Espoo residents very actively responded to My Espoo on the Map survey
Residents have valuable information about their home town and immediate surroundings. In the My Espoo on the Map survey, residents marked on a map places that are important to them or that they consider to be in need of development. The survey also collected information about how residents travel to different places. More than 3,700 people responded to the survey, and the young people’s version of the survey will be open until 30 November 2024.
The Espoo City Planning Department and Aalto University conducted the survey for the first time in 2020. New themes in this year include local nature and the safety of the environment. They were included because they are especially important for residents.
More than 3,700 Espoo residents responded to the survey during September–October. In total, more than 42,000 places were marked on the map. A majority of the places were shopping spots, recreation places and particularly fine or significant places, gems of Espoo. There are also plenty of places for hobbies and culture.
Survey provides insight into residents’ experiences and expectations
The new theme, the safety of the environment, collected about 2,000 entries. A positive thing was that almost as many safe places were marked as those considered unsafe, about 2,000.
“After residents marked on the map a place they considered safe or unsafe, they gave us additional information about the factors that influence the experienced level of safety. It may be related to things like lighting, traffic arrangements, or interpersonal interactions. This kind of information helps us take safety factors into account even better in planning,” says researcher Laura Malm-Grönroos from the City Planning Department.
“Similarly, we asked city residents to tell us in more detail about their wishes concerning local recreation sites and local nature – things such as open grass fields, parks, meadows or forests that are as natural as possible. This will help us plan so that in addition to natural values, we also take into account the residents’ wishes about the quality of recreation areas.”
Diverse material put to good use
The survey was open to all city residents, in addition to which Aalto University also collected answers by sampling. The responses of young people will be collected through extensive school cooperation that will continue until the end of November.
The city wanted to encourage all residents to complete the survey – including those for whom answering poses challenges. The means with which the City Planning Department encouraged foreign-language speakers to complete the survey included the option of answering the open survey questions in the most commonly spoken foreign languages in the city. A fully accessible version of the survey was produced. In this endeavour, special attention was paid to visually impaired people for whom using a digital map is not possible.
Next, the survey material will be taken to the planning systems of the City Planning Department, where it will be available for planners and experts. Experts will analyse the data from different perspectives, for different purposes. Aalto University will conduct academic research on the basis of the data. In addition, the results will be utilised in the preparation of the Espoo Story, the city’s strategy.
More information about the results and their use in planning will be provided in the My Espoo on the Map website as the work progresses. Go to the My Espoo on the Map survey.
A warm thank you to everyone who responded to the My Espoo on the Map survey!