How Internet of Things technology is bringing efficiencies to the management of public parks

LoRaWAN technology helps councils to manage parks more efficiently with a range of sensor-based solutions for multiple benefits. GDPR compliant people counting solutions enable councils to know how many people are using public spaces. Soil moisture sensors can enable more efficient irrigation for improved tree and plant health as well as helping to save time, money, and water.

Las Vegas Smart Parks Initiative

IoT World Today’s article looks in detail at the wireless solutions and the benefits of their smart parks initiative.

This smart city pilot targets public parks to ensure safety and to optimize city resources. “If you’re in the park after 9:00 at night, we can alert law enforcement that someone is there and respond accordingly and manage safety,” Michael Sherwood, the director of innovation and technology for the city of Las Vegas, said.

Alternatively, the city doesn’t need to send law enforcement to the park if no one is there. “We can maximize our staffing resources.”

The project also counts the number of people in the park and at various locations to analyze how park assets are used. “From a business perspective, we can determine, ‘Is the park being utilized to its fullest extent?’” Sherwood said. “‘Are people not using the basketball courts, or are they using all the basketball courts and not using other assets within the park’? All that data can “Improve citizen safety and first responder safety while also increasing citizen satisfaction,” he said.

The smart parks initiative expands on the city’s use of IoT sensors at street intersections, which manage traffic flow. Sensor timing is based not only on the vehicles near a streetlight but also pedestrian counts, which the city has now instituted for its smart parks initiative.

“Originally, this concept came from our vehicle counting system in intersections to improve traffic flow. We modified the algorithms to adjust from counting vehicles to counting people.” Similarly, Sherwood said, the smart parks project could in turn be applied to other uses if successful. “If we perfect it for smart parks, there are a lot of other uses for it,” he said.

The focus on efficiency and optimization makes sense. According to a recent Ovum “IoT Enterprise Insight Survey 2019-2020,” report 56% of enterprises said enhancing efficiency and productivity was a top-three IoT goal for them, while 49% put improving product or service quality in their top three and 37% chose cost savings.

Healthy Urban Green Spaces

ConnectedGreen use soil moisture sensors in landscaping projects including Amsterdam’s Museum square, the MH17 memorial planting, public parks, private properties and professional sports fields. Sensors are crucial where success is directly related to plant health to prevent the expenses occurred due to over or under-irrigation.

Soil moisture data means you can irrigate based on data saving time, money and water – reducing costs and environmental impacts.