Tampere stands out in the sustainable urban logistics project with digital innovations

The SPOTLOG project brings together solutions for sustainable transport and logistics in medium-sized cities and their surrounding areas. 

‒ The project highlights grass-roots solutions for passenger and freight transport, which are still heavily dependent on fossil fuels. This work responds to global challenges, says Sami Kalliokoski, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Engineering.  

The solutions make use of the means of smart transport, which in practice often refers to the digitalization of vehicles or transport systems. Smart transport solutions make mobility more efficient, safe and accessible, and reduce emissions from traffic. At the same time, the appeal and attractiveness of urban environments will improve.  

In addition to Finland, nine countries are partnering in the SPOTLOG project: Portugal, Italy, Poland, Latvia, Belgium, France, Romania, Ukraine and Moldova. The project partners present their country's projects at regular intervals in Exchange of Experience (EoE) meetings. 

The best practices are compiled on a platform of the Interreg Europe programme, that funds the project, through which they can be disseminated to regional developers. In order to a policy to be published on the platform, it must first undergo a rigorous review. 

‒ We can be proud to have two best practices from Finland published, says Hanna-Greta Puurtinen, Project Manager for the SPOTLOG project. 

Digital twin as part of smart transport development

Timo Rainio, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Engineering, says that TAMK's next area of expertise in the field of intelligent transport will be the development of digital twins. This is also linked to the latest published best practice of the SPOTLOG project, TAMK Campus Digital Twin. 

A digital twin refers to a digital model created from an environment and its counterpart in real life, which interact with each other. In a smart city, the entire transport system and other infrastructure could be modeled in 3D. 

TAMK Campus Digital Twin refers to a real-time 3D modeling of traffic and public transportation connections in the campus area, which allows different transportation scenarios and solutions to be tested and evaluated. 

Students of TAMK have been involved in the development of the model. In the spring of 2024, students conducted a preparatory survey of commercial and open-source tools suitable for building digital twins. The work was continued at TAMK by a group of trainees in the field of technology, who made the first TAMK campus model in the Unity environment. 

Searching for solutions is a matter of collaboration

The SPOTLOG project engages local communities in the development of sustainable logistics solutions and spreads these solutions to wider Europe. 

The expertise of smart cities and transport is strong in Tampere. A good example of this is the ITS Factory innovation platform in Tampere, which is part of the wider ITS Finland network. The activities involve the city, local businesses and educational organizations. 

‒ TAMK's strength is competence related to digitalization and sustainable development. It is what we want to take to the world in this project," says Petri Pohjola, Head of RDI at TAMK's Industrial Technology Unit. 

Additional information

More information on the SPOTLOG project website