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Until recently, research on potential economic impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on transport infrastructure was scarce, but currently this area is rapidly expanding. Indeed, there is a growing international interest, including the European area, regarding the impacts of extreme weather and climate change on the management of various transportation modes. This paper reviews briefly the present status regarding the knowledge of financial aspects of extreme weather impacts on transportation, using recent research findings from Europe, and proposes some new views in cost-benefit analysis, project appraisal and asset value protection for the management of transport systems under extreme weather risks. Quite often, risk management is understood as a response to truly extreme impacts, but this constitutes a misunderstanding. Some values are more extreme than others, and in the context of extreme weather, some weather phenomena are more extreme in their intensity and resulting impacts. An analysis of the level of costs and risks to societies, as a result of extreme weather, reveals that the risks in different European Union member states deviate substantially from each other. Also, the preparedness of different societies to deal with extreme weather events is quite variable. Extreme weather and climate change costs and risks represent a new type of item, which has to be dealt with in project appraisal. Although a fully established procedure does not exist, some fundamental ideas of cost-benefit analysis under extreme weather scenarios are presented in this paper, considering accident costs, time costs and infrastructure-related costs (comprising physical damages to infrastructures and increased maintenance costs). Cost-benefit analysis is usually associated with capital investments, but the original idea of cost-benefit analysis is not restricted to investment appraisal. Therefore, activities such as enhanced maintenance, minor upgrades, adoption of new designs, improved information services and others may be subject to cost-benefit analysis. Extreme weather and climate change costs and risks represent a new type of item, which apparently has to be dealt with also in project appraisal. A fully established procedure does not exist, although some basic principles have been introduced in analytical format. There is a lack of models to estimate extreme weather impacts and consequences and how to adapt to those costs. Optimising the efforts in maintenance and new design standards is even further away, but constitutes an overwhelming task. In this respect, new approaches and ways of thinking in preserving asset's residual value, return periods, sustainability and equity and formal methods supplementing cost-benefit analysis are put forward. The paper concludes with a call for the need for more integrated management of transport systems. In particular, it is recognised that the different stages of transport system planning pose their own challenges when assessing the costs and benefits of policy measures, strategies and operational decisions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the returns to the investors and the state in private finance of road infrastructure. It uses an empirical case of the E4 Helsinki-Lahti road, which was built in 1995-1999 in Finland as the first real PPP-project. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis adopts an approach based on cash flow modelling of the project and the analyses show how the cash flows are formed and divided between the various stakeholders. The pure cash flow based approach to compare the economics of PPP vs traditional procurement of road infrastructure projects produced results that pose challenges to the logic, and pros and cons of shadow toll PPPs. Findings – The analysis shows that potential win-win situations are hard to find in shadow toll arrangements. This is largely due to the different discount rates used by investors and state. It is argued that the state does not include all the true costs in its appraisal of projects. Private investors, in principle and as a rule, price all of the relevant risks and uncertainties of which they are cognisant. Originality/value – The paper presents an analytical cash flow model that can be applied a wider range of PPP projects than simply to shadow toll roads. The paper contributes to the discussion on the viability of PPPs in different contexts.

The European 7th Framework Programme project Extreme Weather impacts on European Networks of Transport devised a holistic analysis of extreme weather risks for the transport system. The analysis provided an overview of extreme weather risks, or a risk panorama. The risk panorama was built on a probabilistic approach to extreme weather phenomena occurrences and on vulnerability analysis based on selected macro-level economic and transport system indicators of the member states of EU-27. The panorama covers all transport modes and views infrastructure-related risks, time delay risks, and accidents risks. In addition to climatic circumstances, the devised risk indicator is also dependent on regional circumstances, such as population and transport density and income level. This paper describes the construct and application of an extreme weather risk indicator (EWRI). EWRIs are counted for each country and each transport mode separately. Furthermore, this paper also presents the most significant extreme weather events in different parts of Europe and on the transport modes they affect the most.

