News
Improving the safety on the canals: Global Guide Systems
After a successful pilot as part of the Startup in Residence programme, Global Guide Systems and Waternet agreed to implement their platform to monitor the ship movement on the canals of the city of Amsterdam. The primary objective is to use it as a tool for intelligence-led enforcement.
Global Guide Systems
Global Guide Systems is a young company that is an expert in combining real-time data of objects and transform this data into meaningful information. With different products for the tourism and transport market and Smart City solutions we offer a broad range of solutions. The smart city platform was a perfect match with the challenge of Waternet to improve the traffic flow and safety on the canals
Pilot
During the Startup in Residence programme of the city of Amsterdam we have executed a pilot in which we proved that we are able to monitor the ship movements of all commercial ships in the city. For these ships it is mandatory to use a so-called AIS transponder, which is a radio beacon that transmits the position and status of the ship. We have set up a dense network of antennas in the city which receive those signals and by combining those signals, it gives a complete overview of the ship movement in the city in real-time.
Intelligence-led enforcement
The pilot proved that this works very well. Despite the many obstacles (buildings etc.) in the city, it is possible to generate an accurate, complete, and real-time overview of the ship movements. After evaluating the pilot we came to the conclusion that the platform would fit perfectly as a tool for intelligence-led enforcement, which is is an important focus for Waternet and the municipality. We have agreed to use the platform to build two use-cases, which are: automatically checking mooring permits and measuring noise disturbance on the waterways.
The platform will support the law-enforcement department of Waternet by collecting evidence of ships that are moored at places that they do not have a permit for. This is now very difficult to enforce. Noise disturbance will be measured first on “De Wallen” area, where this is a problem at hand. This enables Waternet to collect evidence of the noise level and to be able to respond quickly, even before complaints from citizens.
Process
We are very pleased that we have been able to convince Waternet that the platform is a valuable aid for enforcement, and there are a multitude of other possibilities ahead. The road towards this important milestone has been an interesting journey for us. As a start-up with little experience in the public domain it was difficult to find our way in the interesting world of the municipality. An extra factor was the new permit system for the shipping companies in Amsterdam, which affected many stakeholders that are important for us. The decisiveness of Waternet has been an important factor towards the end.
The platform including the agreed functionality is planned to be live at the end of 2017. Global Guide Systems uses this platform for many use cases and clients, but being able to contribute to the social issues the municipality struggles with makes it extra worthwhile.