Kuopio Risk Assessment Workshop 2008

Kuopio risk assessment workshop 2008 is the second workshop about new methods in risk assessment, organised by the National Public Health Institute (KTL), Kuopio, Finland. Its main purpose is to promote the idea and practice of Open Risk Assessment, and further develop methods to perform them. The workshop has started from the needs of several EU-funded research projects, notably Intarese, Beneris, and Heimtsa. The workshop is mainly directed to postgraduate students working in the fields of environmental health or risk assessment, but it is also open to anyone interested. If you want to join the workshop, please create a user account (by following the log in/create account link in the right-top corner of the page) with your contact information and add your username to the list on the bottom of this page. There is no deadline for registration nor a registration fee for the workshop, but early registration is highly recommended in order to help both the organizers and the participants to arrange the facilities, programs etc.

General information

Time:	18.2 - 22.2.2008
Place:	KTL, Kuopio, Finland (Kuopio info)
Organizer:	National Public Health Institute (KTL), Department of Environmental Health

<googlemap lat="62.903976" lon="27.638855" type="map" zoom="11" width="375"> m62.893334, 27.679328, Kuopio, Finland 62.890603, 27.627397, KTL Neulaniementie 4, 70701 Kuopio, Finland </googlemap>

5-day weather forecast for Kuopio by the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

5-day weather forecast for Kuopio (in Finnish) by Foreca.

Description

The workshop will focus on Open Risk Assessment (ORA), namely:

• The theoretical considerations behind ORA
• Methods to put the theory into practice
• Technical facilitation of applying the methods
• Group work on a real-life risk assessment case

The workshop will consist of lectures on Open Risk Assessment theory and methods as well as applying the methods to describe and evaluate a real-life risk assessment case using the software tools that have been and are being developed for the purpose.

Facilities

A working space for all participants will be provided at the premises of KTL, but the Monday program will take place at the nearby University of Kuopio (room 3021, see map). Each participant should bring along a laptop computer. If this is not possible for you, please inform the organizers about this and we will see what we can do about it. KTL will provide the educational licenses of Analytica modeling software, which will be needed in the group work, for those who do not already have it installed in their computers.

If there should be any people who would like to participate in the workshop, but cannot come to Kuopio to attend the workshop in person, a web-conference access can be provided for the lecture sessions using Skype. The group work will be worked on using the Heande website, so also outsiders can relatively easily take part in that as well. This way you may also participate from wherever you are, as most major things - except the social program - will be made available via Internet. Add your name on the list of remote via internet participants at the end of this page if you want to follow the workshop, but are unable to attend in person.

Workshop program

There will be daily lectures on Open Risk Assessment, starting from the principles and proceeding towards more specific issues of different aspects of the method. The lecture topics are chosen so that they will support doing the group work as it proceeds during the week.

Alongside the lectures, there will be a group work case study on a real-life risk assessment. The case study will be about health impacts of Helsinki bus traffic. The material to be used in the case study will be taken from an already conducted risk assessment (known as the Gasbus project) and the group work tasks will be related to 1) converting the risk assessment model and documentation about it into the Open Risk Assessment information structure and 2) evaluating the assessment according to the performance criteria of Open Risk Assessment method. In practice this will be done in the form of creating a number of wiki-pages (variables) and then deliberating the contents of these pages as well as the whole assessment that they comprise. The work will be done both as the whole group working together as well as in smaller groups of ca. 2-4 people depending on the group work phase. The group work session on Monday will also include introduction to using Mediawiki and Analytica software. Check the links at the end of this page for more information about the group work content as well as the methods and tools to be used in the group work.

The daily workshop program below is structured according to morning, afternoon and evening sessions. The durations of these sessions will be as follows:

• Morning: 9:00 - 11:45
• Afternoon: 12:45 - 16:45
• Evening: 17:00 ->

Workshop program (see next section for details of social activities):

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning	Lecture: Introduction to Open Risk Assessment (ORA) purpose of ORA process, product and use open participation basic concepts	Lecture: Information structure of ORA context, assessment, variable name, scope, definition, result content, description and discussion	Lecture: Communication as a part of ORA process discussion, commenting and argumentation moderation and quality control	Lecture: Evaluating performance of ORA properties of good RA relations between properties and information structure evaluation as an inherent part of the process	Group work: Evaluation of the assessment assessment descriptions variable descriptions linkages between variables
Afternoon	Group work: Issue framing	Group work: Creating variables in small groups	Skating on Lake Kallavesi	Group work: Improvement of the assessment	Wrap-up of the group work and the workshop
Evening	Outing on Puijo	Free program	Group work: Compiling the variables into an assessment	Smoke sauna + dinner buffet	Back home / free program

Social activities

Schedule for social activities during the workshop (can be adapted e.g. according to the weather conditions if necessary):

• Monday evening: Outing on Puijo: skiing, walking, sledding etc.
• Tuesday: no organised program
• Wednesday afternoon: Skating on lake Kallavesi (info on equipment)
• Thursday evening: Smoke sauna with ice swimming + dinner buffet
• Friday evening: Spontaneous activities for those who stay in Kuopio until Saturday or longer

Please note that the social activities are voluntary and the costs of activities will be borne by the participants themselves. Participating in the social activities happens at each participant's own risk, the participants are not insured against any accidents by the workshop organizers. It is recommended that each participant makes sure before the workshop that they have a valid insurance that covers also the free-time activities during the workshop.

Equipment definitely worth bringing along:

• Outdoor jacket and pants, warm hat and gloves
• Swimming suit

Equipment possibly worth considering to bring along if available:

• Hiking boots (e.g. for walking and/or for skating)
• Cross-country ski boots (Salomon SNS system compatible, for skiing and/or for skating)
• Cross-country skis????
• Skates????

