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Tourism, natural protected areas and Open Source Geospatial technologies

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Tourism, natural protected areas and Open Source Geospatial technologies
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CC Attribution 3.0 Unported:
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Abstract
The Covid-19 outbreak has greatly impacted society behaviours fostering proximity tourism and valorising the social role of peri-urban natural protected areas as key locations for outdoor activities [1]. This shift in habits calls for an adaptation in the next years of the offerings and management of these areas to respond to users' expectations of positive experience opportunities in near-by locations [2]. In the context of digital transformation and peri-urban protected areas, this research investigates the contribution that open geospatial technologies can provide in the creation of new economic, social and cultural values to propose solutions and identify gaps or open issues. The adopted methodology is the “case study approach”, in which real cases are used to design, develop, implement, collect and analyse data to extrapolate information that contributes to a deeper knowledge of the matter. This research is framed in the context of the Interreg INSUBRI.PARKS and among the project’s parks the selected case studies for technological testing are the Parco Gole della Breggia and the Collina del Penz. While being two natural protected areas closely located in the southern part of Switzerland, in the Canton Ticino, they greatly differ for in-place management structure, available offers and users’ type and therefore represents different needs. From the discussion with local tourism organisations and park administrators we have identified three specific aspects that are of particular concern: (a) the creation of 3D digital products, (b) the monitoring of touristic fluxes and (c) the conduction of parks management activities. This work presents the intermediate results of the development and testing of different selected solutions which describes the approach, the issues and the potential of explored solutions with respect to the open source software. 3D digital products - In addition to a more traditional use for conservation scopes and activity planning [3], 3D models can be used to offer positive experiences thanks to an enhanced understanding of specific intangible aspects [4]. For example, in the case study of the Parco Gole della Breggia, it might be difficult for a tourist to fully realise the extent of the anthropic impacts on nature. The area is geologically relevant for the visible calcareous formation hundreds of millions of years old. From 1961 to 2003 the Breggia shores hosted a large cement plant that strongly modified the territory. Today, only a small part of the plant is still in place as a testimonial of the anthropic impacts and element of industrial archeology. To support the perception of the real antropic impact we decide to implement three digital models representing the territory at three key epochs: before the cement plant construction, at the maximum expansion of the plant and at the present state. The present state model can be created by means of laser scanning and photogrammetric surveys while the other two can be realised by digitising historical maps, technical plans and historical pictures. The investigation identified a workflow based on the evaluation of CloudCompare, Riegl RiSCAN Pro and Cyclone 3DR for 3D survey, Regard 3D; GRASS, QGIS and ESRI ArcGIS Pro for spatial data collection and management; Blender, AutoCAD 3D, Rhinoceros and Sketchup for vector modelling of spatial elements; Nubigon and Potree for a better graphical representation and further web dissemination of the results. Monitoring of tourtistic fluxes - The monitoring of touristic flux is important for the correct management of the natural protected areas to assure the Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC) of trails is not exceeded, to assure adequate economic resources are allocated to maintain the assets, to understand the tourist behaviours and consequently develop strategies and plans to maximise the touristic value of the park [5]. While different solutions were proposed to this scope (accelerometers on iron plates and proximity radar sensors) it is important to capture specific tourist characteristics, like for example the presence of animals, the direction and the use of bicycles or cars. To this aim, Machine Learning models can help to automate the collection of such information by image analyses and object detection [6]. The present paper presents a fully open prototype to implement and deploy a real-time tourist monitoring system composed of: sensing device, data communication, data management and data visualisation platform. The system includes the usage of the YOLO open source solutions for image recognition, the OGC SoS open standard and the istSOS implementation for data management and sharing and the open source Grafana software for data visualisation and analysis. The results from the testing of the prototype in two locations for a period of 6 months is presented supplemented with field validation data. Digital Management of Protected areas - Protected areas are currently managed using different tools that are very often scarcely digitised. This approach does not exploit the potentiality of digitalization and does not foster the capacity to extract insights from data. While different open source project management software exists, none is specifically designed to address natural area management processes. For this reason a novel application, based on an open source platform has been developed and implemented. The cloud solution named Park Asset Management (PAM) is based on the usage of PostgreSQL/PostGIS and OpenLayers in conjunction with KeyCloak authorization platform, the Hasura GraphQL Engine integrated in the Vue.js framework. The containerized application offers the following features: park asset management and information sharing, working task management and execution, rentals management, notification management, offering a map interface and a more classic calendar and table views. This platform enables insights extraction like maintenance cost of itineraries, income from location rental by months and by years, cost and time required to replace items and the frequency of occurrence of events.
