The Barents area changes – How will Finland adapt? (Barentsin alue muuttuu – miten Suomi sopeutuu?)

The cumulative impacts of environmental, climatic and societal changes and their consequences will affect the development of the Arctic region in the coming decades. Adaptation to these changes will require measures of all the actors in the region. Finland, part of the Euro-Arctic region, will adapt to these changes in a variety of ways. The Barents area is unique in the Arctic in being a multicultural, relatively densely populated area with well-developed industries and infrastructure. This report examines adaptation to changes and their consequences in the Barents area in terms of governance and Finland’s capacities to adapt. The aim has been to produce comprehensive information from the Finnish perspective for local and national decision-makers about long-term changes in the region, their expected impacts and adaptation options, and to support decision-making that will advance adaptation. The report includes recommendations. This report is based on the contribution of Finnish experts to an Arctic Council and Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) project titled ”Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic” (AACA). The project has prepared a pilot report by Nordic and Russian experts on the Barents area in English on changes, their impacts and adaptation options. The report will be published in 2017 (AMAP 2017)

Construction and demolition waste management:A holistic evaluation of environmental performance

A growing amount of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) is produced in Europe each year. Increased recycling of C&DW is required by the EU Waste Framework Directive, targeting at 70% recycling of non-hazardous C&DW by 2020. The aim of the study was to assess the performance of the common Finnish C&DW management system against this target, thus identifying the environmental and economic impacts of the system and the effects brought about by changes in the waste composition. In this study, a combination of different methodologies was applied to evaluate holistically the performance of the C&DW management system: material flow analysis (MFA) was employed to assess material and energy recovery rates, life cycle assessment (LCA) was utilised to evaluate climate change impacts, and environmental life cycle costing (ELCC) was used for measuring the costs. In addition, the applicability of the best available technology (BAT) approach for developing the efficiency of the waste management system was scrutinised. Thus, aligned with the empirical aim of assessing the performance of Finnish C&DW in reference to the EU Waste Framework Directive, the theoretical aim of the study was to test how the employment of different assessment methodologies affects the performance results of the C&DW management system.According to the results, the overall system produced environmental benefits and was economically profitable, but was far behind the target of recycling 70%. Based on the assessments, the EU Waste Framework Directive target will not be achieved, even with the likely changes in waste composition. Thus, major changes will be needed to source separation and recovery within the system, e.g. by finding recycling concepts for waste wood without decreasing the environmental and economic benefits of the system. The employment of different methodologies gave a diversified view of the possibilities to develop the system. The metal treatment performed well in all assessments; hence improvements to it would not benefit the system notably. For wood the results were controversial, since the energy recovery generated environmental and economic benefits, but did not increase the recycling rate. Material recovery concepts should be developed, but simultaneously the environmental and economic benefits should be retained. Miscellaneous waste had the potential for increasing recycling and avoiding costs and emissions. Mixed waste was identified as the worst fraction in relation to climate change impacts, costs and material recycling. Applying the BAT approach showed that BAT for waste management needs to be based on system-level rather than installation-level assessments.This multi-methodological assessment of C&DW management showed the need for analysing the environmental performance of a system from different perspectives before decision-making. In general, the recycling of waste generates greater environmental benefits than energy recovery, but this may not always be the case. Regional differences in operations and waste composition may support arguments for differing recycling targets in different regions

The Gotlandic box brooch from Fyrkat grave IV. A research into the casting technique and work methods associated with multi-piece brooches

This study of the box-shaped brooch uses experimental archaeology in an attempt to gain more information about how these combination brooches were made. Some misunderstandings are addressed concerning the Fyrkat box brooch and Viking Age bronze casting in general. When trying to recreate the brooch, the four knot-shaped animals cast as one with the brooch throughout the work turned out to be the common denominator. They forced the original artisan to sacrifice an elaborate wax model when making the clay mould. Hollow models made of metal or solid bone could be used to produce this brooch only with difficulty. Again, due to the figural ornaments, a very complicated and time-consuming silver-plating technique was called for. Simple pure silver encasing was rendered nearly impossible. The very complex techniques used appear to have been the trademark of the artisan, designed to demonstrate his skill

Portal. Gård og utmark i Gudbrandsdalen. Arkeologiske undersøkelser i Fron 2011-2012.

E6-prosjektet Gudbrandsdalen er det største utgravningsprosjektet som er gjennomført i Oppland. Prosjektet har sin bakgrunn i etableringen av ny E6 gjennom Gudbrandsdalen, fra Elstad i Ringebu kommune til Otta i Sel kommune. Totalt 64 arkeologiske lokaliteter ble undersøkt i Sør-Fron, Nord-Fron og Sel kommune, hvorav 4 var uregistrerte og ble oppdaget under arbeidets gang. De mest omfattende undersøkelsene ble foretatt i Fron, mens det var kun tre mindre hulveipartier som var registrert i Sel. I Sør-Fron dominerte de bosetnings- og jordbruks-historiske lokalitetene, mens utmarkskulturminner var det vanligste i Nord-Fron. Dette skyldes i stor grad E6-traseens beliggenhet; i sør går traseen i dal-bunnen i de rike jordbruksområdene på den såkalte solsiden, mens den i nord i større grad går gjennom store skogsområder på baksiden. Det reflekterer likevel også en noe forskjellig landskapsbruk i nord og sør, som det vil bli nærmere redegjort for i de påfølgende artiklene. Prosjektet ble organisert over to feltsesonger med oppstart i juli 2011 og avslutning i oktober 2012. Etter omfattende etterarbeid, med ferdigstilling av rapporter, kataloger og databaser, fikk prosjektet sin endelige avslutning i januar 2014. Etterarbeidet er organisert i 14 delrapporter, som er systematisert etter de forskjellige deltraseene og de største utgravningsfeltene (figur 1.1). Denne boka er en videreføring av prosjektarbeidet og søker å presentere de viktigste faglige resultatene i samlet form. I denne artikkelen skal vi derimot se nærmere på de administrative erfaringene. Sentralt for prosjektets utvikling sto den store omorganiseringen av prosjektet vinteren 2011/2012, da vi gikk fra syv små delprosjekter med egne styringsdokumenter til ett stort samlet prosjekt med felles budsjett og prosjektplan