Digitalisation is the most significant technological trend faced globally and has its impact on the transport sector among others. Finland has been in the front line for making use of ICT and digitalisation. This exploratory research paper addresses Finland's transport sector and the digital disruption it is facing. The approach is a mix of quantitative and qualitative research. Descriptive statistics are drawn from national and international data bases to show the inter-relationships between digitalisation and productivity of industries, including the transport sector. Government documents and official plans form another main set of source data. Based on these data, a PESTEL analysis is performed which shows that the challenge posed by digitalisation is somewhat represented in the governmental programmes and mid-term plans of the state agencies. However, some uncovered areas are identified. In particular, the results imply that social aspects of transport sector digitalisation are inadequately addressed. Intermediate results suggest that productivity and digitalisation seem to go hand in hand with a weak correlation, but time series suggest that investments in ICT have not improved productivity of the transport sector to the expected extent. Finland's government is responding to the digital disruption, but the transport sector as a whole is not very strongly represented on the government's agenda. Central agencies are more proactive, however their responses are more techno-economical than social. In sum, the assessment of this study is that most impacts of digitalisation can be considered positive, but not all. Intergovernmental organisations, such as the OECD, have recognised many obvious, wider social challenges of digitalisation that should be reflected more clearly on national policies.

Purpose– Increasing competition in global markets requires many countries to seek new growth sectors. In addition, the nature of competition is changing. This paper applies the business ecosystem concept and studies San Diego as a spatial health and life sciences ecosystem. The purpose of this paper is to identify issues that should be considered in design of innovation policies and regional industry development.Design/methodology/approach– The research approach is built on a literature review of business ecosystems and spatial innovation. The empirical study is based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and information gathering and verification during field research.Findings– The results include a description of the ecosystem structure and dynamics. This paper demonstrates the bottom-up nature of San Diego’s health and life sciences ecosystem without a dominant lead actor, and presents prerequisites for fostering spatial ecosystems.Research limitations/implications– A single case may not be able to offer a generalized picture of this topic. However, the study raises several considerations for researchers and decision-makers involved in innovation policy design. Future work should extend the study and involve other spatial and substance contexts to compare findings and to pursue a more generic picture of innovation ecosystems and networks.Originality/value– This paper demonstrates that applying the concept of business ecosystems to the spatial context provides new insights in terms of dynamic mechanisms and factors contributing to economic growth in a particular location. Understanding how to facilitate the creation of successful spatial ecosystems is in the focal point of innovation policies.

Whereas transport safety research has long and established traditions, the pivotal public task of integrally governing, managing and overseeing transport safety in an effective and socio-economically cost efficient manner is yet a largely uncharted area within science. Therefore, it should not be taken for granted that all public resources are allocated where they add value the most. This is due in part to historical reasons and the inertia within how governments respond to changes around them. This article investigates the performance management system of a national transportation safety agency with qualitative methods. First, it introduces the evolution history and the surrounding institutional architecture of the agency. Next, the goal-setting, steering and management control mechanisms are described, followed by a cross-check of mandated tasks and objectives and the associated performance indicators. The main finding is that significant gaps between stated policy objectives, operational annual performance targets and available indicators can be identified. Especially with regard to societal objectives, the steering framework turns out to provide less than comprehensive coverage. Performance indicators for some major objectives are missing and vice versa, some measurement metrics do not seem to link clearly to set objectives. Not all the set objectives need (or even could) necessarily be measured, but certain shortcomings in the performance control system may prove critical. The findings imply that there is a risk of sub-optimal use of public resources if the targets and indicators of agencies are not thoroughly considered so that they logically cover agencies' mandates. The implications of the discovered gaps are outlined, together with recommendations for a more balanced approach. The analysis concludes with some recommended steps in order to cover the blind spots. With the aid of these steps, performance management systems can be improved to better meet policy and societal objectives.

