This project aims to determine, what kind of new and supplementary data as well as method recommendations can be produced by carbon sinks in built environment to support the low carbon work of cities. The focus of the project in the Uusimaa region is on the processing of laser scanning data. By utilising existing data sources as well as the ones produced in the project, pilot-type location data is produced, the usability and significance of which will be determined in city organisations on a practical level. Furthermore, the project investigates the overall need for the necessary data and the usability of the existing materials for the low carbon work of cities and, on the other hand, the need for further processing. 

Finland's pursuit for carbon neutrality is largely based on carbon sinks in the land use sector. For the year 2035, we are aiming for a situation where emissions and carbon sinks are in balance. According to recently confirmed preliminary information, the land use sector has, however, in 2021 turned into a source of emissions, and with regard to Finland's low-carbon goal, we are back to square one, the levels of the1990s. It is now of increasing importance what kind of low-carbon work is done regarding the carbon sinks of natural environments in urban areas. However, it is not always clear how this work should be done, lead and followed in municipal organisations.

In Finland, special attention has been paid to carbon sinks in urban and zoning areas for already twenty years. Open data is already available on the topic in the capital city area. Based on project preparation, however, it seems that the existing data reserves are still scarce, slowly updated, imprecise, poorly known, and difficult to use in practical work. Although the main part of the practical work is committed to producing new data sources and presentation methods, the project will also find out what kind of situation the cities' low-carbon work should be based on. The main needs of the data are focused on land use planning and for more detailed zoning work and, on the other hand, for the maintenance of green areas. But apparently also city management needs, e.g., an annually updated situational picture of the carbon sinks and storages of the city area. 

In addition to the collection and processing of measurement data, an important part of the project is the way the data is presented as well as the actual visualisation. For this objective, the focus is on presenting the data as a part of digital 3D city models. In the project, a pilot will be created to help estimate the information needs and features of such presentation method. As a result of the project is a publication "Data reserves related to urban natural environments in low-carbon work". The publication aims to be descriptive, practical and concise - instead of a scientific presentation. Another output is a pilotable 3D city model environment, through which it is possible to view the presentation of relevant data reserves and user interface issues. In addition, the project creates directly usable data reserves that will be distributed to the project's pilot partners. The first partial products of the project we will be able to share as early as 2024 through the communication channels of the project, e.g. as videos and as blog posts. The project will also implement a series of three webinars. 

The project will be implemented simultaneously in both Uusimaa and Kanta-Häme regions. These implementations are mostly similar but In the Uusimaa area, the project implementers are Sykli Environmental College (coordinator) and as partial implementers the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) of the National Land Survey of Finland, the research units of Aalto University/The Research Institute of Measuring and Modeling for the Built Environment, and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. In the Kanta-Häme area, the project implementers are Sykli Environmental College (coordinator), the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) of the National Land Survey of Finland, the Finnish Meteorological Institute and Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK).