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Six Geospatial Solutions for Sustainable Mobility by Young Researchers
Geospatial and open data once again inspired researchers to develop new solutions at the Geospatial Challenge Camp 2026. This year, the challenge themes focused on sustainable mobility and transport.
The camp was organised by the University of Helsinki, the University of Turku and Aalto University in collaboration with Location Innovation Hub, Geoportti Research Infrastructure, Fiuginet and CSC – IT Center for Science. The Geospatial Challenge Camp brings together companies and organisations that provide real-world challenges for participants to work on. This year’s partners included Posti, the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland (Varha), and the cities of Espoo, Vantaa and Helsinki.
The challenge themes covered areas such as encouraging active mobility, the sharing economy, public transport, electrification of transport, smart mobility solutions, sustainable urban environments, mobility in emergency situations, and sustainable travel choices.
“Over the spring, the teams worked with great commitment, and the final event was a fantastic culmination of the entire camp. For some teams, the process was a real rollercoaster – new ideas emerged, others were set aside, and there were moments of frustration as well as moments of insight. I’m very proud of the teams’ persistence and positive attitude, which were clearly reflected in the prototypes and solutions presented at the final event,” says Tytti Tengström, Project Researcher in Geography at the University of Turku.
“What was particularly impressive was the intensity of the final phase, where ideas quickly evolved into striking prototypes and solutions. The growing role of AI-assisted development was also evident: prototyping is becoming faster, making innovation processes more experimental and dynamic,” says Antero Järvi, University Teacher in Software Engineering at the University of Turku.
The 2026 Geospatial Challenge Camp ran for a total of 13 weeks and included three in-person events bringing all participants together, as well as weekly online meetings.
6 approaches to sustainable mobility
Gamified data collection on mobility in emergency situations
The Four Sight team developed a game-based tool to study human behaviour in crisis situations using a personality test-style questionnaire. Traditional surveys are not always engaging for respondents, and gamification offers a more motivating way to collect data.
Data-driven traffic forecasting for evacuation scenarios
The Proactive team developed a predictive model for traffic and mobility, designed to provide information on the movement of large crowds of people and potential congestion hotspots to support decision-making, for example in evacuation situations in Lappeenranta.
Reducing emissions from parcel deliveries through combined transport
The Eco Ship team developed a solution aimed at reducing emissions from home parcel deliveries. The concept is to combine deliveries heading to the same area through a service that customers could choose when ordering, while also helping logistics companies improve efficiency and reduce emissions.
Optimising routes for electric home deliveries
The Mile Wise team addressed the challenge of limited charging infrastructure for electric transport. The team developed a map-based solution for analysing optimal delivery routes in Rovaniemi, focusing on route optimisation and identifying suitable locations for future charging stations.
Supporting active mobility among school-aged children
The Joyful Journeys for a Fossil-Free Future team developed a solution to encourage children to cycle to their hobbies instead of being driven by car. The app also allows users to report potentially dangerous traffic locations in their surroundings.
Encouraging cycling through rewards
The Cycle to Save team developed a solution encouraging urban residents to choose cycling over driving, particularly for short journeys, in order to reduce transport emissions. Through the app, users can track their cycling kilometres and earn rewards such as discount vouchers.
Niina Käyhkö at the 2025 Geospatial Challenge Camp event.
Developing new ideas through challenge-based learning
The Geospatial Challenge Camp is based on challenge-based learning (CBL), where participants – including researchers, students, companies and other experts – co-create and test new solutions based on geospatial data and digital technologies to address societal needs.
Continuous interaction, experimentation and evaluation as working methods help participants strengthen their ability to create innovative new ideas.
“Finland needs initiatives like this. The geospatial sector needs renewal, the courage to question established practices, and the ability to develop more impactful solutions. The aim is not to directly support existing business activities, but to generate new ideas that can evolve into research projects, business solutions and broader societal initiatives over time. What matters is building networks, collaboration, and the ability to think beyond existing solutions towards new ways of working and creating impact,” says Niina Käyhkö, Professor of Applied Digital Geospatial Research at the University of Turku.
“Developing the Geospatial Challenge Camp (GCC) concept has been an inspiring collaboration at the interface of the Location Innovation Hub and Geoportti RI communities over the past three years. In the first two years, the University of Turku led the Challenge Camp in close cooperation with Aalto University. This year, the University of Helsinki took over as the main organiser for the first time. This shows that GCC has become an established part of Finland’s geospatial community’s annual activities, particularly in strengthening collaboration between research, education, the public sector and industry. There is a clear need for this kind of collaboration if we want to continue generating new geospatial innovations and strengthening expertise in Finland.”
- Find out more about Challenge Camp at challenge-camp.geoportti.fi