This paper approaches the value of meteorological information from the perspectives of value engineering, pricing or valuation techniques and information economics. The value of information can be looked at from at least two angles: the value of information to the decision maker and the value of information realized through the impact occurring as a result actions and decisions based on information. The value of information is not a singular, uniform concept. It consists of multiple attributes weighed in different ways by different actors who evaluate information according to their own particular preferences. When designing information value chains the value build-up and relative importance of different attributes in different sections of the chain cannot be neglected. There are multiple methods and techniques for measuring the value, but these must be applied with care, being aware of the relevant attributes and in which part of the information value chain the measurement takes place. With the valuation tools described in this paper, the valuation problem can be clarified and appropriate methods selected. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society

This paper describes how an information service architecture was developed for the international multimodal logistic corridor Pol-Corridor. It describes how the information services needed by Pol-Corridor were identified and how these service needs were transformed into system component requirements. An analysis was carried out to investigate how existing off-the-shelf and already-operational systems can fulfil these information needs by ldquomappingrdquo several information systems into the service architecture. The theory and trends in the research of software architectures are discussed in order to explain the foundation for defining the service architecture for Pol-Corridor. European Union policies concerning interoperability of technical systems in international transport, as well as their efficiency, are also discussed in this paper.

The objective of this study was to consider evaluation methods for intelligent transport system (ITS) investments, to point out some shortcomings of traditional methods (mainly benefit-cost analysis), to develop alternative methods and to make recommendations how the profitability of ITS investment should be evaluated. The results can be used when ITS investments are compared with each other and also when ITS investments are compared with road building investments. This paper identifies the fundamental differences between ITS and road infrastructure investments and how they impact on the profitability evaluation. The conclusion is that traditional cost-benefit analysis (BCA), which was developed for investments in physical infrastructure, does not capture all the benefits or costs related to ITS. Economic evaluation methods for ITS investments need improving. This paper illustrates how BCA could be used to take into consideration the option value of ITS investment and risks due, for example, to different time horizons of investments. The paper also discusses and demonstrates the use of multi-criteria analysis (MCA) in profitability evaluation. It illustrates how a method called analytical hierarchy process (AHP) could be utilised to evaluate other risks that do not have specific monetary values and to compare the results of different profitability analyses. These evaluation methods can be used within the project assessment framework in the transport sector to highlight different aspects of the profitability and efficiency of transport investments. None of the methods themselves can reflect all the aspects in decision making, but by using a suitable set of different methods depending on the decision situation, and by comparing the results, a wider and more realistic picture of investments can be obtained.

Evaluating quantitative socio-economic cost-benefit level impacts of public administrations/agencies is urgently called for but still a thinly charted out territory in science. This paper presents the first steps in a process of prioritising services of a public organisation via a case study of a Finnish agency. The prioritisation is made in order to enable later analysis of the effectiveness of the agency and the evaluation of the impact of its services. The main contribution of this article is in laying out the first steps of a novel and normative process for identification of the services that are most relevant in this respect. The process entails four iterative steps: 1) service catalogue mapping; 2) design of evaluation criteria; 3) compilation of decision matrix; 4) multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) - and recommendations thereof. Steps 1-3 are discussed in this article in detail, the end result being a decision matrix for MCDA.

This paper investigates the winter road maintenance ecosystem in Finland and discusses its importance in ensuring mobility. The ecosystem model is illustrated using the Customer Value Chain Analysis (CVCA) tool and is constructed based on publicly available material and direct information from stakeholders. The model describes the roles and functions of stakeholders and their value network. With the help of the model, further analysis based on value analysis and value theory is conducted to evaluate the current ecosystem. The service and product offerings of individual stakeholders are isolated and described in more detail. The main idea is to show how individual offerings can supplement each other in the process of value co-creation. To enhance and co-create value, collaborative development of the ecosystem is perceived as the best value capturing strategy.

This paper describes a novel risk indicator for extreme weather risks for use in transportation systems. The risk indicator is applied to the European transportation system indicating and ranking the risks for the 27 member states of the European Union (EU-27). The paper starts with definitions of hazards, vulnerability, and risk, based on relevant literature, and then operationalizes the risk, hazard, and vulnerability with the help of EU-27 data. Finally, the paper discusses the extreme weather risk indicator (EWRI) and evaluates its applicability and limitations. The risk indicator is a relative indicator: it should be viewed and treated as a ranking system. The devised indicator is able to assist decision makers at national and state as well as international and federal levels in the prioritization of extreme weather risks within their jurisdiction. The overall approach of EWRI is based on mainstream risk and vulnerability assessment research, following for the most part the existing conceptual models. The novelty of EWRI lies in its application area (transportation) and wide use of both empirical and statistical data. EWRI was used to assess the hazards, vulnerabilities, and risks of extreme weather for the EU-27, but nothing hinders its application, either in this form or a modified form, in other contexts.

