Lipas sport facility GIS-database

LIPAS system is developed by the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, various authorities of regional administration, municipalities, environmental administration, sports federations and other organisations, and the maintainers of sport facilities. Practical tasks related to the LIPAS information system are carried out by the LIPAS project of the University of Jyväskylä.

LIPAS, the national database of sport facilities, has been developed for more than 30 years, and the technical applications of data collection and usage have evolved and changed over time. Current LIPAS system was launched in 2019. Municipalities account for entering their local sport facility data in the system.

The LIPAS project is led by Head of Faculty Development Ritva Sakari from the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä. The project manager is Tapani Laakso. The person in charge of data management within the project is Anne Lamberg. The University of Jyväskylä is responsible for the development and maintenance of the LIPAS system. System maintenance is handled by the IT Services of the University of Jyväskylä, and LIPAS application maintenance services by Norppandalotti Software Ky. User support is provided by the LIPAS project.

The LIPAS project operates in collaboration with various parties. For example, user trainings are organised with regional sport administration. Different functionalities and data models are being developed in cooperation based on ideas and needs of the interested parties.

The Lipas project receives operational funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In LIPAS database, the term ’sport facility’ comprises facilities constructed specifically for sports (e.g. sports halls and football fields), routes equipped for sport and outdoor activities (e.g. fitness training, skiing tracks and hiking routes) and particular areas with facilities for recreation and outdoor activities. In other words, the concept includes all the items included in the database. Some of the "sports facilities" in the database are services and structures that support physical activity (e.g., types of information point, cooking shelter, lean-to and maintenance building).

These sport facilities, outdoor activity routes or recreation areas need to be publicly available as well as appropriately maintained and equipped. Places and areas available based merely on Everyman’s Rights are not included in the LIPAS database. For example, a recreation area (a local park, outdoor activity park or equivalent) needs to be marked in the regional building plan or officially established, and must have some equipment or facilities for outdoor activities. 

The sports facilities are not mutually comparable since the way to define them varies widely across different categories. For example, a track-and-field arena with its many performance sites, is counted as one sports facility. On the other hand, a sports hall with places and equipment for different sports may be regarded as one facility (or several facilities), depending on the counting method. Moreover, the sizes of sports facilities vary to a great extent (a multi-purpose hall vs. a small local facility such as a playground).

Sport facilities may serve different purposes in different seasons. LIPAS collects data on various facilities as comprehensively as possible: the same physical facility may be recorded into two or even three different categories reflecting different seasonal usage (e.g. summer/winter). Therefore, the total number usually requires an explanation of the counting criteria. However, it is essential that there is a comprehensive set of data on the sport facilities and the data is also available to people engaged in different physical activities as well as to the maintainers and owners of these facilities.

The LIPAS database collects key information on the conditions of physical activity in Finland. The aim is to keep the data content of the LIPAS system manageable and usable. Technical information on the equipment or structures of the conditions is not collected unless an administrator or user has been defined for the data. The aim is to keep the basic information content of sports facilities nationally up-to-date and comprehensive. The status of the information content is monitored. When the data has been collected in a uniform database from all over Finland in the same way, it can be compared and utilised in services provided by different actors.

The data in the LIPAS database is used, for example, in the consideration of subsidies for the construction of sports facilities, in the assessment of the supply and accessibility of sports facilities, in scientific research, in the evaluation of municipalities' own operations and in online services maintained by various operators. Known users are listed on the www.lipas.fi front page. Let us know if you use LIPAS, and want your organization to be visible on the LIPAS website.

The data recorded in the LIPAS database is publicly available and can be freely browsed at www.lipas.fi. LIPAS also features a report application by which the users can make their own lists and statistics on the sport facilities. Lipas data is delivered for use either as data samples or through certain interfaces to municipal online services, research and development purposes, company-based online services and public services. By entering their data to the LIPAS database, a municipality gains plenty of visibility for their sport and recreation facilities. (Further information about interfaces).

The LIPAS content is open data under the CC BY 4.0 DEED licence. According to this licence, the data can be used freely and free of charge, and the data may be enriched and utilised for business purposes. When using LIPAS data, the source must be mentioned: University of Jyväskylä, LIPAS database and the date of the sample. Due to our limited resources, we recommend that in applications intended for production purposes the data be downloaded to your own server.

LIPAS data are updated continuously, so there may be variance between data samples drawn at different times. The bodies having participated in data collection for this database include the municipalities of Finland, the University of Jyväskylä, associations of recreation areas, Metsähallitus, the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and a number of sports federations. These data collecting partners should also be mentioned when presenting LIPAS data in public.

User project provides support for its users. If you need help with using the database or additional information about the database. You can contact us by email lipasinfo@jyu.fi

Instructions for LIPAS in English