In mid-March 2023, Berlin hosted the annual FOSSGIS Conference, the leading conference in the German-speaking world for free and open-source software for geographic information systems, as well as for the topics of open data and OpenStreetMap. Sarah Schütz, Konstantin Geist, and Mariyan Stamenov from i3mainz and the Department of Geoinformatics and Surveying were in attendance to present their own papers.
Sarah Schütz presented the results of her bachelor’s thesis in the Geoinformatics and Surveying program, which was supervised by Pascal Neis. Her work drew on the GEMEINSAM project, which focuses on analyzing data from sensors in various devices connected to the Internet—such as thermometers, smartphones, and cameras—a field also known as the Internet of Things. While the GEMEINSAM project developed AI-supported building monitoring for visitor management at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Sarah Schütz’s work focused on traffic analysis. By analyzing freely available images from traffic webcams, she developed a prototype of a web-based map to visualize traffic volume. Her requirement: The workflow should be as sustainable as possible, utilize open data, and be transferable to other situations. Consequently, the prototype she developed uses exclusively open-source libraries and services as well as open data.
Prototype visualization of traffic volume on a web map, graphic: Sarah Schütz, CC BY SA 4.0
In his presentation, Konstantin Geist spoke about the importance of public transit for the mobility of older adults. As part of the RAFVINIERT research project, he used spatial analyses and routing algorithms to model the accessibility of various locations and compared the results with walkable accessibility. The city of Mainz served as an example. His analysis showed that in densely populated areas, walkability to facilities relevant for access to services is already very high.
Mariyan Stamenov presented a web dashboard for a visitor information system that was implemented exclusively using open-source libraries. Data from various sensors is analyzed to measure the current number of visitors. In addition, initial approaches have been developed to predict the number of people inside the building at specific times of day. The prototype was developed as part of the GEMEINSAM project and is already in use during a test phase on the campus of Mainz University of Applied Sciences.