Keywords
Archaeological field surveyLocal GroupInformation systemsOpen sourceContext awarenessDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Projective planeArchaeological field surveyCollaborationismPresentation of a groupAreaMixed realityGroup actionPolygonComputer animation
Point (geometry)Expected valueDistanceDigital rights managementDigitizingMathematics
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Archaeological field surveyArchaeological field surveyAreaDistanceComputer animation
Time evolutionThermal expansionMaxima and minimaLocal ringCartesian coordinate systemMathematical modelEvoluteAreaOffice suiteVideoconferencingComputer animation
Thermal expansionMaxima and minimaFunction (mathematics)Computer animation
Mathematical modelTime evolutionVector spaceDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Mathematical analysisMereologyInterpreter (computing)PlanningType theoryMappingEvoluteDigitizingComputer animation
EvoluteMathematical modelVector spaceRepresentation (politics)Point cloudPoint (geometry)Archaeological field surveyRange (statistics)Time evolutionMereologyArchaeological field surveyAreaProcess (computing)Mathematical modelResultantBuildingComputer animation
Archaeological field surveyInterior (topology)BuildingRaw image formatComputer animation
Artistic renderingDigital rights managementProcess (computing)Polygon meshMathematical modelSoftware frameworkPoint (geometry)Point cloudRepresentation (politics)SoftwareFile viewerDigitizingPairwise comparisonTransport Layer SecurityVector spaceSelf-organizationMilitary operationOpen sourceFlow separationMathematical analysisSoftwareField (computer science)BitExpert systemInheritance (object-oriented programming)FluxInformationComputer animation
Computer engineeringOpen sourceTelecommunicationSoftwareFluxData storage deviceOpen setArtificial neural networkMedical imagingCartesian coordinate systemComputer animation
Direction (geometry)Abelian categoryMathematical analysisNumberTelecommunicationLine (geometry)Direction (geometry)Object (grammar)MereologyReal-time operating systemElement (mathematics)Server (computing)Visualization (computer graphics)Category of beingSoftwareReal numberComputer animation
Read-only memoryCodeLeakError messageComponent-based software engineeringTelecommunicationTelecommunicationDatabasePrototypeSemiconductor memoryNumberSoftwareElement (mathematics)Software bugLeakSocial classDifferent (Kate Ryan album)ResultantOcean currentPhase transitionAreaComputer animation
Food energyPrototypeCollaborationismProduct (business)PrototypePoint (geometry)View (database)Computer animation
Product (business)Military operationSoftware maintenanceProcess (computing)Service (economics)Self-organizationDigital rights managementComputing platformDisintegrationFront and back endsEvent horizonData storage deviceSelf-organizationComputer architectureInformationInformation securityProbability density functionLevel (video gaming)TowerSpacetimeAuthorizationKey (cryptography)Service (economics)Cartesian coordinate systemInterface (computing)Point cloudSoftwareSoftware maintenanceDigital rights managementCASE <Informatik>DatabaseEmailPoint (geometry)Operator (mathematics)Different (Kate Ryan album)Scripting languageConfiguration spaceInsertion lossComputer animation
Zoom lensEvent horizonEvent horizonResultantPoint (geometry)Level (video gaming)Cartesian coordinate systemComputer animation
Just-in-Time-CompilerTask (computing)EmailView (database)Table (information)Standard deviationOperations support systemDivisorComponent-based software engineeringStability theoryCapability Maturity ModelDigital rights managementOpen setSoftwareProcess (computing)Archaeological field surveyProcess (computing)VideoconferencingWeb 2.0Level (video gaming)Cartesian coordinate systemWeb applicationType theoryProxy serverSoftwareVisualization (computer graphics)Open sourceRepresentation (politics)Frame problemArchaeological field surveyGoodness of fitAreaSystem administratorDivisorValidity (statistics)MereologyTask (computing)Analytic continuationView (database)Table (information)Element (mathematics)EmailStandard deviationSign (mathematics)Library (computing)Different (Kate Ryan album)DatabaseShared memoryTheoryFluxNetwork topologyAuthorizationComputer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
Thank you, thank you everybody for being here. With this presentation I want to discuss with you what we have run and implemented in Subsea together with the collaboration with the Polytechnic of Milan also, particularly the 3D survey group, in the context of an interactive project which is named Subree Parks
that puts together five different small park, suburban parks mostly, in the Aracross border between Italy and Switzerland. So the starting point was that there has been some change in habits of the population of the tourists
and particularly the pandemic and the digitalization processes has shown how proximity parks have been widely used for the citizen and started to get a new real interest also for tourism.
