User:Tamara Gajst

DARM, 2017 Homework

Homework 1

←--#: . Very good! --Jouni (talk) 08:36, 10 April 2017 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: defence)

Homework 1a: Open policy practice

I decided to answer the following three questions, since I found them interesting enough and didn't exactly know what I would answer with my existing knowledge.

Q: What are co-creation skills?

If I understood correctly, co-creation skills represent a set of a variety of skills needed in the process of decision making in order to better organise the information which are the basis for a good decision and are useful in open policy practice. Important skills are, according to the given material, divided into 4 categories:

• Encouragement (skills, which aid people in decision making, make functional information and skills to learn from other people)

• Synthesis (skills important to synthesise information in such way, to produce a structured and practical from)

• Open data (skills that help to manipulate data so that they can be used in models and represent some kind of a variable)

• Modelling (skills for assessment modelling development by using different tools and methods such as probabilities, R-tools in Opasnet etc.)

Q: What is open assessment?

The so-called open assessment, refers to a methodology of structured information for the decision making in which anyone can participate and comment with the help of internet tools (Opasnet). An understandable structure of information and scientific practice is the basis of this method. The information is structured in a way (I see it as some kind of a flowchart), so that it predicts different outcomes based on certain decisions.

Q: What are the dimensions of openness?

Dimensions of openness include scope of participation, access to information, timing of openness, scope of contribution and impact of contribution, all which are used in the evaluation of an assessment.

Material used in answering the questions:

1. Open policy practice
2. Open assessment

Homework 1b: Learn the terms in Quizlet

I checked out the 5 Quizlets and tried different things in each - flashcards, learn, test and gravity (which is actually kind of weird :) ). And I found the "reading out lout" of the learning part quite annoying if I accidentally clicked it. Otherwise, a nice enrichment to otherwise only reading the terms. I like the variability.

Homework 1c: Introduction to critical thinking

I joined the Khan Academy and followed the course of Critical thinking. Even though I only watched a few videos, I did all the practices...the exercises didn't alway work though - sometimes the page just had the question and then only after page reload, the whole question was visible. I also found it confusing, since the questions seem to be in a loop and there's no real end, so I had no idea how many questions I had to answer and stopped answering when the questions started repeating. In this view, I prefer Quizzlet, since I find it easier and it seemed to work better while doing the exercises (all the quizzes worked). I also learned some new concepts, so it was useful :).

Homework 1d: Introduction to probabilities

I checked the materials and did the exercises. I have to say that it was good to refresh the memory, since in some cases, I needed some time to figure out the correct result and had to check out the material.

Homework 3

Task A

Question 1

I didn't really understand the use of templates in Opasnet. What are they for? Can you give an example? ----#: . Templates are used to show such content that repeats itself in the same format on several pages. An example is a navigation box that contains links to all pages of a particular project. It is easy to put on a page with a single call, see an example below. It is also useful in a sense that if some information is updated, you just update the template page and the content is automatically updated in all pages. --Jouni (talk) 09:37, 20 April 2017 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: comment)

If you want to show the contents of the page Template:Goherr here, you just type {{goherr}} and you get:

Goherr Research project 2015-2018: Integrated governance of Baltic herring and salmon stocks involving stakeholders

Goherr public website Workpackages WP1 Management · WP2 Sociocultural use, value and goverrnance of Baltic salmon and herring · WP3 Scenarios and management objectives · WP4 Linking fish physiology to food production and bioaccumulation of dioxin · WP5 Linking the health of the Baltic Sea with health of humans: Dioxin · WP6 Building a decision support model for integrated governance · WP7 Dissemination Other pages in Opasnet GOHERR assessment · Goherr flyer · Goherr scenarios · Relevant literature: policy · dioxins · values Data Exposure- response functions of dioxins · Fish consumption in Sweden · POP concentrations in Baltic sea fish · Exposure-response functions of Omega3 fatty acids Methods Health impact assessment · OpasnetBaseUtils‎ · Modelling in Opasnet Other assessments Benefit-risk assessment of Baltic herring · Benefit-risk assessment on farmed salmon · Benefit-risk assessment of methyl mercury and omega-3 fatty acids in fish · Benefit-risk assessment of fish consumption for Beneris · Benefit-risk assessment of Baltic herring (in Finnish) http://www.bonusportal.org/ http://www.bonusprojects.org/bonusprojects

Question 2

I did read about it, but I still do not understand the purpose of OpasnetBaseUtils and what exactly it is? ----#: . OpasnetBaseUtils is an outdated name of OpasnetUtils. OpasnetUtils is a freely available R package. In other words, it contains several functions that can be used with R software. R is an open source statistical software that is widely used for data management, statistics, and modelling. OpasnetUtils contains functions that can be used within Opasnet or that you can use on your own computer to download data and models from Opasnet. You can download OpasnetUtils from CRAN, the R package repository. --Jouni (talk) 09:37, 20 April 2017 (UTC) (type: truth; paradigms: science: comment)

Task B

(What is co-creation? What advantage does it bring compared with more traditional decision support processes? What is the role of a facilitator, and what skills do they need?)

