3D Visualization of governance and regulatory layers

The project SOS3D developed a first of its kind 3D visualization of interlinking governance layers, including actors and legislation relevant for the Baltic Sea environment. The project work consisted of systematizing information on legislation and governance layers into a program-readable format and generating a 3D model by using Python and its libraries to build a 3D Plotly Graph. The project enhances a holistic understanding of marine governance and regulation, with potential to reveal gaps and overlaps in regulatory approaches and governance tasks. It promote a better understanding of the governance and legal framework, and increases governance-literacy as complex data is being presented in an easily digestible form. The project was conducted during October 2025, and the 3D model was presented publicly on the 4th November 2025 at the workshop that took place at Sibeliusmuseet on the theme of Konsten att rädda Östersjön – bland paragrafer och performance. The project members were Viljam Engström (project responsible, data input); Carolina Grönberg (researcher, data input); Sukrit Pant (researcher, coding); Jose Teixeira (coding expertise, mentoring). The project was funded by Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) Open Access funding scheme for miniprojects, and its outcomes were: A data set on actors and governance / legislative instruments in the Baltic Sea region, including a set of interconnections; open source code published on GitHub; and the 3D model published on Zenodo.

Relevant links:
Project homepage: https://research.abo.fi/en/projects/3d-visualization-of-governance-and-regulatory-layers/

Code on GitHub: https://github.com/sukritpant/3d-horrendogram

Model on Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17541211