Lasse Johansson, doctoral candidate and senior researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, will defend his dissertation at LUT University in Lahti on Friday 12 September 2025. Johansson studied the collection of shipping emission data and its use in environmental impact assessments.
Johansson has studied shipping emissions and their environmental impacts and urban air quality for over a decade. The outcomes of his research will be utilised by organisations such as the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM), the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will also make use of the research results soon.
“I have developed emission models and local and global applications for them. Those tools are mainly used by the Finnish Meteorological Institute. In practice, we produce data on environmental pressures caused by ships, which European air quality modellers, for example, draw on as a data source. The data is also used in global emission inventories maintained by the EU,” Johansson explains.
Data to back up decision-making
The extended shipping emission model STEAM examines each ship individually and takes advantage of their automatic identification data. The technical characteristics of the vessels are obtained from commercial databases. The model can also be used to simulate future scenarios. The data is needed to support decision-making.
“The model calculates the current emissions of vessels, but it can also model future emissions in scenarios where global regulations mandate ships to use lower-emission fuels. Current and future scenarios are used in global health, environmental, and climate impact assessments for the development of regulations,” Johansson says.
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Separate tool for urban air quality monitoring
Johansson has also developed an urban air quality monitoring system. The ENFUSER model is used for the continuous monitoring of air quality in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Real-time air quality information is available on the web site of the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority HSY.
”An open-source version of the urban air quality monitoring system is available in Github. Anyone can use it. Unofficially, the model also covers Tampere and Turku. In addition, we've piloted the system internationally in places such as Nanjing, China, and Delhi, India. Naturally, we use modelled vessel emissions if there is maritime traffic near the modelled area,” Johansson adds.
More information
Lasse Johansson, senior researcher, Finnish Meteorological Institute, lasse.johansson@fmi.fi
