Lapland UAS DIT4BEARS team visited reindeer owner on field trip. The DIT4BEARS team has planned a couple of field trips during this autumn. On these trips we visit and interview reindeer owners in northern Finland.
These interviews are related to our use case in DIT4BEARS project. We focus on these themes:
In our Connected Reindeer use case, the main goal is to improve traffic safety by preventing reindeer accidents. Our host on the first field trip was Mikko Koskenniemi. Team spent couple of hours discussing the themes with Mikko. We met at his house in Pello in the western border of Lapland. The place was right beside the Tornio River. The interview was very informative. We gained insights on attitudes of reindeer owner regarding the tracking of the animals. Currently, there are many benefits of the tracking solutions for the reindeer owners. However, their use in traffic safety has still room for improvement. Annually 4.000 reindeer are lost in traffic accidents in Lapland. Sufficient usage of reindeer tracking devices is important in improving road safety. Tracking data should be more real-time. Another thing is the sharing of reindeer tracking data to apps that can warn the vehicle drivers. Lapland UAS DIT4BEARS team continues these field trips in autumn 2021 to deepen our understanding of the current situation of reindeer tracking.