All challenges will be presented on Wednesday, September 19, at 11:30. The Green Hackathon will take place in HACK Workshop 3, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Hämeentie 135 C Helsinki. Workshops are also scheduled throughout Wednesday and Thursday, when the challenge presenters will be available to talk about their data and answer questions. You can drop by for their session:
A Github for Environmental Data
presented by Chris Adams, AMEE UK, @mrchrisadams, workshop at 12:00-13:30 on Wednesday, September 19.
AMEE is in the process of opening up its calculation platform, starting with opening up all the datasets it has ownership and access to, and ending with opensourcing the actual code used to execute and store the results of any environmental calculations.
Previously if you wanted to work out the impact of making something, travelling somewhere or basically any activity, you had to rely on it being added to the platform by a dedicated team of scientists at AMEE. In opening up the platform however, AMEE aims to build a commons for environmental calculation, to let anyone to share and discuss models for calculating the footprint of anything.
Your challenge is to either a) add to this commons by adding a model that can be used for future calculations, or b) use the existing datasets and source code to find a way to embed environmental modelling into something else, making use of already published datasets, in new ways.
If this challenge interests you, AMEE staff with experience working with existing datasets, and repurposing data for calculation be available to help turn your idea into working code.
Data Sources and Other Resources:
- Ask AMEE – natural language search for models for calculation
- AMEE Discover – advanced search for using emissions models in mashups
- AMEE Datasets – raw datasets for using in apps without needing the AMEE API
- Green Dreams – extremely handy directory for environmental APIs for hacks
- CalcJSON – proposed standard for sharing open computable datasets
Energy Pulse
presented by Thomas Thurner, Semantic Web Company / Open Knowledge Forum Austria (OKFO), workshop at 14:00-15:30 on Wednesday, September 19.
Production and consumption of electric power are subject to daily as well as seasonal fluctuations. These variations depend on many factors, such as consumption patterns and availability of resources. For renewable energy, factors such as wind intensity, solar radiation or water-level of rivers determine the energy yield. A visualization of such high-production/high consumption patterns per region could be a good starting point for discussions on smart grids, necessary interconnection at power lines, energy storage and the energy security. For a start, the focus of this challenge will be Europe.
Data Sources and Other Resources:
- Types for Electric Power Production per Country (data.un.org)
- Import / Export (data.un.org)
- European Electricity Index (ELIX)
- Seasonal Production Factors
- Daily Load Profile (ENTSO-E)
- Realtime Data (e.g. UK National Grid)
- Seasonal Consumption Profiles (ENTSO-E)
Visualization may be all from a globe rotating, showing day/night and the energy-status of the regions in various colors, to an animated 24h and seasonal switch with various factors to be switched on and off, etc.
Big Oil Facts/Truth
presented by Denise Recheis, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), workshop at 14:00-15:30 on Wednesday, September 19.
The idea is to visualize the connection between tax breaks for oil companies, their profits, their production and the price of their products. Furthermore jobs created and lobbying can be explored. Results are bound to be interesting as more tax breaks don’t translate into higher production nor cheaper prices. This challenge should focus on the US for a start, as there is enough data and interesting, even controversial results.
The idea can be developed further to include other national policies like feed-in tariffs in the future. Another interesting aspect would be to compare government spending on renewables with losses through tax breaks for fossils.
Data Sources and Resources:
- BP
- Chevron
- ConocoPhillips
- ExxonMobil
- Shell
- Lobbying data: Open Secrets 1 Open Secrets 2
- Most US citizens want to eliminate tax breaks for Big Oil
- Prices for Crude Oil
- Cutting $2 billion in annual oil subsidies for oil companies would have no impact on oil or gasoline process
Land Matrix
by Neil Sorensen, International Land Coalition, workshop at 18:00-19:30 on Wednesday, September 19.
The Land Matrix public interface gives users the possibility to explore information about large-scale land deals in the world through dynamic visualizations such as the flow of acquisitions between countries, percentages of land-use, and lists of countries with the most acquisitions, among other variables. We challenge participants to take our data on land acquisitions and to create new and engaging visualizations for the Land Matrix public interface.
Here are the databases
- The Land Matrix Database of large-scale land acquisitions (entire dataset in csv)
- FAO Gender and Land Rights Database: Link 1 Link 2
- IFPRI Global Hunger Index
- UNDP Human Development Index
- World Development Indicators (WDI)
- FAOSTAT
- IFPRI Documents Database: They use a standard open system called CONTENTdm – more info here. Xml calls using this system, calling directly through to the IFPRI database according to our specifications and filtering. An example of the call. The IFPRI e-brary is here
- FAO Land publications Database, an explanation of the XML calls and a list of queries
- Treaties, laws and regulations on land and soil extracted from FAOLEX
Other Challenges, description and links tbc:
Sustainable Urban Infrastructure Study – Helsinki
by Markku Suvanto, Siemens Finland, workshop at 16:00 – 17:30 on Wednesday, September 19.
Challenge the city growth and base CO2 scenario. How will Helsinki’s future look like… CO2 visualization for citizens. How do we make Helsinki more sustainable?
The base scenario projects Helsinki’s CO2 emissions in 2030. This scenario was calculated by using Helsinki’s historical emission growth rate and taking into account the impact of those technological improvements and regulatory changes that are known to be implemented (i.e. implementation is already started or a commitment for implementation is in place or decision of regulatory change has already been made). These improvements are referred to as base levers and consist of e.g. rail traffic improvements already under construction and the impact of new building regulations and the EU Eco-design directive. The base scenario alone implies a decline of 13 % or 0,4 Mt in annual CO2 emissions from the current level of 3,0 Mt in 2010 to 2,6 Mt in 2030.
The optimized scenario projects Helsinki’s CO2 emissions in 2030 when additional levers that reduce emissions even further are also implemented (extra levers). Examples of these include new innovative solutions and implementation concepts such as a demand response system for the electricity distribution grid and a very high level of electric vehicle usage by 2030. This scenario implies full implementation of concepts introduced in this study. The optimized scenario results in a further 1,4 Mt reduction in annual CO2 emissions compared to 2010, implying a total decline of 61 % from the current level of 3,0 Mt in 2010 to an optimized level of 1,2 Mt in 2030.
There is reduction potential of already 18 % in the short term (by 2015) and further potential of 43% in the long term (by 2030) if all levers are to be implemented.
TBC
by Ed Borden, Cosm/LogMeIn, workshop at 14:00-15:30 on Thursday, September 20.
