The National Land Survey of Finland’s Geospatial Research Institute has been developing the Location Europe platform to combine climate, statistics and geospatial datasets in a one-stop-shop. Finland has been a forerunner in developing this internationally significant project, which will make it possible to combine datasets from various countries and makes the data easier to access.

For example, it contains data on buildings and average temperatures in five different countries. This platform will facilitate the testing and development of new data-based services and tools. Our goal is to expand the service with new datasets from other countries.

Three-dimensional data to support decision-making

One of the platform’s most interesting features is the possibility to view building data from different countries in 3D form.

"Visualised, three-dimensional data may be helpful for municipal decision-makers to perceive what a new building might look like or how it might affect its environment, for example. This way, it will be possible to design more functional, smarter cities," says project manager Antti Jakobsson.

Location Europe combines data from different countries, which gives businesses the opportunity to scale up their services to the European market from the get-go. For example, they can review building data seamlessly across borders. Combining datasets is most useful in European countries with long, common borders with citizens that travel flexibly between both countries.

"The platform is an excellent tool for a situation in which you want to analyse your environment in a three-dimensional fashion. Let’s take a solar energy business – with this, they will be able to assess the buildings’ solar energy potential in different countries. If this data was available for all of Europe, this service could have enormous business potential," says Jakobsson.

The potential of the platform has already been identified, as the Finnish Innovation Fund  Sitra highlighted it on their list of most interesting data economy solutions in late 2023.