The project ‘Ibiza, Turismo Inteligente y Sostenible’ (Ibiza, Intelligent and Sustainable Tourism) to turn the island into a Smart Island is taking its first steps. By summer, almost all of the 33 beaches included in the project will be monitored. This means that the user will be able to know, in real time, the level of occupation of each beach.
The beaches chosen for their greatest crowds in high season are: Talamanca, ses Figueretes, s’Arenal Gros de Portinatx, es Caló des Moro, Cala Salada, Cala Gració, s’Arenal de Sant Antoni, Port de Sant Miquel, s’Arenal Petit de Portinatx, Cala Sant Vicent, Benirràs, Cala Xarraca, Platja des Pouet, Port des Torrent, Cala Bassa, Platja d’en Bossa, Cala Tarida, ses Salines, es Cavallet, es Bol Nou, Cala des Jondal, Cala Vedella, Cala Carbó, Cala Molí, Platges de Comte, Cala d’Hort, Santa Eulària, Cala Llonga, es Canar, Cala Llenya, Cala Martina, Aigües Blanques and es Figueral.
To do this, artificial vision cameras will be installed which will send all the data and information on the use made of the beaches to the Consell’s technicians. “Visits have already been made and the stakes have been set out to find out if there are any technical problems, such as a lack of coverage. Everything is very advanced,” explains the councillor for Innovation, Javier Torres.
In this sense, he points out that only Cala Salada has presented this problem by not having enough coverage, so “it will be solved in another way”. According to Torres, the capacity control will come into operation in May and its implementation will be implemented progressively.
A mobile application will be set up to access the information; however, it will not be operational “until after the summer”, confirms the island’s director of Innovation, Xavier Santamaria. For the time being, the data will be accessible via the Smart Island web portal.
Other equipment
The project also includes the installation of a fire prevention and early detection system with four cameras in Sant Josep, Sant Llorenç, Sant Antoni and Sant Joan. “If all goes well, some of them could start working before summer. There is a problem with the supply of material and it is expensive to acquire technological equipment, so they do not want to confirm dates,” explains Santamaria.
Regarding the intelligent parking system, the Consell says that it will not start working, at least, until after the season. “The material is beginning to be manufactured because they are panels that are made to measure, so after the summer they can also begin to install the sensors and cameras”. Among its objectives is the location of free spaces. These detection systems will be placed in the parking of the Multicines, Cas Dominguets, es Gorg, Cala Salada, ses Variades, in the municipal subway of Santa Eulària and in Benirràs.
The installation of information screens to optimize the planning of public transport will also be delayed until autumn. And what will take longer are the environmental sensors to monitor in real time indicators such as air quality or environmental conditions at various points of the island. “This is where the local councils and the Coastal Demarcation come into play and we are working with them, so it will take longer than the rest,” stresses the conseller.
Data processing
What will be launched this month is the so-called Data Processing Center or, in other words, the server room. This will be the infrastructure that will house all the technological equipment, such as servers or backup systems, which will receive and manage the project’s data.
“Initially it will not receive data, but it will allow us to configure everything so that it can be set up when the sensors start working,” says Santamaria. It will be installed in a room in the Cas Serres multi-purpose building.
At the same time, a videowall has been installed at the Consell de Mallorca Tourist Office (Avinguda Ignasi Wallis, 19). “It is a set of screens grouped to display one or more images in a larger area, which will also have a computer that will manage the data collected from the sensors installed on the island,” says Torres, referring to the control of capacity on the beaches or parking, among others.
However, like the Data Processing Center, it will not be able to function until the sensors are active, so, until then, “it will serve as a tourist attraction,” says Torres. Promotional videos of the island can be projected, for example, and when there is data related to the ‘Ibiza, Turismo Inteligente y Sostenible‘ project, it will be added,” he adds. “The idea is that the main indicators of the project can be visualised and that it can be done in an easy way with graphics,” says Santamaria.
Training for workers
In addition, the workers of the Tourist Office and the IT technicians of the Consell will receive training in this regard over the next few days.
The project is being carried out by the Vodafone-Kapsch TrafficCom joint venture after winning the public tender of the Consell de Ibiza for 4.18 million euros. This initiative is part of the Intelligent Tourist Destinations call launched by Red.es, an entity that depends on the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.
The maximum period to complete the execution of the works defined in the tender is 24 months from August 30, 2021, the project launch date, and all work can be carried out simultaneously over time.
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