| Since the 1990s, a huge amount of data related to the groundwater and soil has been collected
in several regional projects in Finland. EU –funded project “The coordination of groundwater
protection and aggregates industry in Finnish Lapland, phase II” started in July 2016 and it
covers the last unstudied areas in these projects in Finland. Project is carried out by
Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), University of Oulu and Finnish Environment Institute
and the main topic is to consolidate the groundwater protection and extractable use of
soil resource in Lapland area. As earlier, several kinds of studies are also carried
out throughout this three-year research and development project. These include
e.g. drilling with setting up of groundwater observation wells, GPR-survey and
many kinds of point-type observations, like sampling and general mapping on the
field.
Due to size of a study area (over 80 000 km2, about one quarter of a total area of
Finland), improvement of the field work methods has become essential. To the general
observation on the field, GTK has developed a specific mobile applications for Android
–devices. With these Apps, data can be easily collected for example from a certain
groundwater area and then uploaded directly to the GTK’s database. Collected information
may include sampling data, photos, layer observations, groundwater data etc. and
it is all linked to the current GPS-location. New data is also easily available for
post-processing.
In this project the benefits of these applications will be field-tested and e.g. ergonomics,
economy and usability in general will be taken account and related to the other data
collecting methods, like working with heavy fieldwork laptops. Although these Apps are
designed for usage in GTK’s projects, they are free to download from Google Play for anyone
interested.
Geological Survey of Finland has the main role in this project with support from national
and local authorities and stakeholders. Project is funded by European Regional Development
Fund with support from local communes, branch enterprises and executive quarters of the
project. Implementation period is 2016-2019. |