Intelligent transport systems (ITS) are seen as a high-growth segment within the transport sector, as information and communication technologies (ICT) push their way through different industries. ITS products and services has been developed, and its myriad benefits has been introduced which are promising for new business opportunities and investors. Its economic importance has also been recognised as well and many analyst reports show significant growth projections for the ITS market as a whole. This paper attempts to make the first quantitative and empirical analysis of the ITS industry in Finland. The Finnish ITS market had a significant growth in 2007 but has since then been very slowly been turning upwards from the negative growth observed in 2008 and 2009. The fast growing firms have clearly been showing good growth, whereas the weakest performers seem to have a continuous declining trend. The Finnish ITS supply market had an aggregate turnover of approximately EUR300 million and around 1700 employees in 2010.

Kauniaisten suomenkielisen perusopetuksen tietotekniikkapalveluiden hankintamallia uudistettiin vuonna 2007. Tässä artikkelissa tiivistetään uudistuksen vaikutusten arvioinnin tulokset. Ennen vuotta 2007 Kauniaisten suomenkielisessä perusopetuksessa tietotekniikan hankinnasta, hoidosta ja ylläpidosta vastasi kaupungin tietohallinto. Uudessa mallissa koulutoimen ja koulujen vastuuta tietotekniikan hankinnasta lisättiin merkittävästi. Uutena piirteenä oli myös hankintojen kohdistaminen palveluihin eikä niinkään laitteisiin tai tietotekniikkainfrastruktuuriin. Uudistuksella arvioidaan olleen myönteiset vaikutukset tietotekniikan yksikkökustannuksiin, palvelutasoon ja ympäristöön. Palvelinkeskeinen tietotekniikka-arkkitehtuuri on keskittänyt ja tehostanut palveluiden ja koko tietotekniikkakokonaisuuden ylläpitoa sekä pidentänyt pääteasemien elinkaarta vähentäen ympäristökuormitusta. Kouluilta ja koulutoimelta uudet toimintatavat ovat edellyttäneet osaamisen kasvattamista tietotekniikan hankkimisessa sekä kirkkaampaa näkemystä omista tarpeistaan. Kouluissa ja koulutoimessa ollaan pääsääntöisesti tyytyväisempiä nykytilanteeseen aiempaan verrattuna.

Tässä artikkelissa kuvataan luonnos opetuksen tietotekniikkapalveluiden arviointijärjestelmäksi, jonka tavoitteena on tukea kriteerien, mittareiden ja tunnuslukujen määrittelyä kansallisten tavoitetasojen asettamiseksi koulujen tietotekniikkapalveluille. Tavoitteena on myös tarjota työkaluja käyttäjien tarpeita vastaavien kustannustehokkaiden palveluiden käyttöönoton edistämiseksi. Lisäksi arviointijärjestelmän avulla voidaan tukea palveluihin liittyvää suunnittelua, päätöksentekoa ja hankintaa. Arviointikehikkoa rakennettiin ja testattiin vuorovaikutteisessa prosessissa tapausesimerkkinä olleen Kauniaisten suomenkielisen perusopetuksen tietotekniikkapalveluiden arvioinnin kanssa. Kokonaisvaltaisemman näkökulman hahmottamiseksi ja tarpeiden tunnistamiseksi haastateltiin myös laajempaa toimijajoukkoa, kuten muiden kuntien opetustoimien, Opetushallituksen ja ministeriöiden asiantuntijoita sekä yritysten edustajia. Lisäksi selvitettiin Singaporen perusopetuksen tilanne ja käytänteet kansainvälisen vertailutiedon saamiseksi. Keskeisiksi koulujen tietotekniikkapalveluiden arviointitekijöiksi nousivat käyttäjätarpeet, palvelutaso, hankinta ja ylläpito, kustannustehokkuus ja ekologisuus.

