WebPark - location-aware information for location-aware visitors
WebPark is a mobile information system that provides visitors of natural areas and parks with information about their surroundings using smart phones and GPS.
Customer and needs
Natural parks, recreation and tourist areas need to provide better information to visitors in a more effective way. They also need to increase visitors’ safety and protect natural resources. Most park and recreation areas store vast amounts of information: from nature, to routes, to facilities, to emergency services. This information is unavailable or vastly underused to either enhance visitors’ experience or better manage the park.
Solution
Webpark provides information to the visitors of nature areas through the use of smart phones and GPS. A WebPark guide is like a mobile website with dynamic content that changes depending on the visitors' location, time and interests. WebPark was supported by a research grant of the European Commission.
Also visit the official website of the WebPark-project.
Functionality
Using Geodan Movida, any location-determination technology (e.g. GPS) can be used to know the location of the park visitors.
With WebPark, visitors can:
- see their location on a map and find interesting areas or POIs around them or on their route
- create location-based blogging or geo-bookmarks
- receive location-based warnings and information
- estimate time and route to destination
- receive complex information in a simple way
Park managers can keep records of the visitors’ whereabouts and:
- determine the most popular trails/spots;
- count visitors per zone/habitat (for sustainability analysis); and
- generate location-based evidence for park management.
In case of emergency, the system can reveal the real-time location of the visitors who are lost and/or in danger in order to support the rescue operation.
Benefits
For the visitors, the most frequent use of this technology is to answer questions like: ‘What's the name of this plant?’ or ‘What animals can I find around me?’. Another popular use is to receive non-intrusive alerts from the system when something interesting is in their vicinity.
For the area managers, the benefits of using WebPark include the possibility of better managing the areas, of better serving visitors in case of need. WebPark also introduces a channel for selling park information as well as for environmental education.
Also see the web page on tourism and recreation.
