Assignment Type 2

Handling of tourism flows in the City of Veniceby Location based

Services

Daniela OfensbergerStudent-nr.: 0740094Master’s degree programme Applied GeoinformaticsUniversity of Salzburg, WS 2010/11

Table of contents

ConceptThe information-system behind

Use caseSituation at Hot Spots

SmartMap processingFinancing & charges

Access limitations to Venice?Advantages &

disadvantages

2

Concept::: RFID

When the tourists arrive at Venice (by train or by the ferry) they have to pass a station, where they take the RFID-card (size of a credit card, the RFID-tag is implemended)

▫ They can wear this card anywhere they like to (in a pocket, backpack, etc.)

▫ The RFID-tags are identified by readers, positioned at specific locations (see next slide). When a tag is recognized, the readers in the next neighbourhood become resistent to the ID of this tag to prevent (wrong) repeated recognitions in an area.

3

Conc

ept

tagreaderneighbourhood

Concept::: RFID

4

Conc

ept

The RFID-readers are located in the streetsforming a net of readers over the whole street-system (every 50m for more exact location)net on the right at scale 10:1

Every reader has an ID-number!

They are located on each side of the street to prevent the absorbing effect of human bodies!

Concept::: VeniceSmartMap

▫ The VeniceSmartMap shows the places in the city, where an amount of people is located. Based on this information, the user can choose other destinations of interest and other ways to go there. Optional the shortest route to a destination can be calculated (by the system and not by the device).

▫ Thresholds signalize different grades of crowding. It needs to be decided by local responsible persons, which number of people produces the thresholds!! Crowded means:

▫ savety-standards can‘t be obeyed any longer,▫ quality-loss of sights,▫ the tourism flow stops,▫ other aspects

5

Conc

ept

many people

beginning crowding

crowded

Concept::: VeniceSmartMap

▫ The map is generated out of the collected RFID-data, which was transmitted to a server before (the responsibility for the server has the municipality of Venice, the tourist bureau or any private institution).

▫ Because of the reader-ID, the system (presented later) knows, where the reader, which transmitted the data, is located and can adapt the crowding-information for the requesting user.

6

Conc

ept

Concept::: DevicesThe information is generated, when residents and tourists retrieve it

by:▫ Smartphones. Locals can download the application on the Web

Site of the responsible institution for the server; tourists use the Web Site where they booked the travel to Venice. The application...▫ contains a base-map of the city ▫ is able to receive the real time information from the server about the

crowding of the places in the city (→ density map) or calculations for the optimal route

▫ is GPS-capable▫ contains different point and line-information-layers, such as public

transport, sights, restaurants, information points, medical stations etc. can be chosen by the different groups of interest. From these layers, destinations (and the route) can be chosen.There is an additional index implemented, which lists the public services by their names. If a resident likes to go to the town hall, he/she chooses the destination and a point-object and the shortest route will be generted in the map.

▫ Extension: voice recognition (for older or disabled people)▫ The people who don‘t have a Smartphone receive a similar device

at the station/ responsible institution, together with the RFID-card.7

Conc

ept

The information-system behind:

8

Sys

tem

RFID-ReaderRFID-Card

Radio-waves

Server

tourist/resident

Service response

Webservice- Reader-ID- Amount of signals per second (people passing by)

GISService request

- Location (GPS)- (possibly) the desti- nation of interest

- Calculating density in time and- (if a destination was defined) shortest path to destination

Goal: Reducing as much complexityas possible for the user!- density map- (possibly) the shortest path calculated from the GPS-location

Please click to start animation!

Use case::: a tourist...Friday arrives at the train-station

passes access-point 1 and receives RFID-cardstarts the application VeniceSmartMap by his smartphone and asks for the shortest path to his hotel

receives information and takes a boat to the destination

9

Use

cas

e

Saturday

starts the application to receive information for the most popular sights

has a nice day until he gets in a fight with a pick-pocket. Unfortunately he brakes one finger and is not able to choose destinations manually any more. From now, he activates the voice recognition and searches for the next police station.Sunday likes to go to a restaurant not far from the harbour

and asks the application.In the evening, he passes access-point 2 (at the harbour) and returns his RFID-card in passing and happy to win so much time for the city by the application.

Situation at Hot Spots

▫ Some famous places in the city are obviously not going to be “crowd-free“ for a longer time during a day. On these places, the crowd has to be directed in a specific direction to “keep the crowd-flow going“. Supporting are an improved technology or (audio) guided-tours (extension for devices).

10

Hot

Spo

ts

▫ The people need to pass an access-point (which goes conform with RFID-technology, positioned at points where streets are leading in) to get in the flow. Of course they can stop for a moment in the crowd to enjoy the sight. If a threshold is reached, no more people get access, until the flow is going again.

▫ If “new” people choose these famous places as destination despite of crowding (everybody decides on their own when they like to see the sights), the user gets information about how long he has to wait at the chosen access-point.

Famous places and the flows create a smaller system in the entire flow-system of Venice. More and more

people are passing access-points...

many p

eople

begin

ning

crowdin

g

crowde

dTime is going on -beginning crowding is taking place;the crowd is going to be directed...Max. crowding – access is stoppedSome people are leaving the place...

...and the system opens the northern access-points again to keep the flow going + directing.

Please click to start animation!

Situation at Hot Spots

▫ Crowding certainly happens at public transport stations too. In these situations, the information-system is able to send a message to the public transport service and more boats are offered for the users.

11

Please click on the button to go on.

Hot

Spo

ts

VeniceSmartMap processing:

12

Usi

ng t

he m

ap

many people

beginning crowding

crowded

my position

my destination

1) My position2) My destination3) Receiving data4) Calculating routeIf no other route is possible,yellowish areas are prefered

The user can change the route by dragging

The destination is not thefinal one, but should lead tothe optimal access-point

In situations likeshown here, the public transport-service receives an informationfor station Nr. 77:

77

Hopefully new boats aregoing to arrive soon!

Financing & charges

▫ Financing and Charges: Residents don’t have to pay – the system is financed by the visiting tourists. They have to pay a low amount of money (≤ 5€). The charge is included in the transfer ticket-prize to Venice.

13

Fin

anci

ng

Access limitations to Venice?

▫ After a period it is decided, if general access-limitations for Venice are established (the booking-numbers are going to be limited).

14

Lim

itat

ions

, ad

vang

es

▫ Primary▫ Limitations to crowding = more

sprawling of people = increasing residence-quality

▫ Orientation of users▫ Dynamic: Application and system

extensible▫ Secondary

▫ Guarantee of safety in the city▫ Limitations to damage of objects

in the city due to crowding

Advantages/disadvantages of the system

▫ Tourists/ residents‘ acceptance?

▫ Acceptance of costs?

Sources:

Slide 4, 10 & 12:Goolge (2011): Base map of Venice.

<http://maps.google.at/maps?hl=de&tab=wl>(updated: 2011) (access: 2011-01-28)

15