This research report investigates and analyzes the pros and cons of different ownership and governance models of infrastructure networks. The report covers most infrastructure networks: transportation networks (roads, streets, railways, airports, harbors) and utility networks (water and sewage, energy and electricity). There is no unifying solution that would fit all sectors in terms of the most efficient ownership model. However, in many sectors reforms are needed towards more elaborated client-supplier frameworks to ensure greater efficiency and cost transparency. Surprisingly, traditional organizational structures do not seem to impact on financial returns of those networks that provide user-financed services. In Finland technical infrastructure networks are typically owned, administered and managed by the public sector as they are considered public goods and critical assets for the wellbeing of citi-zens. In many ways the sectors have remained passive and with little interaction towards more innovative service provision solutions or organizational models. In terms of developing the networks' services and their profitability, the greatest business opportunity would result from allowing open entry to market and competition in contracting. This would mean abandonment of negotiated contracts and proactive evolution of functional markets. The scope of business opportunities will increase in all aspect of service delivery; from management to engineering and economic studies, asset management systems, construction and maintenance works, and the labor to do all that.

The benefits of meteorological information services have been widely studied, but a coherent view of the impacts of these services remains elusive. Meteorological information services must be seen primarily to have potential positive impacts on the functions of society: only in that light will their true worth emerge. This paper looks at the value of the services for society as a whole. In addition to their methodological contribution to the value assessment of meteorological services in general, the services of the Finnish Meteorological Institute represent an empirical case. Evidently the value of information is set to play an increasing role as societies grow increasingly information intensive. The results of the empirical case were explicit. The total value of benefits generated each year by the Institute's services exceeded the annual budget of the Institute many times over. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society

In the intelligent transport system development community there is an interest to develop new advanced services based on transport information. The new services are planned to create increased value to end users and other stakeholders. Since not all advanced services can rely on public funding, also the financing and earning models need to be considered. This paper reviews the current transport information service business models and discusses the experience and development trends in the field.

This research report looks into the benefits of hydrological and meteorological information services in Croatia. The benefits generated by the services were investigated by beneficiary sector, each sector studied by different researchers. The methods used were mainly literature reviews and statistics, expert interviews and workshops, and analytical, conceptual and qualitative model building and modeling of expected impacts. Assuming that the annual budget of DHMZ is about 8 million per year this study concludes that the services delivered by DHMZ pay themselves back at least 3-fold each year. Taking into account all the excluded sectors, it further concluded that the factual ratio is even higher. The results seem to be in line with other research results. By improving the services, especially their deliverance, substantial additional benefits can be generated hence justifying the investments in the improvement of hydrological and meteorological services.

This Special Issue of IET Intelligent Transport Systems focuses on aselected set of papers presented at the 10th ITS European Congress inHelsinki that took place in June 2014. The papers deal with a varietyof ITS topics, reflecting the orientation and many focus points of theconference.Some of the papers deal with familiar ITS themes such aslogistics, ramp metering, public transport management andinformation, winter maintenance and short-term forecasting, wheretechnological advances and novel solutions have providedenhancements and an improved level of service. Some papers alsoreflect the growing interest in ITS for electric vehicles, vehicleconnectivity, including the automated emergency call systemeCall, and road vehicle automation. Furthermore, papers show anddiscuss the need to study the fundamental elements in thedevelopment and deployment of such new systems and servicesincluding technologies, system architectures, human factors andevaluation.Also covered by the Special Issue papers is the development ofnew tools and methods for ITS service development andevaluation, with enhancements to cost benefit analysis andmultiple criteria analysis in order to evaluate multiple types of ITSservices, models and simulators - including multi-driversimulators. Advances in big data mining are raised as well asservice ecosystem analysis.

In developed countries, the public sector allocates substantial resources to support entrepreneurship. Current literature provides limited evidence on how public advisory services should be efficiently and effectively organised. This study investigated what the perceived significance and service level of public advisory services is. A single case study focusing on a sparsely populated region in Northern Finland was performed by carrying out orientation interviews and a customer survey. As a result of this study, the levels of successfulness and the importance of the public advisory services were clarified from the customers’ perspective. The results imply that the services are particularly important in the very beginning of the development of the business. It is also then when the most tailoring is called for. This research includes a novel sample, reflecting experiences particularly from a northern sparsely populated area. The perceived customer value of the services is a significant new viewpoint.