Homework 4

Working with Tine Bizjak; the content is on his user page.

Homework 5

Assessment of direct or indirect health impacts caused by Adaptation to climate change in Switzerland strategy

Working with Tine Bizjak, the content is only on my page.
We used the following two documents: Adaptation to climate change in Switzerland and Adaptation aux changements climatiques en Suisse. Plan d’action 2014–2019 .

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

The main goal of the Switzerland's strategy (Swiss Confederation 2012) is to create a framework for the course of action in order to adapt to climate changes over decades to come. The main challenges arising from the climate change that Switzerland must adapt to are:

• greater heat stress in agglomerations and cities,
• increasing levels of summer drought,
• greater risk of flooding,
• decreasing slope stability and more frequent mass wasting,
• rising snowline,
• impaired water, soil and air quality,
• change in habitats, species composition and landscapes,
• spread of harmful organisms, disease and alien species.

The strategy focuses on adaptions to climate change effects in Switzerland and not on those climate change effects on Switzerland whose origin is outside its borders.

The goals of the Switzerland’s strategy are adaptation goals. They aim to make the most of the opportunities arising from the changing climate by minimizing the risks of climate change, protecting the population, public assets and natural life support systems and improving the adaptive capacity of society, economy and the environment. Adaptation to climate change should be based on several principles:

• sustainability (actions should consider interests of current and future generations equally)
• the whole society should be involved; actions can be coordinated at federal level making a basis of Confederation, cantons, communes and individuals to work in partnership; if possible adaptation strategy needs to build on existing strategies
• climate change adaptation is complementary to the reduction of greenhouse emissions (its measures should not counteract greenhouse emissions reduction targets)
• adaptations to climate change need to be based on scientific findings (new scientific findings need to be considered when planning or implementing measures; if knowledge is missing research field should be informed in order to improve it), when uncertainties exist precautionary principle should be used (no knowledge is not an excuse for no action)
• adaptation to climate change must be based on risk approach (risks need to be analysed, evaluated and compared in a transparent and comprehensible way); risk analysis is providing the basis for main elements of adaptation strategy and the targets of its elements
• uncertainties regarding the future effects and the fate of greenhouse emissions must be considered (to be beneficial no matter what the measures need to be robust regardless how the climate actually changes)
• different timescales in different systems affected by the climate change need to be considered when planning or implementing adaptation strategies
• by the international exchange of climate change adaptation experiences Switzerland needs to benefit from the knowledge of other countries and share its knowledge to them (cross-borders problems need to be solved with the coordinated actions with the neighbouring countries)
• evaluations of the advances in climate change adaptation need to be regular
• climate change adaptation process is dynamic (it should not focus on preservation of the existing conditions but rather on the controlled adaptations to changes with minimization of risks to humans and the environment); adaptation strategy needs to be revised periodically.

1.1 Who are those that benefit if the aims/goals of the strategy/program are reached?

The aims and of the Switzerland’s adaptations to climate change strategy concern the whole country, they are divided into sectors: water management, natural hazards management, agriculture, forestry, energy, biodiversity management, health and spatial development. Generally the benefits of strategy aims concern the whole country as well, but can also be sector specific. Examples: appropriate adaptations in agriculture sector can lead to cheaper feedstuffs and longer grazing periods – benefits for livestock production; climate change could cause less foggy days – benefit for renewable energy sources exploiting solar energy.

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

The implementation of the strategy will be done by the respective federal offices. Several actions were foreseen which, in order to realize the strategy, include the cooperation of Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Confederation, canton and other private individuals:

• The FOEN will draft the first action plan of the adaptation strategy.
• Improving knowledge needed to implement the strategy, which includes the creation of climate scenarios (modelling), analysis of climate change effects in relation to their cost and the analysis of risks of climate change in Switzerland, which will serve as a basis for prioritization in the climate effects adaptation procedure.
• Achieving the adaptation aims in different sectors (nine sectors were defined, which are affected by climate change: water management, natural hazards management, agriculture, forestry, energy, tourism, biodiversity management, health, spatial development)) taking into account the gained knowledge and summarizing the corresponding actions the sectors in a joint action plan.
• Coordinating the actions among different sectors, supervised by the FOEN in Switzerland.
• Evaluating the needed funding for the adaptation actions.
• Coordination at an institutional level of the cantons and the Confederation in oder to implement the strategy.
• Evaluating the success and reporting at regular reviews of the achieved goals and principles.
• Strategy development by regular revisions and modifying it accordingly,