And so the idea was to try to think how we can adapt the offerings and management to meet the user expectations for a positive experience in these parks.
Of course the mainframe that we need to follow is the fact that we wanted to create some real value for the areas and working strictly in collaboration with the tourism authorities, local tourism authorities, its real advantages.
And we wanted to test how can open source technology give their contribution to this creation of value. As a paradigm for digital value creation we can act on each of the five areas of business
so we can create value in the operational and maintenance area to realize and guarantee products for example. Or we can act on the sale and marketing area, for example, growing the sales or in sales and marketing promotional campaign
and then we can work on the management organization of the park, so how to help or to maintain the products, let's say, in this case area, and research and development of new products that can be offered.
And thinking about these five areas we decided to propose three solutions that are impacting different areas. So the first thing was the creation of 3D data models. This will, in our idea, try to develop new products and services
and also help in the maintenance of the products that, let's say, is the area. The other part is the monitoring of touristic fluxes. This can help the park in creating values because this will let the park administration to know better how the park is actually used
and also from the tourism authorities to define better policies. So, for example, also to test how the promotional campaigns works out.
Very often local authorities do some promotional campaigns and they don't even know actually how much benefit they bring to the park. And last but not least, the development of tools for the management of the park and the assets that it has.
So the 3D survey, we used Regal Z4000, which is a laser scanning that can make survey up to four kilometer distance, then Phantom 4 Pro V2 and Leica BRK.
And we concentrated in two areas, which is, one is the Sachebawo Alley in the park of the Goredera Bridge and the other one is the Oratorio Santo Stefano in the Palapens. One area is related to the excavation in that area, which is a Yurbal Park.
There was a cement industry that was excavating the mountains to extract cement and produce cement. And now the industry is stopped and there is some ruins that are used as a architect's understanding of the situation.
And we have developed different models to try to simulate the evolution of the landscape in the history.
So before the arrival of the humans and then when there is the maximum expansion of the industries, and the situation as it is now. And this will be available within the application that has been implemented by the official local tourist office. And we will provide some video that will provide experience of what is invisible to the tourist.
These are some of the outputs that have been generated. So you can see how it was at the maximum expansion, how is it now. And here are some experimental visual analyses.
And the three epochs were used in different types of data. The first type of data was based on the historical maps to reconstruct the terrain and the evolution of the ruins.
Then the second part was developed by digitalization of the plan of the industry, and extraction of, interpretation of historical pictures. And then the last part that has been done with laser scanning survey data, that has been meshed up together.
And these are some of the results you see of the territorial. This is somehow the process of creating a virtual model,
but that is based on the landscape area, it is not related to just architectural buildings. And this is the interior and exterior of the historical church, and this has been done internally with laser scanning, with BRK internal and external,
and also with the phantom, so with photogrammetry, with RAW. These are the tools that have been used by the team. I must say that I'm not the one that did all these processes,
but they use several tools, several software, some of them are open, some of them are closed. And I will discuss a bit this idea, and maybe with some final consideration.
But already from this you can see that, at least my team, which is not an obvious on the fields, but probably is not super expert in open source tools for this 3D analysis, but what comes out is that it's not easy at all to manage all this information using open source only software.
Then I came back to the Touristic Flux monitoring, and here we used a software which is named Open Data Cam 2, which is a software that uses artificial intelligence for classification of streaming of images, and has been used mainly for monitoring of the car fluxes in the streets.
We have took this software and then re-implemented it into a sensor that is connected with using MBIoT communication network and MQTT,
and that stores the data in STSOS, which is an open source software, OSJ open source software. And this application, you see, has been attached to a light and has been installed for over one year.
You see, this is what the software offers, to draw a line and then automatically to recognize the object, account the number of objects that pass this line in the two directions,
so you can have the number of elements that has been classified in one direction or the others. And then we added this whole part of communication to the server in real time, and the visualization and analysis. What we store and what we communicate is the numerosity of the elements,
the directions and the category of the elements that has been classified. So we can have some dashboard, this has been built using Grafana that connects with the ESO software, and produce some of the results of the numbers of different classes of elements that has passed by the monitory area.
