When the Sea meets City: Transformation towards a Smart Sea in Finland

The Baltic Sea is increasingly becoming a living laboratory for rapid prototyping and testing solutions from cleaner and safer shipping to remote and autonomous navigation. The maritime industry in Finland is rapidly undergoing digital transformation to make activities at sea smarter. A Smart Sea can be understood as an ecosystem across city and sea interface in which businesses, knowledge institutions, citizens, municipal agencies and government collaborate towards shared situational awareness and create value in multiple dimensions – economic, social and environmental. This article presents Smart Sea implementation journey in Finnish public sector through notable improvements and setbacks, and identifies larger transformation effects for the society.