions(-)

Obs	Decisionmaker	Decision	Option	Variable	Cell	Change	Unit	Amount	Description
1	HSY	cleaning policy	Reduce vulnerability	Exposure
2	Helsinki Region Transport Authority	Prevention of accidentsand the repair of damage	Reduce vulnerability	Health impacts
3	Helsinki city	Health promotion	Health education	Training costs
4	Rescue services	Preparatory measures	Preparedness exercises	Training costs

You have error(s) in your data:

You have invalid number of data cells in row 5

Endpoints(-)

Obs	Stakeholder	Variable	Cell	Model	Result	Description
1	HSY	Environmental impacts, Health impacts
2	Helsinki Region Transport Authority	Prevention of accidents and the repair of damage
3	Helsinki city	Health promotion
4	Rescue services	Preparatory measures
5

Homework 9

--# : Please see User:Isabell Rumrich#DARM course 2013 – Homework 9 for an example how to present the characterizations and evaluations of homework 9 in three tables for easier reading and commenting. I recommend everyone to present their answers in this kind of format. You can do it e.g. by copying the tables as such and just replacing their contents. --Mikko Pohjola 09:56, 9 February 2013 (EET)

Assessment of Homework 3 of Isabell Rumrich [[1]]

(Groupwork of Isabell Rumrich and Stefania)

Knowledge-policy interaction

Characterization of knowledge-policy interaction

Attribute	characterization
Impacts	Climate Change due to GHG emissions of public transport.
Causes	Present fuels that is being used in public transport produce large amounts of greenhouse gases, that is the main reason of climate change.
Problem owner	The city council and the owner of the public transport company are responsible because they have to chosen the type of buses and fuels used in it.
Target	The city council wants to know about the environmental impacts of the fuel used. Consumers wants to know about the health impacts of the fuel used. Cars and bus companies want to develop new techniques to make the fuel much cheap and safe to use.
Interaction	The participation is very open, because all concerned stakeholders are allowed to participate. But this draft do not has the data regarding the type of interaction,

Characterization of the dimensions of openness.

Dimension	Characterization
Scope of participation	All stakeholders are allowed to participate in this assessment but no such information is given regarding the type of participation but overall we can assume that there is a good participation of stakeholders.
Access to information	There's no such information regarding the access of information in this draft, only this is mentioned that everyone can participate in this assessment so we can guess that there is an access to the stakeholders to any kind of information.
Timing of openness	Although there is no information regarding when are stakeholders be invited but
Scope of contribution	This draft allows participation of everyone but no detailed information is given.
Impact of contribution	I think that the participation of every stakeholder is valued in this draft.

Evaluation of the assessment draft

Evaluation according to the properties of good assessment

Attribute	Score	Explanation
Quality of content	3	This draft has some weaknesses like this draft does not provide information about the interaction of the participants in the assessment, how much they can participate and how much their opinions are valued. Table made in the result section is really helpful to understand the results of assessment. Anyhow it is a good draft.
Applicability: Relevance	3	This draft is overall a good draft, there are some weak points like lack of information regarding the participation and sharing of information between stake holders. Health endpoints are not considered in this draft.
Applicability: Availability	4	Information provided in the draft is relevant and available to all stake holders.
Applicability: Usability	4	This draft can be used by decision makers in order to carry out assessment.
Applicability: Acceptability	4	As this draft fulfill all the requirements of open assessment and there is no such weaknessess in this draft so it can acceptable by decision makers.
Efficiency	4	Very specific assessment is done for GHG as they are the major role player in climate change. Public transport are the major source of GHG emissions so this assessment can used by decision makers to deal with this GHG issue.