There are different actions needed in different sectors in order to reach the goals in adapting to climate change and are listed in chapter 4 of the strategy (here we just mention examples from the strategy document:

• Water management: eg. “develop new policies for water storage/water distribution, regionalise wastewater treatment” etc.
• Natural hazards management: eg. Develop and improve the methods for identification of natural hazard processes; update and implement hazard maps and spatial planning etc.
• Agriculture: reserve the best soils for agriculture; take measures to prevent erosion, nutrient leaching and to reduce soil compaction; cultivate drought resistant crops etc.
• Forestry: prevent major bark beetles outbreaks to avoid damage; appropriately and sufficiently regenerate forests, remove dead trees from endangered locations etc.
• Energy: secure the hydropower contribution to maintain security and supply, build green etc.
• Tourism: spread the knowledge on adapting tourism to climate change vy organising thematic events; safeguard and develop winter sports etc.
• Biodiversity management: identify climate-sensitive species and reduce loss of genetic diversity; protect the habitats and species that are sensitive; raise awareness etc.
• Health: Integrate new risks in existing strategies and structures to protect against infectious and epizootic diseases; be prepared for the heatwaves according to risk degree and raise awareness etc.
• Spatial development: optimise traffic to ensure the needed ventilation in cities and residential areas; create green spaces; avoid building on areas of risk etc.

2.1 Who are those that actually realize these actions?

In order to realize the strategy, several actors will cooperate: the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the Confederation, canton and other private individuals,

3. What are the decisions that are needed to make in order to enable/promote the actions? The adaptation strategy is only the basis for coordinated course of action for climate change adaptation for the federal offices in Switzerland. Since adaptation to climate change is a long-term task the strategy needs to be continuously improved and developed, considering advancing climate change, new scientific findings and experience gained and the progress in adaptation process. To enable or promote the actions responsibilities of different stakeholders (Confederation, cantons, private individuals) need to be considered. There is a need for good transfer of knowledge between the Confederation and cantons, towns and municipalities. Close collaboration with EU and especially the neighboring countries on the matter of adaptation to climate change needs to be maintained. The implementation of the strategy will require financial and staff resources – although it is hard to estimate the total amount of resources needed these costs should be considered in budget and financial plans at different levels (national, regional or local). Although some actions may need to consider legal issues main measures of the action plan can be implemented without any need for legislative acts. Climate Change Adaptation Information Platform and Climate Change Adaptation Pilot Program (managed by the FOEN and other institutions) aimed to raise awareness, provide information to stakeholders, to help the initiation of innovative projects and to encourage collaboration between different institutions at different levels. For the effectiveness of actions realistic estimates of the climate change effects must be achieved. Reliable regional climate scenarios with good spatial resolutions must be obtained and regularly updated. Good system of monitoring the implementation of the adaptation strategy actions needs to be developed.

3.1 Who are the decision makers?

The climate change adaptation strategy was coordinated by the Interdepartmental Committee on Climate (IDA Climate) which involved the following federal agencies: Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE), Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), Federal Veterinary Office (FVO), Federal Finance Administration (FFA), Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) and State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

The FOEN made the general part of the strategy and the individual federal offices were responsible for adaptation strategies in their sectors.

While the strategy is done by cooperation of many offices the final decision making is done mainly by federal government and by local governments (in Cantones).

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

Actions taken will prevent (or at least reduce) the effects of climate change on public health – direct effects will be avoided such as heat stress and cardiovascular and respiratory problems especially among the more susceptible groups. Actions will also be taken in order to prevent the spread of different pathogens (and their hosts and vectors), pollutants and allergens, food and water-borne diseases etc.

4.1 Where and how do these impacts take place, who are those that face these health impacts in practice?The community,the citizens

The health impacts affect the entire population of Switzerland and by preventive measures that are taken also in other countries, it will have an effect globally.

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

The health impacts considered in the adaptation strategy may seem relatively small in comparison with other identified sectors, however the adaptation strategy identified that health can be affected by many other sectors or interfaces between them, which indicates that the health impacts are very important even when considering actions taken in other sectors.

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

The planned strategy does not include a cost-benefit analysis, so an actual estimates cannot be known, however, the strategy was planned to benefit all sectors and usually the prevention measures compared to not taking any actions, are less costly, so it will be a win-win situation in the long run.

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

How will the Swiss Confederation ensure that the actions taken in other sectors identified in the adaptation strategy will take into account direct/indirect health impacts?

6. 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).

