“Our sustainability programme, which the municipality adopted in 2016, says that we are to increase our residents’ quality of life, and it’s actually one of our main promises,” says Helen Wiklund, a sustainability strategist at Helsingborg Municipality.

The only problem is that even though the goal was admirable, previously it was extremely difficult for the municipality to measure what, in objective terms, quality of life is and whether their efforts were actually making any difference.

“We tested our own follow-up methods by looking at different types of indicators, trying to say something about the whole by looking at the parts. However, some indicators, such as resident assessments of homes for the disabled, were very specific while others, such as the equality index, were very general. Finally, we understood that this didn’t provide a good overall metric.”

Needed better methods

The municipality needed to find better methods, turning first to researchers at Lund University. They conducted a feasibility study in which they recommended that Helsingborg Municipality turn to experts in measurement techniques. In the autumn of 2020, the matter was handed over to RISE, more specifically to the project manager Jacob Wisén at RISE’s Measurements in Society unit.

“We were commissioned by Helsingborg Municipality to develop an analysis tool for quality of life. We spent the first year investigating what quality of life actually is, based on research and how municipal employees perceive the different dimensions of quality of life. We then drafted definitions of the various dimensions of quality of life, such as social relationships and security.”

Next, Wisén and his colleagues looked at how well different indicators actually measure these concepts.

“Most initiatives using multiple indicators to measure different dimensions of quality of life combine indicators that seem to match the chosen definition.”

However, it is not always certain that these indicators are measuring the same phenomenon, making it difficult to say how accurate the measurement tool is.

“In this project, we’re exploring a method that improves the quality of the measurements by sorting indicators based on how well they actually measure the same underlying phenomena, such as health or social relationships.”

The Helsingborg model

The tool resulting from the past two years of work is called the Helsingborg model.

“I want to make clear that this tool doesn’t actually answer any questions about why we see a certain development, but it can offer an overall picture of a city or municipality in terms of quality of life. This enables politicians and public servants to see in which areas the municipality is more or less successful, and then analyse those areas in greater detail,” Wisén explains.

Throughout the autumn of 2022, the Helsingborg model has also been tested by other municipalities.

“We know that we’re not alone in wanting to measure our efforts within sustainable development, and we also know that essentially all municipalities are frustrated by not having adequate methods for measuring and following up. This is why we want to share our model, so that it can benefit more people, and my dream is for it to become a nationally established measurement tool for municipalities,” says Wiklund.

The idea is for municipalities to use the Helsingborg model to answer the question as to whether they are actually creating added value or just think they are.

“I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to develop this model. It makes everything a lot easier while also providing a good tool for dialogue,” says Wiklund.

“However, we never would’ve been able to develop it without RISE. They’re so incredibly competent, in terms of what they know about both measurement and quality assurance. This tool is based on solid analysis, and we certainly wouldn’t have been able to find such expertise internally.”

Our perception of time is tied to the movement of the sun across the sky. The rising and setting of the sun, night and day, the changes of the seasons. For a long time, the sun was the only reference needed. It didn't matter much if time differed in different parts of the country. But as transportation and communication developed, new demands on common time arose. When the railway made its entry, it simply did not do to have different times in Stockholm and in Gothenburg. Nowadays, time is an international matter that is measured by very accurate atomic clocks around the world.

The UTC(SP) time scale

At the National Laboratory of Time and Frequency at RISE, Kenneth Jaldehag and his colleagues are responsible of maintaining and providing Swedish standard time, through the UTC(SP) time scale.

"Many systems depend on accurate time, such as communication systems or financial transactions. We maintain the Swedish time scale and distribute correct time to the companies and organizations that need very accurate time. We also help setting up our customers own time systems and help them with monitoring", says Kenneth Jaldehag.

Measuring the second

Although we all measure time through our watches or phones, we cannot see or touch it. What we are measuring is actually an interval between two events. The time scales are in turn an accumulation of these time intervals. The SI unit for the time interval is the second, which is measured with very high accuracy at the National Laboratory.

"We have five atomic clocks for measuring the second at the National Laboratory in Borås which we use to produce the time scale UTC(SP). The measurements are constantly compared with each other so that we get as good an accuracy as possible and to detect any errors", says Kenneth Jaldehag.

Leap seconds

UTC(SP) in turn follows the international time scale UTC which is coordinated and calculated by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in Paris.

"UTC is a time scale that is based on comparisons between atomic clocks and is calculated, somewhat simplified, by taking the average value from approximately 500 atomic clocks worldwide, including our atomic clocks", says Kenneth Jaldehag.

Back to the sun and our perception of time. The atomic clocks generate the time based on the definition of the second in the SI system. The problem is that the length of the day varies slightly due to changes in the Earth's rotation. The tendency in the long term has been for the earth's rotation speed to slowly decrease; thus, the duration of a solar day slowly increases. For UTC to match the rotation of the earth and the length of the solar day, leap seconds are added from time to time. In recent years, however, the rotation speed has increased, which causes problems:

“In the future we may need to add negative leap seconds, i.e., remove seconds, which can cause major problems for technical solutions”, says Kenneth Jaldehag.

At the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Paris in the fall of 2022, the countries of the world therefore decided to investigate the conditions for a different handling of leap seconds in the future. Read more about the decision (in Swedish).

Predicting time

The process of calculating UTC means that it is not available in real time. For example, the UTC for September is not available until October. The time scales maintained by various time laboratories are, however, available in real time.

"Our task is to match UTC with great accuracy, but there is no clock that has UTC in real time. This means we need to compare our time scale UTC(SP) in relation to UTC in retrospect, but also that we need to predict what we think UTC will be right now and correct our time scale in relation to our prediction. We have a very good grasp of the properties of our atomic clocks and can make these predictions very well", says Kenneth Jaldehag.

Given that you have worked for 27 years at the national laboratory. What is time?

“That is usually the first question I get, and my simple answer is that time is the fourth dimension. In the same way that we are in a position in space, we are also at a point in time and moving towards the next point in time. Our job is about measuring that movement very carefully. But I must admit, considering the work I do, that for me time is mostly a lot of numbers”, says Kenneth Jaldehag.