Smart infrastructure for data-driven decision making

Council is using real-time and historical data insights that identify areas of high use that may require priority maintenance, and monitor environmental impacts caused by heavy rainfall.  Examination of use patterns and trends can also determine popular areas for facility improvement and potential expansion.

Two sites have been the focus of recent IoT monitoring programs designed to:

• improve asset use and maintenance
• support enhanced data collection and real-time/historical insights to improve decision making
• support improved service delivery, scheduling and responses
• help design better public spaces
• create cleaner, more liveable urban areas.

The Sugar Bag Mountain Bike Track is a popular riding location for locals and visitors.
Increasing visitor numbers have significantly impacted wear and tear of the bike tracks, including track erosion due to heavy rainfall. Ongoing maintenance and operational requirements add increasing pressure to already tight council budgets.

Several Internet of Things (IoT) sensors are located at strategic points across the Mountain Bike Track park and trails: 

• 1 x weather station – Provides real-time information about temperature, humidity, wind speed, rainfall and solar irradiance.
• 1 x WiFi probe counter - counts the number of connected devices in the car park area, including dwell time.
• 3 x object detection cameras - count and categorise the number of people, vehicles and bikes in the carpark, at a major track entrance and café area. No private information is captured by these cameras.
• 4 x passive infrared bi-directional counters - use heat signature to identify people passing along the tracks, plus their direction of movement.
• 5 x passive infrared counters – count the number of people entering and exiting at two amenities facilities and three additional trails.
• 2 x vibration counters - Counts the number of bikes crossing over two trail challenges.

These multiple sensors count how many people visit the site each day, how many of them use the bike track challenges and amenities, plus the number of vehicles in the carpark. The data shows a high correlation between the number of vehicles and visitors at the site, and the high use of the amenities. 

The Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve is a 55ha subtropical rainforest in Maleny home to 391 plant species, 141 bird species, and 68 species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Sensors capture people movement to enable efficient visitor management, plus environment data such as temperature, weather conditions, and soil moisture to help understand the effects of seasonal and climate changes on plants and wildlife.

The installation of sensors at the reserve includes:

• 1 x weather station
• 1 x WiFi probe counter
• 1 x object detection camera
• 3 x passive infrared bi-directional counters
• 3 x passive infrared counters
• 1 x soil moisture sensor – measuring soil moisture and temperature
• 2 x environment monitoring systems (EMS) – measuring ambient temperature and humidity
• 6 x temperature probes – utilised to determine usage of BBQ facilities

Data from all sensors is aggregated via a LoRaWAN IoT gateway, which provides a network service. The data is presented on a live dashboard that provides easy access to council staff who can view near real-time and historical trends. Maintenance alerts are sent to allocated staff when a sensor or device is offline or has a low battery voltage.

These projects represent end-to-end IoT solutions that provide low-cost entry and high scale deployment of multiple sensors within typical budget constraints, and can be replicated across council branches. 

This enables significant cost savings compared to 3-5 years ago when individual branches sourced separate, expensive IoT components, often from different vendors. Where the council previously deployed individual sensors in a location using one or two technologies, these projects use a combination of human movement counting and categorisation sensors plus a weather station that captures a range of environmental data. These combined data sets provide an integrated perspective that supports the council’s maintenance schedules and additional funding requests.

The Mary Cairncross Reserve and Sugar Bag Road MTB Track projects demonstrate the council's step towards becoming a data driven organisation that responds and plans more efficient services and facilities, rather than using anecdotal information to understand how people are using the region. 

Evidence-based data can help inform dynamic budgeting based on higher use impacts, such as scheduled events and heavy rainfall, with less funds allocated during quieter months. This data could also inform state and federal grant applications for capital works projects, which increasingly require evidence-based information to support the funding requests.


For more information on how these projects fit within council’s plan to use innovative technologies to deliver social and economic benefits for our region and communities please visit the Smart City webpage:
https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/council/planning-and-projects/major-regional-projects/smart-city

Participants should focus on generating actionable insights from the provided data under the concept of data-driven decision making. The solution format has not been specified and is open to creative solutions (mobile app, report, dashboard, data stream etc.), but the following points should be considered:

• Solutions that employ a proactive (not reactive) approach will be looked upon favourably.
• Operational budgets are becoming tighter while the population is increasing – how can we do more with less?
• Participants should use best practice principles in data science, statistical analysis, data governance, and visualisation techniques (where applicable).
• Council uses various platforms and software to perform day-to-day operations – output data and insights should be packaged in a format that can be easily integrated into existing systems.

At Sunshine Coast Council, our values underpin our vision to become Australia’s most sustainable region. These values include Care, Respect, Trust, Curious, and Connected.

While all values are equally important, this challenge stems from our curiosity and connectedness as we strive to better understand our region and share our learnings with the community.

External Links
Sunshine Coast Council – Smart City webpage
https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/council/planning-and-projects/major-regional-projects/smart-city

Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve
https://mary-cairncross.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/

Sugar Bag MTB Track
https://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/living-and-community/community-support/healthy-and-active/beaches-and-parks-directory/sugar-bag-road-town-reserve

SCC Open Data Platform
https://data.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/

Image credit: Sunshine Coast Council