In our opinion, the adaptation strategy did try to consider the principles of shared understanding, as it included many different contributors (stakeholders). The adaptation strategy also identified the need for constant improvement and development based on newest scientific findings etc.

Homework 6

Working with Tine Bizjak; the content is on his user page.

Homework 8

As instructed, Tine and I created a Variable page: Congestion charge impacts on air quality

Homework 9

Evaluation of HW4 draft assessment by Edem Agbenowu "Climate change adaptation strategy in Ireland" and the real-life assessment of my choice Assessment of the health impacts of H1N1 vaccination.

1. Evaluation of draft assessment by Edem: "Climate change adaptation strategy in Ireland"

Table 1: Characterization of the draft assessment

Category	Characterization
Impacts	The negative health impacts of climate change in Ireland
Causes	Climate change
Problem owner	The citizens of Ireland are affected.
Target	The assessment is supposed to be used by decision makers in Ireland when battling the climate change and developing a strategy.
Interaction	The category of interaction should I suppose be shared, since many participants are involved according to the assessment, however, to what extent each of the participants is involved, it is hard to estimate from the brief assessment, so perhaps the category of interaction could be participatory.

Table 2: Dimensions of openness in the draft assessment

Dimension	Characterization
Scope of participation	Leading specialists in the three key areas (water supply, flood alleviation & energy infrastructure), Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and an invited audience of researchers, engineers, scientists, policy experts and administrators from different parts of Ireland.
Access to information	Not mentioned in the assessment.
Timing of openness	According to the assessment, right away in a long-term window.
Scope of contribution	Co-ordination is centrally managed in both jurisdictions in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland and they will on overview climate change. Engineers and climate change researchers will collaborate to help identify the climatic parameters critical to infrastructure. Other contributions aren’t mentioned.
Impact of contribution	The jurisdictions Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland will propose policy, make recommendations to Government and co-ordinate the implementation of actions needed. The research of engineers and climate change researchers will enable the engineering profession to amend current design standards. The water supply planning will result in finding alternate sources of water.

Table 3: Evaluation of the draft assessment by category

Category		Evaluation (1-5)	Reasoning
Quality of content		3	It seems as though the gathered information took some effort, however some of the sections could be described in more detail, but the key points are still there.
Applicability	Relevance	2	The intended use is more or less clearly stated. The actual question however is not formulated, but the answer is given.
	Availability	1	The actions needed include many participants, however, the availability of the information among the participants is not stated anywhere.
	Usability	3	The assessment is relevant in battling the climate change, but perhaps the assessment and the results expected (relevant for the question that wasn’t formulated) could be better described to get more use for the participants.
	Acceptability	2	The relevant information is described, but lacks detail. There are no decision maker criteria described. The assessment could be of help for the intended users.
Efficiency		4	It seems hard to give an evaluation for the efficiency since the assessment costs are not given, but considering the content, it looks efficient, since the assessment results would be very useful for the intended users.

2. Evaluation of the assessment of the health impacts of H1N1 vaccination.

Table 1: Characterization of the draft assessment

Category	Characterization
Impacts	Health impact of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccination in Finland in 2009-2010.
Causes	H1N1 (swine flu) vaccination
Problem owner	Finnish citizens.
Target	The assessment is meant to for the purpose of giving a result information if it is better to vaccinate or not (Finnish citizens).
Interaction	The assessment was open to all participants, however it seems that only THL was doing it, so it’s mostly just an informing.

Table 2: Dimensions of openness in the draft assessment

Dimension	Characterization
Scope of participation	THL and since it was an open assessment, anyone (else) could participate.
Access to information	The results are available in Opasnet. Other data on the availability of information is not given.
Timing of openness	The model is a simplification with no time dimension. The assessment was completed in 2011.
Scope of contribution	The assessment was done by THL, but since it was an open assessment, anyone could have contributed to it.
Impact of contribution	Since the assessment was done by THL, their contribution weight is 100%.

Table 3: Evaluation of the draft assessment by category

Category		Evaluation (1-5)	Reasoning
Quality of content		4	The content quality is good, the question and answer is clearly stated, the model seems to be good. Perhaps it would be better if more people (except for THL) would participate which could improve the quality of content.
Applicability	Relevance	1	The assessment seems to be too concentrated over the vaccination campaign and the need for the assessment seems to be non-existent.
	Availability	5	The model is available on Opasnet, which is freely accessible to anyone (that knows of it).
	Usability	3	The assessment seems to be informative and the results are nicely presented. However, the usability depends on the ended users, so if they’re aware that such assessment exists, then it is very useful, otherwise it was uncalled for.
	Acceptability	3	The relevant information seems to be presented, however the number of participants is limited.
Efficiency		1	The efficiency of the assessment doesn’t seem to be high, since the intended users seem limited , however, it is still informative.