One of the problems that all major cities are facing is traffic congestion, and a surprisingly large part of CO2 emissions stem from cars slow-driving in search of a vacant parking space in city centers. OdinS and UMU have worked in close relation with the Smart City initiative MiMurcia on a solution called Smart Parking and it targets this particular problem.
Smart Parking is a solution which takes advantage of IoTCrawler in two different ways: first, it uses a unified data model based on NGSI-LD, overcoming the constraint of acquiring parking space data across different providers; and second the solution takes advantage of the access control mechanism defined by IoTCrawler in order to restrict the access to the information stored in it. In addition, the citizens of Murcia will be able to obtain a parking recommendation based on the price range they find acceptable and the maximum distance they wish to walk to their destination.
Soon the citizens will be allowed to test the app and voice their assessment, but we are also interested in learning what sort of value does the app provide for the city? In order to find out more about this we have interviewed Francisco Javier Párraga González, Smart Murcia Office Manager and Head of the Territorial Information System Section of the Murcia City Council.
Francisco what is your job with the city of Murcia?
“I basically coordinate all the work of the companies included in the Smart City project MiMurcia. I manage the work for the operation of the Municipal GIS and the creation of a local SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure). In MiMurcia we see citizens as the main beneficiary, and the City Council itself is the entity that provides them with the capacity of optimising a large part of the procedures.”
What were your initial thoughts on the solution we’re building?
“The ability to optimise traffic in today’s cities has a high priority. The way I see it, it is fundamental to focus on reducing parking times for the citizens, which in turn will reduce the volume of traffic and therefore improve the flow and above all reduce pollution, which is becoming a critical factor. They’re all linked and makes it important to solve.
Currently the city of Murcia, as many other large cities, has a prominent air quality problem, where the main problem is vehicle traffic, so we are grateful for any R+D action or development with the capacity to mitigate the traffic problem. We strive to optimizing journeys, reduce pollution due to traffic, improve the load of vehicles circulating and better distribute the occupation of parking spaces.
In order for this type of project to work, I have questions related to the sources of data, the quality of this data and the processes of analysis of the information that will be carried out.”
What new ideas could be based on the IoTCrawler in your opinion?
“The sensorization of cities in Smart Cities projects is already a reality and its integration with this R+D project would allow much more information to be available, such as Reduced Mobility Parking places (RMP), Electric Vehicle (EV) parking places, management of parking occupancy on public roads through analysis of camera images that would indicate exact occupation in real time, not only through access to the concessionaire’s information for regulated parking areas.”