Turku: Cabin in Runosmäki - A description of an HuIA
process
Need for Human Impact Assessment
Runosmäki, the largest housing estate in the City of Turku,
Finland, was built on a forested site in the 1970s. Situated some 6
km north of the city centre, the area was previously totally
unbuilt. The number of inhabitants is today just over 10,000.
Runosmäki is a housing estate with an ageing population: 10% of the
local people are 50-54 years of age. The unemployment rate is
20%.
Mustalampi lake in Runosmäki is an important recreational area
for local inhabitants. In its natural state Mustalampi was
originally a swampy forest lake. The deterioration and littering of
the area in the early 1980s mobilised several local actors. A wide
variety of opinions were expressed as to what should be done with
the area. During 1984, the Mustalampi area was cleaned up and a
playground and a cabin were built by the lake.
Although the cabin was built for the use of all local
inhabitants, it was primarily young people who used it from the
very beginning. In addition, the cabin acted as a picnic place for
children and a leisure place for older people. At the beginning of
2002, however, the cabin had to be demolished as it was in bad
repair.
Planning for the building of a new cabin was begun soon after
the old one had been demolished. Both young people in the area and
the interdisciplinary area working group in Runosmäki submitted a
proposal as to a location for the cabin. As the Turku Polytechnic
was seeking a suitable subject for a Human Impact Assessment (HuIA)
student project, the area secretary and working group hit on the
idea of applying HuIA to the cabin construction project.
The process and its participants
The human impact assessment was conducted as a HuIA course
student project at Turku Polytechnic in spring 2003. The students
worked in pairs, investigating the impacts of various placement
options on people in the area, making use of community analysis
methods. The assessment was conducted from the viewpoints of urban
structure, living environment, residents of the neighbourhood,
children, schoolchildren, young people, the social welfare and
health care sector, the police and the Real Estate Department.
The Runosmäki area secretary participated in the HuIA by
familiarizing the students with the area and with past debate on
the cabin. Each student pair was then given
an assignment card,
with instructions on how to conduct the assessment. These
assignment cards list can be used for launching other assessment
projects later.
The students began their assessment by gathering background
information on the Runosmäki area. They studied existing material
such as statistics and maps. They further identified impacts, for
instance through interviews, observations and drawing assignments.
The student pairs studied the impacts of alternative solutions
through a chosen viewpoint (e.g. children). Each pair wrote up a
brief description of the impacts they studied and filled in their
portion of the summary table. The editorial team compiled the final
HuIA report. The teams presented their work at the final
briefing.
Examined models and their impacts
The following alternatives for the placement of the cabin were
examined in the HuIA:
- Alternative 0: Not everyone feels that
building a new cabin is important or even desirable. Therefore, one
alternative is to not build a cabin.
- Alternative 1: The location proposed by the
young people of the area is beside Mustalampi pond along the
jogging track.
- Alternative 2: The location proposed by the
area working group is slightly more remote and further from
Mustalampi pond (about 50 m away).
The advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives were
compiled in a summary table.
See the table
Use and benefits of the HuIA
The human impact assessment was used to launch public debate.
Who benefits from the building of the cabin? Who suffers? Where
will young people in Runosmäki meet now and in the future? If the
cabin is not there, where will they meet? Can the cabin also
support the work of the social welfare and health care sector? Can
the cabin promote health and well-being? Can it contribute to a
high-quality environment? The HuIA report on Mustalampi cabin
(Kangas & Koivisto 2003) was distributed to all the
interviewees.
Further information
Heini Parkkunen
Healthy City coordinator
City of Turku
Sirpa Halonen
Degree Programme Manager
Turku Polytechnic |