Equipment rental

All necessary equipment for skiing and skating is available for rent, follow the links for further information on available skiing equipment and skating equipment. In order to help in prearrangements of the social activities and to make sure that there will be enough of suitable types and sizes of equipment, please send the organizers the following information (as soon as possible):

• Which social activities (outing in Puijo, skating on Lake Kallavesi, sauna evening) are you participating in?
  • If participating in outing on Puijo (choose 1 or max 2),
    1. do you wish to go down-hill skiing and have you tried it before?
    2. do you wish to go cross-country skiing and have you tried it before?
    3. do you wish to skip skiing, but go walking/sledding instead?
  • If participating in skating on Lake Kallavesi,
    1. are you bringing your own skates?
    2. are you bringing your own cross country ski boots (SNS)?
    3. are you bringing your hiking boots (and do you wish to use them for skating)?
    4. if none of the above, what is the size of your foot?
  • If participating in sauna evening, do you wish to have both sauna and dinner or only either (which?)?

Additional activities/attractions available in Kuopio and near-by areas include e.g.:

• Puijo tower
• downhill and cross-country skiing in Tahko, ~1 hour north from Kuopio
• curling e.g. at Tuplajäät
• live music e.g. at Henkka, Street Bar, or Kuopio Music Centre

Accommodation information

The accommodation for the workshop participants will be arranged primarily in Hotel Savonia see map. The prices for Hotel Savonia are as follows (including breakfast buffet, free use of sauna + swimming pool and gym):

• 1 person room 75 €/night
• 2 person room 90 €/night

Please contact Hotel Savonia directly yourself to book a room. Please use the booking reference KTL Risk while booking your room.

Travel information

Upon arrival to Kuopio airport you will need to take a bus (5 €) or a taxi (airport taxi fare 18 €/person, normal taxi fare appr. 30 €/trip) to get to Hotel Savonia. The distance from Kuopio airport to the city is about 17 km.

• Bus: From Kuopio airport to Hotel Savonia by bus. Airport buses (Linja-Karjala Oy) operate to/from all domestic flights, besides flight AY519, arriving 00.25! Departure from the airport 5-15 minutes after flight arrival.

Note that when going to hotel Savonia, you should disembark at Market Square and then walk to the hotel (see map) or take a bus no. 5 (2,70 €). The bus leaves near Market Hall and the timetables can be seen here.

• Taxi: Savon Taksi Oy, +358 17 106 400. Airport taxi service between the airport and the Kuopio area. After each flight arrival there will be taxis waiting outside the airport. You may choose the airport taxi service (18 €/person), which means that the driver will wait until the car is full (in practice 2-3 persons/taxi) before leaving. Alternatively you may choose the normal taxi service (about 30 €/trip). If there are 2 people or more sharing an ordinary taxi it will be cheaper to take the normal ride instead of teh airport taxi.

When going to the airport, make your airport taxi bookings at least 2 hours before your scheduled departure. The taxi will come to pick you up from agreed location approximately 1 hour before the scheduled departure time.

From hotel Savonia to the university campus:

• Monday: Canthia-building, lecture room 3021 (3rd floor), 09:00 (see campus maps 1 2). Meeting at 08:45 in front of the C entrance of Canthia-buidling (see map). We advise all workshop attendees staying at Savonia Hotel to network during the breakfast and walk to the university together.
• From Tuesday onwards: KTL, Neulanen building (see map). Meeting at the reception at 08.45, where you will get your visitor cards.

Attendees

Please list your name and organisation here: (Requires login)

Locals (no accommodation needed):

1. Juha Villman, KTL
2. Mikko Pohjola, KTL
3. Jouni Tuomisto, KTL
4. Päivi Meriläinen, KTL
5. Erkki Kuusisto, KTL
6. Trisha Rytkönen, University Of Kuopio
7. Kwaku Oduro Lokko, University of Kuopio
8. Pauliina Ahtoniemi, University of Kuopio
9. Virpi Kollanus, KTL
10. Marjo Niittynen, KTL
11. Miranda Loh, KTL

Foreign (accommodation needed):

1. James Grellier, Imperial College London
2. Vlasta Svecova, IEM AS CR
3. Nina Iszatt, Imperial College London
4. Kinga Lancz, Slovak medical university SR
5. Lubica Palkovicova, Slovak medical university SR
6. Antonio Gasparrini, LSHTM, London
7. Matteo Prandi, Hylobates Consulting Srl
8. Anne Knol, RIVM
9. Eva Kunseler, MNP
10. Alexandra Kuhn, USTUTT
11. Jana Maznova, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute
12. Marketa Conkova, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute

Via Internet:

1. Danielle Vienneau, Imperial College London
2. Jana Tulinska, Slovak Medical University?

Workshop preparation material

• Guidebook provides guidance on the theory and methods related to the workshop. Please note that compiling the guidebook has only just started and it is currently still quite incomplete in terms of its contents.
• Gasbus - health impacts of Helsinki bus traffic is the main page of the Gasbus assessment. Check the page for information about the assessment and prepare yourself for the group work exercise.
• Download a free 15-day trial version of Analytica or an Analytica player for viewing the model from Lumina Decision Systems website. The free trials also include the user's guide and a tutorial (see Help menu). It is highly recommended to familiarize oneself with the basic functionalities of the software before the beginning of the workshop! An educational license to Analytica will be provided to the workshop participants for the duration of the workshop. The license key and information about how to activate it will be sent to the participants by e-mail.
• See Help:Contents for guidance on using Heande (this site, running on Mediawiki software platform).