Although the concept of public-private partnership has been adopted in most countries in the world, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways PPP has been implemented and how the national political, legislative and administrative context affect the success of public-private partnerships. This paper compares the PPP experience of the three post-communist countries - the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland - with that of Finland. It shows that although PPP was equally alien to the countries' political and administrative systems, Finland has managed to implement PPPs without any serious problems while in the three transitive countries the same process produced numerous major failures and controversies. Several factors behind this contrast are identified including political and institutional stability, different nature of regulatory frameworks and established managerial practices. In the end, important lessons are drawn from the cases for both the most developed and transitive countries implementing PPPs.

The paper contributes towards improving the understanding over the potential of bioeconomy by focusing on a regional context. The study is realised by applying a combination of PESTEL analysis, resource analysis and analysing true and potential cases with high bioeconomy relevance and potential for substantial commercial volume. Hence, this article combines approaches of strategy development and analyses cases in bioeconomy context with a specific regional perspective. The results provide an overview on the potential of bioeconomy, particularly that of Northern Finland, but also the entire country. The article brings forward sustainability considerations aside from demonstrating the complexity inherent to the topic. Opportunities and potential are demonstrated by presenting case examples. The findings can benefit both the academia and those involved in planning and implementing relevant actions towards bioeconomy - both in general and in the selected setting.

The Euroregional VIKING program includes several projects that have potential as intelligent low-volume road applications. In Finland, traffic volumes are on average very low and therefore the telematic applications often are designed to fit into low-volume traffic conditions as well. Some relevant projects are introduced. The projects include applications such as weather-controlled variable message signs and speed limits, local ferry traffic management, animal detection and warning system, cross-border data exchange in rural areas, and some ideas for the future such as managing the forest harvest traffic and low-cost road weather monitoring. Some of the experiences gained are encouraging but a lot of research needs to be done in future years. Although the applications described are evaluated as potential low-volume road solutions, many other applications may become available as the real prices of telematic equipment and systems fall over time. Recent estimates of the fall of real prices suggest that prices may decrease significantly, perhaps within 1 decade.

The estimation of vehicle kilometers of travel at various levels of a road network is one of the key tasks of any road and transport authority. This paper introduces a method to estimate the vehicle kilometers of travel. Stratified probability proportional to size (PPS) cluster sampling has been applied as a developmental tool in the kingdom of Morocco. The PPS sampling is based on classical statistical theory. Using the PPS sampling together with stratified sampling, it is possible to optimally allocate counting resources so that an acceptable level of reliability can be obtained in different parts of the network. In addition, the costs of countings may be included as part of the optimization. The PPS method requires some historical data to weigh different clusters of the road network according to their importance. However, mechanical approaches based on statistical theory alone do not result in satisfactory solutions, but the counting system should also be evaluated taking into account technical, economical, and organizational factors.

Foreign drivers are considered to be a greater risk than domestic drivers in most countries in the world. Few empirical findings have been reported, though. This paper contributes some evidence of the risk of foreign drivers in south-eastern Finland during 1992-1995. Most of the foreign drivers are Russian. Based on accident statistics collected by the police and origin-destination studies carried out on the Finnish-Russian border stations, accident rates were calculated for both Finnish and foreign drivers. The results show that accident rates of foreign drivers are higher than rates of domestic drivers. The winter season is especially risky for foreign drivers. It is argued that the traffic culture of different countries largely explain the differences rather than some specific, technical risk parameters. Some probable risk parameters can be identified in this study, such as a lack of knowledge concerning traffic rules, insufficient winter-time driving skills and winter-time equipment, as well as the general attitude towards traffic safety which is reflected in the driving behavior.

This paper introduces a holistic view to intelligent transport systems (ITS) by providing four different perspectives: the technological, economic, system performance and market views. These perspectives are essential for a thorough understanding of ITS systems, which extend beyond traditional transportation engineering. ITS require management tools related to systems engineering (i.e. architectures); unique features are related to transport economics, and they differ from traditional transport engineering solutions. ITS technologies can improve transport system performance in numerous ways; furthermore, ITS is an important business segment for many technology companies and an industry by its own right. Different types of expertise and management are required for this meta-system, which is comparable to the entire transport system in terms of organisational objectives.

