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nitially aimed at identifying trends and contributions in the extensive field of \"Tallinn Manual,\" this article examines 26 academic publications related to Tallinn Manual, which were featured in journals indexed in the WoS (Web of Science) from 1998 to November 2022. In this survey, we have conducted a thorough analysis of relevant keywords and reviewed numerous articles to determine their connection with the subject matter. Our study encompasses various parameters, such as the amount of publications per year, classification of article types, primary authors, academic journals, and the highest frequently cited articles. Moreover, we have examined citation counts for journals, authors, and articles. The outcomes of our study suggest a noticeable growth in the number of articles related to the Tallinn Manual between 1998 and November 2022, indicating an increasing trend in the influence of Tallinn Manuals before 2020. The research on Tallinn Manual has captivated the attention of several scholars during the study period. Notably, scholars from the United States, Australia, England, the Netherlands, and South Korea have made substantial contributions to this subject. Our study stresses the fact that the notion of Tallinn Manual has piqued the interest of academic researchers, leading to noteworthy advancements in Tallinn Manual research.

Given ongoing developments altering social and spatial cohesion in urban societies, a more comprehensive understanding of segregation is needed. Taking the 'mobilities turn' at heart, we move beyond place-based segregation approaches and focus on the practised urban experiences of individuals through a more comprehensive assessment of their activity spaces. This study contributes to people-based segregation research by mapping the activity spaces of individuals on the basis of mobile phone data in Tallinn (Estonia) and relating these activity spaces to (mainly) the users' ethnic background (i.e. Estonian versus Russian). Significant ethnic differences in terms of (1) the number of activity locations, (2) the geographical distribution of these locations, and (3) the overall spatial extent of activity spaces are found. We also find that these differences tend to deepen as the temporal framework is extended. We discuss the main implications for segregation research and highlight some avenues for further research.

The ongoing discourse on air quality and climate changes positions walkability as a pivotal point of sustainable urban planning. Urban studies examine a city’s walkability in terms of pedestrian flows, design qualities, and street network topology, leaving walkability comparative frameworks under development. Building on the space syntax theory, this research introduces a “walkability compass”, a four spatial indicator-designed tool for city walkability assessment and comparison. The tools are being tested on eight Baltic region cities: Vilnius, Kaunas (LT), Malmö (SE), Riga (LV), Tallinn (ES), Gdansk, Bialystok, Lublin (PL). The nine-step method framework integrates four indexes: Gravity (Gr), Reach (Re), Straightness (St), and Population density (Pop). The “walkability compass” results reveal significant Re and St correlations; thus, visual and cultural aspects become the main factors in pedestrian-friendly cities. The spatial pattern typology has matched similar cities (Malmö and Kaunas) to work closely on sustainable urban planning development. In all case studies, specific walkability zones were mapped, but the Gr zones turned out to be the most compact ones (the Z-score of Gr was ranged from 355.4 to 584; other indexes oscillated between 209.4 and 542.6). The walkability mapping results are publicly shared via WebMap to stimulate the participatory discussion on case studies cities further development.

Over the recent two decades, land use/land cover (LULC) drastically changed in Estonia. Even though the population decreased by 11%, noticeable agricultural and forest land areas were turned into urban land. In this work, we analyzed those LULC changes by mapping the spatial characteristics of LULC and urban expansion in the years 2000–2019 in Estonia. Moreover, using the revealed spatiotemporal transitions of LULC, we simulated LULC and urban expansion for 2030. Landsat 5 and 8 data were used to estimate 147 spectral-textural indices in the Google Earth Engine cloud computing platform. After that, 19 selected indices were used to model LULC changes by applying the hybrid artificial neural network, cellular automata, and Markov chain analysis (ANN-CA-MCA). While determining spectral-textural indices is quite common for LULC classifications, utilization of these continues indices in LULC change detection and examining these indices at the landscape scale is still in infancy. This country-wide modeling approach provided the first comprehensive projection of future LULC utilizing spectral-textural indices. In this work, we utilized the hybrid ANN-CA-MCA model for predicting LULC in Estonia for 2030; we revealed that the predicted changes in LULC from 2019 to 2030 were similar to the observed changes from 2011 to 2019. The predicted change in the area of artificial surfaces was an increased rate of 1.33% to reach 787.04 km 2 in total by 2030. Between 2019 and 2030, the other significant changes were the decrease of 34.57 km 2 of forest lands and the increase of agricultural lands by 14.90 km 2 and wetlands by 9.31 km 2 . These findings can develop a proper course of action for long-term spatial planning in Estonia. Therefore, a key policy priority should be to plan for the stable care of forest lands to maintain biodiversity.

Rapid digitization of the maritime sector has heightened its exposure to cyber threats, calling for a reexamination of international legal frameworks. This study examines how the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) could be adapted or supplemented to govern emerging Maritime Cyber Operations (MCOs) more effectively. Using a multi-level governance perspective that integrates legal analysis and case studies, we identify critical gaps in UNCLOS and related maritime law. UNCLOS currently struggles with unresolved jurisdictional ambiguities across territorial seas, exclusive economic zones (EEZs), and the high seas. There is also persistent uncertainty about whether cyberattacks qualify as ‘uses of force’ under international law, and existing enforcement mechanisms are ill-equipped to address cyber operations by state or non-state actors. Although soft-law efforts like the Tallinn Manual 2.0 provide helpful interpretative guidance, they lack binding authority and broad consensus. Additionally, ongoing technical vulnerabilities in crucial maritime infrastructure—from port automation systems to undersea communication cables—further compound these governance challenges. To confront these issues, this paper proposes an integrated multi-level governance approach. It recommends updating UNCLOS (potentially via a supplementary protocol), adopting industry-wide cybersecurity standards, and strengthening both regional and international cooperation. By bridging the legal and technical aspects of maritime cybersecurity, the study offers policymakers a structured set of practical strategies. This framework is intended to lay a foundation for future policy that addresses urgent maritime security needs while preserving the efficiency of global maritime commerce in an increasingly digital world.

