Public participation GIS for improving wood burning emissions from residential heating and urban environmental management.

A crowdsourcing study supported by a public participation GIS tool was designed and carried out in two Norwegian regions. The aim was to improve the knowledge about emissions from wood burning for residential heating in urban areas based on the collection of citizens' localized insights. We focus on three main issues: 1) type of dwelling and residential heating source; 2) wood consumption and type of wood appliances; and 3) citizens' perception of the urban environment.

The physical environment of positive places: Exploring differences between age groups.

Features of the physical environment have an impact on the human behaviour. Thus, planners and policymakers around the world should aim at providing environments that are perceived as being of good quality, in which the residents enjoy spending time and moving around in. It is widely acknowledged that urban environmental quality associates with well-being, but there is currently very little research examining which features of urban environments people of different ages perceive as appealing in their living environments.

KIDS OUT! Protocol of a brief school-based intervention to promote physical activity and to reduce screen time in a sub-cohort of Finnish eighth graders.

Background: Adolescents' physical activity (PA) is decreasing and sedentary behavior (SB) increasing alarmingly. Insufficient PA and excessive SB are both related to various health risks indicating that interventions to promote adolescents' PA and to reduce their SB are needed. Schools have a great potential to reach most adolescents, and in Finland health education (HE) as stand-alone subject provides an excellent platform for health promotion.

Urban environment and children's active lifestyle: softGIS revealing children's behavioral patterns and meaningful places.

Purpose: To determine the relationship between (1) urban structure characteristics, (2) children's environmental experiences and active behavioral patterns, and (3) perceived health and body mass index (BMI).

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: City of Turku, western coast of Finland, 175,000 inhabitants.