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CityFlows Webinar #4 Recap: 5G Applications for Crowd Management Applications

From:  Cornelia Dinca (AMS Institute)
Last edited: 22 December 2020

On Tuesday, December 15, the fourth CityFlows webinar brought together crowd management practitioners and researchers for a knowledge exchange on topics related to 5G applications for crowd management.

If you missed the session, you can watch the full recording below or via https://vimeo.com/497305559

Here’s what you missed…

Following a short introduction, Giovanni Criscuolo and Giuseppe Gammariello introduced ALTRAN’s role in connecting the CityFlows’ Crowd Management Decision Support System (CMDSS) with 5G wireless devices and IoT systems. The goal is to combine 5G connectivity, telecommunication cloud edge architectures and advanced computer vision solutions to obtain video analytics for real time crowd-management. ALTRAN aims to develop a scalable, versatile solution, that is easy and cost effective to implement, and compatible with other smart city services. Following corona-induced delays, work is currently under way to demonstrate these new communication technologies in a living lab at the Milan Central Station.

The second perspective came from Willem Hegen, Manager Crowd Services at the Johan Cruijff Arena (JCA), who introduced a wide range of safety and security, as well as crowd management and mobility innovations deployed at this main entertainment, business and mobility hub in Amsterdam. Willem shared the JCA approach to developing and testing innovations in cooperation with public and private partners in a living lab setting. One example is the Digital Perimeter project, led by the City of Amsterdam and the National Police in partnership with TNO and JCA where several new technologies are being tested including 5G body cams. The goal of this project is to meet safety and security requirements, without building a physical fence around the stadium as is normally required during large events such as the EUFA EURO 2020 Cup (which due to corona is postponed to 2021).

Following these two presentations, CityFlows project lead Dorine Duives led a discussion touching on several technical and social aspects of edge computing and big data applications for crowd management. While 5G and IoT are promising innovations for the upcoming years, Giuseppe reflected on the need for an open and broad societal discussion about the opportunities and risks of these new technologies. Similarly, Willem shared his vision for using these new technologies to enhance the user experience, using data gathered to empower people to make their own decisions – thereby shifting away from crowd management to crowd support.

The webinar ended with an outlook for the CityFlows project in 2021. Dorine anticipated further development of the living lab projects and the scaling of the CityFlows CMDSS-software through the recently launched City Analytics start-up. In 2021, CityFlows will also launch a professional development course focused on best practices and innovations for crowd managers. Practitioners and researchers who would like to share their best practice can connect with Dorine Duives via D.C.Duives@tudelft.nl or Cornelia Dinca via cornelia-dinca@ams-institute.org with a short description of their project or solution.

The CityFlows project would like to thank all presenters and participants who have contributed to webinar series. We look forward to continuing the exchange of knowledge and best practices to help make pedestrian areas more accessible, livable and safe places in 2021!