How would you map urban plant life? Offer your solution!
B.Green project launches an open call seeking innovative solutions to map urban plant life. The call for pilots is open 1 October – 24 October. The piloting costs will be covered up to €10.000 (VAT 0%) for the two best solutions. The maximum total cost of all agile pilots is 20.000€ (VAT 0%).
The selected pilots are expected to be delivered by 16 January 2022. The pilots will be carried out in the new developing area of Kalasatama in Helsinki. The Green Urban Mapping pilot is managed by Forum Virium Helsinki together with City of Helsinki.
The Open Call was introduced at WDBE Summit on 28 September and in a separate info event on 7 October in collaboration with Helsinki Business Hub and KIRAHub. Recording of the event can be watched here.
About the Open Call
The call for pilots has ended. Evaluation jury has scored all entries and selected xD Visuals and Granlund to carry out the Green Urban Mapping pilots in Sompasaari. Many thanks to all companies for their submission! Stay tuned for more detailed information about the two pilots and B.Green’s upcoming Open Calls in Helsinki and Tallinn.
What is the Open Call about?
This agile piloting challenge is a step towards collecting comprehensive natural environment data to support the development of more ecologically sustainable urban planning at the City of Helsinki.
The goal of the project is to
- find ways for residents to collect and keep on collecting plant life data of their living environments, and
- transform the data into a form that supports the decision-making of urban planners and deepens the city’s understanding of the state and development of urban vegetation.
The solutions should
- engage citizens in collecting plant life data of their living environment
- provide city planners information about the ecological state of the urban environment
- provide data about the location and volume of plant life as well as the species present
- recognize a relevant scale of information, as modeling distinctions between plant life individuals and groups is difficult.
Technological guidelines:
- We are looking for new and exciting solutions which do not need to be commercially ready.
- The selected solutions should utilize off the shelf technologies.
- The collected data needs to be presented in a format commonly compatible with existing CAD, BIM, or GIS-based softwares.
- We wish to see suggestions from the fields of image analysis, machine learning, drone mapping, and augmented reality solutions. Other technology and low-tech fields are also welcome.
The pilots can utilise existing available open data, such as Helsinki Region Infoshare resources.
Can a team of students offer their idea or solution?
If the student/students have a valid business ID or commercial register number recognized in the EU, they can submit an offer. Students can also consider teaming up with a company or actor with a business ID for a team offer. In this case, the party with a business ID is the responsible partner and will be the legal tenderer.
Can the solution build upon data produced by an external service or company?
Yes, we encourage the use of different external data sources but they should generally be based on open data or unpaid services. To ensure the functionality of the solution potentially in the long term, we are unable to subscribe to external services with additional fees.
It seems difficult to develop an idea that is ready in November if it is not at a commercial level yet. Are you looking for something ready to market?
We accept all ranges of solutions – they can be early prototypes of an idea, or products or services almost ready to market. Please take the short timespan of the pilot into consideration when preparing your offer.
Information about the pilot site
Selected pilots will be carried out in the developing neighbourhood Sompasaari, located in the Kalasatama district of Helsinki. The solution may focus on a specific Sompasaari residential block interior courtyard, several courtyards, Sompasaari public areas or the whole Sompasaari area.
