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 62.907299, 27.622204, Igloo

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62.900966, 27.651386, Hotel Savonia. A nicer route from Savonia to Neulanen (walking path) 62.901239, 27.649841 62.901396, 27.648811 62.900692, 27.646236 62.900379, 27.643147 62.899441, 27.644262 62.89858, 27.644262 62.897759, 27.642889 62.897055, 27.641602 62.896586, 27.642632 62.895139, 27.640228 62.894005, 27.639542 62.892949, 27.636366 62.892128, 27.635164 62.890603, 27.632761 62.890837, 27.6301 62.890759, 27.627611 </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, Canthia-building, lecture room 3021 (3rd floor), 09:00 (see campus maps 1 2). 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.

Remote participation

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.

The lectures will be given on mornings approximately 09:00 - 11:45 Finnish time (GMT +02:00). You can connect to the Skype conference call to the username: open.risk. Please try to connect well before the planned beginning of lecture in order to guarantee your remote attendance. The lecture slides will be available for download on this page in the workshop program section. Please notice that we will also attempt to record the lectures (audio + webcam video) for our own use.

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 ->

Lunch (at participant's own cost) 11:45 - 12:45 at University student canteen (Monday) and Microteknia canteen (from Tuesday to Friday)

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

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning	Lecture 1: Introduction to Open Risk Assessment (ORA) and the workshop Lecture 2: General assessment framework	Lecture 3: Information structure of ORA: assessment products and their relations Lecture 4: Information structure of ORA: defining variables	Lecture 5: participating in assessments: argumentation Lecture 6: participating in assessments: moderation and quality control	Lecture 7: evaluating assessment performance Lecture 8: assessing uncertainties	Group work: Evaluation of the assessment
Afternoon	Group work: Issue framing	Group work: Defining 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 (Intarese WP3.4 meeting after group work)	Group work: Compiling the variables into an assessment Igloo-building and low level sleep experiment	Smoke sauna + dinner buffet	Back home / free program

Also see discussion page for more detailed lecture contents.

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 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. For downhill, both skis and snowboards are available. For skating there are speed skates, skating blades attachable to cross-country ski-boots and skating blades attachable to hiking shoes available. Also helmets as well as knee- and elbow pads are available for skating.

The skate rental shop accepts only cash as payment, so prepare to have some cash available on wednesday.

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

Extreme experiences: night in an igloo

If you are interested in telling your (future) grandchildren stories about extreme experiences, you might want to test this. There are 1.5 igloos built on the lake Savilahti, some 2 km from Neulanen (see map). We can organise winter sleeping bags and other necessary equipment. There is a warm house 50 m from the igloos, which can be used if needed. If there are very many volunteers, we can finish the other, half-built igloo together.

In fact, we finished the other igloo. It was even bigger than the first one and took us four and a half hours; we were finished half an hour after midnight. And it was extreme because half of us had wet clothes and it was quite cold. But it was an adventure and it was really fun!!! The entrance is underneath the floor so you must be quite flexible to get in and out.

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

If you do not have a room reservation yet, please contact Hotel Savonia directly yourself to book a room. Please use the booking reference KTL Risk while booking your room.

For all the participants who registered before 1 February, rooms have been reserved from Hotel Savonia (except Kinga and Vlasta, staying in student apartments). Once you arrive in Kuopio, you can go directly to Hotel Savonia to sign in. For instructions how to find your way to the hotel, see the section Getting around in Kuopio below.

Getting around in Kuopio

Arrival/departure by air

The distance from Kuopio airport to the city is about 17 km. There are two options to get from the airport to the hotel - bus and taxi.

Bus:

Airport buses (5 €/trip) operate (by Linja-Karjala Oy) from all domestic flights, except for the flight AY519, arriving 00.25! The bus leaves from the airport approximately 5-15 minutes after the flight has arrived (the bus will wait for the passengers to collect their luggage before leaving). Get off the bus at Market Square in the center of Kuopio. From the Market Square it is possible to walk to the hotel (distance 2,4 km, see map) or alternatively you can take a bus line 5 (2,70 €/trip) that goes by the hotel. Line 5 buses leave from the Market Square close to the Market Hall on the south end of the square (see map. The timetable (unfortunately only in Finnish) for line 5 can be seen here.

Airport buses operate to all domestic flights. Bus to the airport leaves from Market Square (front of Anttila department store, east end of the square, Puijonkatu 19) 55 minutes before flight departure.

Taxi:

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 and then takes each passenger to their destination. Alternatively you may choose the normal taxi service (about 30 €/trip). If there are 2 people or more sharing a normal taxi it will be cheaper to take the it instead of the airport taxi service. If there are no taxis waiting at the airport you can order one by calling +358 17 106 400.

When going to the airport, make your airport taxi bookings (18 €/person) at least 2 hours before your scheduled departure by calling +358 17 106 400. The taxi will come to pick you up from agreed location approximately 1 hour before the scheduled departure time. Again, if there are 2 or more people sharing the taxi, it is also possible to order a normal taxi from the same taxi center number +358 17 106 400.

Arrival/departure by train

Kuopio railway station is located close to the center. It is possible to walk to the hotel (distance 2,1 km, see map) or alternatively walk to Market Square and take bus line 5 going by the hotel. Line 5 buses leave from the Market Square close to the Market Hall on the south end of the square (see map. The timetable (unfortunately only in Finnish) for line 5 can be seen here. Getting from hotel to the railway station happens similarly, but vice versa.

From Hotel Savonia to University of Kuopio and KTL

On Monday:

The lectures and group work are at the University of Kuopio, 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 suggest workshop participants staying at Savonia Hotel to network during the breakfast and walk to the university together (distance 1,6 km, see map).

From Tuesday onwards:

Lectures and group work will take place at KTL, Neulanen building (see map). Meeting at the reception at 08.45, where you will receive your visitor cards.

Attendees

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

Locals (no accommodation needed):

Foreign (accommodation needed):

Via Internet:

Workshop preparation material

Guidebook provides guidance on the theory and methods related to the workshop. The guidebook is under development and will be updated frequently during the following weeks. Accessing Guidebook requires being logged in!
Glossary is a collection of important concepts and terms and their explanations
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).

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