And so far we have tested two prototypes for one year in two different parks, we have some minor bug that was due to memory leak and has the memory full,
because we didn't manage correctly the database empty, and some communication issue that needed a replacement.
Currently we are in the phase of engineering the prototype, so in collaboration with a private company we are trying to make this prototype more reliable for the production point of view. The last thing I want to show you is the Spark Asset Management,
which we named PAM, in Italian P-A-M. And the idea was to have an application that can manage the data and the information for the park, but that can be also connected with other tools and other databases.
This is particularly the case for the Swiss tourism sector, where there is a different level of authorities with automatic exchange of information, flowing from the configuration level to the more municipality level.
So information once are entered in one endpoints, they are automatically dispatched to all the level, and the way forward. For the Italian side this was not the case, but the idea was to provide the tools that also in Italy can be used in this way in the future.
So far in this application we managed the assets, so the point of interest of the parks, the operation that has to be done for the maintenance, the organization of events, the booking of spaces, so for example one of the towers of the album center industry is currently used as a venue for small events,
or to monitor the usage and also for collecting notification from the user, from the citizen. This is the architecture of the software that we have implemented, so we used the POSGIS for the storage of the data,
and geospatial data in particular, and the Minio data storage, cloud data storage, for all the information like pictures and PDF and documents. Then we have used Hazura with a key clock for security and authorization service,
and the interface has been implemented using Vue.js. Then we have some other Python script that works in the backend, that collects email automatically and inserts the email in the POSGIS,
so that the user can see directly from the application the notification sent by the user. These are some preliminary results, as I said all these results are somehow not really preliminary,
but are not the final solution, because still we have six months of work until the end, so this is the main idea that will be tested in the next week by the five different parts, so we have the application with the map and a point of interest, and on the right click you can decide to create a new feature of interest,
or create a new activity for the workers, or create new events in some places. And this is how it works, the notification, so the user can take a picture, just share by email,
to the predefined email of the parts, and then automatically when the data is inserted in the database, he receives back a notification that says thank you, we have received your notifications. Then when the park administration decides that this is an important task and needs to be solved,
for example there is a tree on the part of the trailing path to be removed, he assigns the task to one of his workers, and automatically the user that sent the notification gets another notification that says we are taking care of the issues.
And then when the element has been resolved, the issue, he gets back another notification. This is a way to get the user involved with the continuation of the works, and let the user feel that his notification is important
and has been addressed correctly. Mainly we manage to have three different types of views. One is the map, another one is the table view, with some possibility for filtering all the elements,
that can be the activities, or the booking, or things like that. And another one is a task on the side, a frame that allows to create, modify, or delete different elements. The other type of visualization is by a calendar.
I have come to a conclusion. We have tried to implement three different tools that, in agreement with the local authorities and the park administrator, should bring a new value to the natural protected areas,
that has been lately explored by urban citizens. And as a final consideration, I would say that for the 3D data, it's not really easy to implement all the pipeline,
from the survey to the 3D representation, and probably on the web, using only open source software. Maybe we are not skilled enough, but also with, let's say, good level of people, in handling such kind of data was not easy,
and was not maybe easy to find some pathway for the entire processing of the pipeline. We tested extensively Blender for the realization of video or 3D, very close to the reality representation,
and this has a very huge potential, but this also has some issues, sometimes handling geographical data and coordinating with other types of data, with the data import, for example. For the open source, let's say, monitoring instruments and applications that we have created,
this has been a very surprise, it was very accurate, I didn't show, but we did a post, let's say, validation using proxy, so the fluxes of tourists reacted very well,
what was changing in the weather, or in holidays and things like that. But the only thing is that it relies on the use of CUDA libraries, which are from NVIDIA and are properties, and nowadays it's almost impossible to find new Jetson Nano,
for example, on the market, so we couldn't produce the 30 sensor that we want. And last thing is the web application, these use only open source software, and they were the factor standard, and this is a solution that needs to be tested,
because in theory this is very nice, because I allow people to, at the end of the year, the administration to see how much was spent on this part, on this other part, or on the activity, but this requires the actual user and workers
to adapt and use this digital different approach. And thank you for your attention.