Global driving forces shaping the future of the Finnish cadastral system by 2035 : a Delphi study

Sustainable and efficient land management system is a crucial factor for the well-being of every society. Cadastral system as a constituent of land management system plays an important role in ensuring legality of relationships between land and its owners, government and citizens. Cadastre is a storage of information regarding who owns the land, its boundaries and rights of its owner. However, this system has evolved along with the macro transformations in human society. Such macro phenomena as industrialization, urbanization, emergence of real estate market, and technological advancements influenced on the operational environment of the cadastral system considerably. If the external environment changes, all the subsystems inside it have to transform as well in order to remain relevant and be convenient for its users. The aim of this thesis was to understand future operational environment of the cadastral system in Finland towards 2035. The study intended to answer two research questions: (1) What are the global drivers shaping the operational environment of the cadastral system in Finland by 2035? (2) What are the alternative scenarios of the operational environment of the cadastral system in Finland? Contextually and conceptually, this study lies between two scientific domains, cadastral research and futures studies. The research strategy was designed following the principle of a well-established futures studies method, Disaggregative Policy Delphi. The study was conducted from October 2016 until January 2017. Experts from various fields related to land management and land use were invited to estimate probable and preferred impacts of the listed megatrends on the development of the cadastral system in Finland. The core part of the questionnaire in both rounds consisted of five step Likert scale questions, however respondents were also asked to support their choice with qualitative arguments. Besides, respondents were invited to estimate relevance of these megatrends to the development of cadastral system. Finally, the most relevant driving forces shaping the operational environment of the cadastral system were identified and four normative scenarios were constructed based on the hierarchical cluster analysis. Findings of the study revealed the relevance of technological phenomena such as digital culture and ubiquitous intelligence and political tendency towards transparency, accessibility and open data to the operational environmental of the Finnish cadastral system. Scenarios analysis reaffirmed these elaborations, i.e. three out of four future visions were driven by mainly technological and economic megatrends, whereas social and environmental ones received lower value

SURPRISING ENERGY FUTURES : Neo-Carbon Energy Futures Clinique V

This report describes the process and results of futures clinique Surprising Energy Futures: Anticipating Discontinuities and Testing Resilience of Renewable Energy World with Black Swans, held on 17 May 2017 at Sitra, Helsinki. The event was the fifth futures clinique within the foresight part of the research project Neo-Carbon Enabling Neo-Growth Society – Transformative Scenarios 2050, conducted by Finland Futures Research Centre. The aim of the event was to contribute to the four transformative societal scenarios of Neo-Carbon Energy project. The event consisted of presentations and intermittent working sessions. Dr. Karlheinz Steinmüller discussed the topic of Black Swans and VUCA World, with comments by Prof. Jarno Limnéll

Global driving forces shaping the future of the Finnish cadastral system by 2035: a Delphi study

Sustainable and efficient land management system is a crucial factor for the well-being of every society. Cadastral system as a constituent of land management system plays an important role in ensuring legality of relationships between land and its owners, government and citizens. Cadastre is a storage of information regarding who owns the land, its boundaries and rights of its owner. However, this system has evolved along with the macro transformations in human society. Such macro phenomena as industrialization, urbanization, emergence of real estate market, and technological advancements influenced on the operational environment of the cadastral system considerably. If the external environment changes, all the subsystems inside it have to transform as well in order to remain relevant and be convenient for its users. The aim of this thesis was to understand future operational environment of the cadastral system in Finland towards 2035. The study intended to answer two research questions: (1) What are the global drivers shaping the operational environment of the cadastral system in Finland by 2035? (2) What are the alternative scenarios of the operational environment of the cadastral system in Finland? Contextually and conceptually, this study lies between two scientific domains, cadastral research and futures studies. The research strategy was designed following the principle of a well-established futures studies method, Disaggregative Policy Delphi. The study was conducted from October 2016 until January 2017. Experts from various fields related to land management and land use were invited to estimate probable and preferred impacts of the listed megatrends on the development of the cadastral system in Finland. The core part of the questionnaire in both rounds consisted of five step Likert scale questions, however respondents were also asked to support their choice with qualitative arguments. Besides, respondents were invited to estimate relevance of these megatrends to the development of cadastral system. Finally, the most relevant driving forces shaping the operational environment of the cadastral system were identified and four normative scenarios were constructed based on the hierarchical cluster analysis. Findings of the study revealed the relevance of technological phenomena such as digital culture and ubiquitous intelligence and political tendency towards transparency, accessibility and open data to the operational environmental of the Finnish cadastral system. Scenarios analysis reaffirmed these elaborations, i.e. three out of four future visions were driven by mainly technological and economic megatrends, whereas social and environmental ones received lower value

Counterbalance of Stability and Activity Observed for Thermostable Transaminase from Thermobaculum terrenum in the Presence of Organic Solvents

Pyridoxal-5’-phosphate-dependent transaminases catalyze stereoselective amination of organic compounds and are highly important for industrial applications. Catalysis by transaminases often requires organic solvents to increase the solubility of reactants. However, natural transaminases are prone to inactivation in the presence of water-miscible organic solvents. Here, we present the solvent tolerant thermostable transaminase from Thermobaculum terrenum (TaTT) that catalyzes transamination between L-leucine and alpha-ketoglutarate with an optimum at 75 °C and increases the activity ~1.8-fold upon addition of 15% dimethyl sulfoxide or 15% methanol at high but suboptimal temperature, 50 °C. The enhancement of the activity correlates with a decrease in the thermal denaturation midpoint temperature. The blue-shift of tryptophan fluorescence suggested that solvent molecules penetrate the hydration shell of the enzyme. Analysis of hydrogen bonds in the TaTT dimer revealed a high number of salt bridges and surface hydrogen bonds formed by backbone atoms. The latter are sensitive to the presence of organic solvents; they rearrange, conferring the relaxation of some constraints inherent to a thermostable enzyme at low temperatures. Our data support the idea that the counterbalance of stability and activity is crucial for the catalysis under given conditions; the obtained results may be useful for fine-tuning biocatalyst efficiency