Winter sets particular requirements for winter road maintenance to keep roads and highways open to traffic. Extreme winter conditions present risks for transport system as snowy and icy weather extends travel times, increase risks for accidents and may even restrict the use of the road. Indeed, snowfalls, low temperatures, and blizzards are identified as being the most significant extreme weather phenomena for winter time mobility and transports. Hence, winter road maintenance activities generate significant benefits to the society and contribute to the resilience of the entire system. This article discusses how the transport system resilience can be increased by deploying advanced and emerging technologies and solutions to winter road maintenance. Integrated winter road maintenance and related intelligent transport systems (ITS) enable winter maintenance vehicles to collect sensor data about road surface conditions, and transmit, analyze and utilise the data in real-time. By making use of technologies, it will be possible to increase transport system resilience, e.g. by using existing winter maintenance capacity more efficiently. In practice, integrated winter road maintenance approach enables directing the vehicle fleet to the most critical places, ensuring the correct use of vehicles, clarifying the roles of different actors, and better timing of maintenance operations.

The aim of this research was to evaluate modern ICT procurement practices and ICT deployment in Finnish-speaking schools in the Municipality of Kauniainen. The main idea was to procure ICT services rather than hardware. The school administration defines the needs of schools and procures the services through competitive tendering. The first phase of the research was to review the previous problems associated with the old practices. The second phase was to assess how the new practice has affected the service level, costs and environmental aspects of ICT in schools. The results show that the procurement of services rather than hardware has proved to be the right decision: service levels have been improved, costs have been reduced by about 40% and, due to a longer life cycle for workstations and reduced electricity consumption, the environmental load has been cut by about 50%. The model adopted in Kauniainen requires the schools and school administration to have the skills and expertise to define their needs and the competencies to prepare and execute the procurement process. The most important prerequisite seems to be political will at local level to grant the school administration the freedom to choose the right kind of ICT service system to fit its needs.

This paper explores the use of Industrial Internet application to enhance winter road maintenance. In a pilot application, data is collected and utilized from vehicle-installed sensors, existing databases (e.g. road data), and fixed weather stations. The pilot application WiRMa is an open data platform that connects the different data to be further used and processed by different maintenance management applications. Vehicle-installed sensors observe similar data as roadside weather stations: friction values, road surface condition and temperature, air humidity and temperature. The data is used in road weatherforecasting and maintenance planning. Efficient utilization of sensor data, merging the data with fixed station observation, and wrapping the data into usable formats and information contents requires new approaches in organizing the winter road management. The business ecosystem surrounding and connected to the WiRMa platform is analysed and different roles and responsibilities are determined. An exploratory study is conducted through series of interviews and workshops, involving all the relevant stakeholders, who are also members ofthe consortium piloting the platform. The interviews are used to evaluate the relevance and business case potential of the platform, when compared to standard approaches without a platform connecting the actors and enabling the sharing of the same data. An ex ante costbenefit assessment is carried out in order to see how value can be captured by the ecosystem members. This analysis is defining the members as generic entities with specified roles, not addressing their current business as such. The results of this analysis shows that all ecosystem actors are able to benefit from the platform, but it comes withconditions that relate to the transactions between the members. Also the analysis shows what capabilities and possible value co-creation and capturing methods should be incorporated in order to keep the ecosystem alive. One of the outcomes of the analysis is ‘a statement’ of benefits for the ecosystem. The results can be used to justify further investments in the platform, suggesting also how the investment needs are divided between ecosystem actors. In sum, the primary condition to realize the potential benefits of the platform is the commitment of the ecosystem actors. Without commitments, required conditions on transactions between the parties will not take place, as do neither the coinvestments in the platform. The multi-actor business case challenge is very much present.Other challenges related to the developing of a working ecosystem are discussed at the endof the paper.

While the global economy has suffered in the recent years and projections for the future are highly uncertain, Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) is one of the sectors where growth potential is still envisaged and has shown to be growing in steeper curves than other industry sectors. Evaluating the roles and shares of different stakeholders is challenging due to the involvement of several public and private actors, which complicates the business model value network. The roles in value networks change with the emergence of new business models and technology. With concepts such as open data, open source, and cloud computing, the changes can be dramatic. This paper examines existing business models and, based on those, presents both traditional and modern versions of a generalised business model framework.