This study aimed to field tested the “Avoid the Needle” (AtN) intervention to reduce transitions from non-injecting to injecting drug use in two different epidemiological settings. Respondent driven sampling was used to recruit current non-injecting drug users (NIDUs) in Tallinn, Estonia in 2018-19 and in New York City (NYC) in 2019-20. Both persons who had never injected and persons who had previously injected but not in the last 6 months were eligible; a structured interview was administered, a blood sample collected, and the intervention administered by trained interventionists. We recruited 19 non-injectors from Tallinn and 140 from NYC. Participants in Tallinn were younger and had begun using drugs at earlier ages than participants in NYC. The primary drugs used in Tallinn were amphetamine, fentanyl, and opioid analgesics, while in NYC they were heroin, cocaine, speedball, and fentanyl. Six-month follow-up data were obtained from 95% of participants in Tallinn. The study was interrupted by COVID-19 lockdown in NYC, but follow-up data were obtained from 59% of participants. There were minimal transitions to injecting: 1/18 in Tallinn and 0/83 in NYC. There were significant declines in the frequencies of using readily injectable drugs (fentanyl, amphetamine, heroin, cocaine) from baseline to follow-up in both sites (Cochran-Armitage tests for trend, χ2 = 21.3, p < 0.001 for New York City; and χ2 = 3.9, p = 0.048 for Tallinn). Reducing transitions into injecting is a potentially very important method for reducing HIV transmission and other harms of drug use. Further investigation and implementation of AtN type interventions is warranted.

The transformation of urban policy, resulting from ‘creative industries’ policy developments, is explored in this article, with respect to the Baltic capitals. Policy initiatives in the creative industries in Central and Eastern European cities have predominantly developed through policy transfers from Western Europe, with its long-term market economy experience. How adaptable are such policies for post-socialist cities? Using the concept of social innovation, this article describes mechanisms that facilitate policy acceptance and examines whether and how the development of creative industries has resulted in urban policy renewal in the Baltic capitals.

Urban road safety remains a pressing global challenge, with approximately 300,000 annual pedestrian fatalities attributed to vehicle collisions. While speed reduction is a well-established safety intervention, universal speed limit reductions can lead to negative externalities like increased travel time and pollution. To address this conflict, this study introduced an agent-based model integrating multi-agent transport simulation mobility and micro-simulation with pedestrian safety modeling for urban e-planning. Our granular analysis reveals nonlinear relationships between speed limits, safety outcomes, and travel times. Specifically, we identified instances where seemingly minor speed adjustments lead to significant and disproportionate changes in safety and travel time. Our framework provides urban planners with an anticipatory phase diagram of speed limit impacts, enabling evidence-based strategies and informed decision making. This research advances sustainable mobility planning by facilitating speed management and balancing safety and mobility within complex urban systems.

Within the BlueHealth project, funded under the Horizon 2020 European Union research framework, a number of targeted experimental design interventions created in virtual reality (VR) were used to test the effect and impact of planning and design on encouraging people to use various blue spaces. A set of designs in three different coastal landscape types—a cliff/steep slope; a sandy beach and an area of reed beds—located in Tallinn, Estonia, were used as the sites for nine different intervention designs. The designs were based on a combination of the site features and inspirations from solutions found in different locations internationally. Using 3D modelling and a Virtual Reality system, a set of nine videos, one to depict each intervention, was created and shown to a quota sample of 252 Estonian residents. Respondents were asked a set of questions associated with each option. The results were analysed statistically and qualitatively. The results uncovered key preferences for designs and revealed differences among age groups and the levels of personal interconnection with nature. However, there were problems associated with the interpretation and understanding of some of the options by some of the people due to the degree of realism of the VR representations, which may have affected the results. The project shows that VR could be a useful tool for testing design ideas as part of public participation approaches but that care is needed in ensuring that viewers understand what they are assessing.

Over the last two decades, international humanitarian law (IHL) has seen a stalling with regard to States’ willingness to adopt treaties or to be formally involved in the development of IHL. This raises the question of whether holding on to the doctrine of sources as laid down in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice is the only way to meaningfully further develop IHL. Indeed, in recent years IHL instruments have often dispensed with certain formalities that are traditionally linked to (the formal sources of) international law; this phenomenon is also called “informal international law-making” (IIL). The present contribution will analyze IIL as an alternative way forward in light of the current “deadlock” caused by States’ unwillingness to conclude new IHL treaties or to recognize customary IHL. In this article, we will investigate and assess the opportunities, shortcomings and pitfalls offered by informality by looking into examples of IIL within IHL. More concretely, we will look into State practice in relation to (1) the Safe Schools Declaration, (2) the Tallinn Manual and Tallinn Manual 2.0, and (3) the Montreux Document. Most importantly, our findings will assess whether IIL can overcome one of its alleged main disadvantages: its lack of effectiveness.