(Re)presenting heritage: laser scanning and 3D visualisations for cultural resilience and community engagement.

Cultural heritage is increasingly being viewed as an economic asset for geographic areas who aim to capitalise in the surge in interest in local history and heritage tourism from members of the public. Digital technologies have developed that facilitate new forms of engagement with heritage and allow local areas to showcase their history, potentially broadening interest to a wider audience, thus acting as a driver for cultural and economic resilience. The research presented in this paper explores this through interdisciplinary research utilising laser scanning and visualisation in combination with social research in Elgin. 3D data capture technologies were used to develop and test 3D data visualisations and protocols through which the urban built heritage can be digitally recorded. The main focus of this paper surrounds the application and perceptions of these technologies. Findings suggest that the primary driver for cultural heritage developments was economic (with an emphasis on tourism) but further benefits and key factors of community engagement, social learning and cultural resilience were also reported. Stakeholder engagement and partnership working, in particular, were identified as critical factors of success. The findings from the community engagement events demonstrate that laser scanning and visualisation provide a novel and engaging mechanism for co-producing heritage assets. There is a high level of public interest in such technologies and users who engaged with these models reported that they gained new perspectives (including spatial and temporal perspectives) on the built heritage of the area

Profiling and Rating Prediction from Multi-Criteria Crowd-Sourced Hotel Ratings

ECMS 2017- 31st European Conference on Modelling and Simulation - May 23rd - May 26th, 2017 Budapest, HungaryBased on historical user information, collaborative filters predict for a given user the classification of unknown items, typically using a single criterion. However, a crowd typically rates tourism resources using multi-criteria, i.e., each user provides multiple ratings per item. In order to apply standard collaborative filtering, it is necessary to have a unique classification per user and item. This unique classification can be based on a single rating – single criterion (SC) profiling – or on the multiple ratings available – multicriteria (MC) profiling. Exploring both SC and MC profiling, this work proposes: (ı) the selection of the most representative crowd-sourced rating; and (ıı) the combination of the different user ratings per item, using the average of the non-null ratings or the personalised weighted average based on the user rating profile. Having employed matrix factorisation to predict unknown ratings, we argue that the personalised combination of multi-criteria item ratings improves the tourist profile and, consequently, the quality of the collaborative predictions. Thus, this paper contributes to a novel approach for guest profiling based on multi-criteria hotel ratings and to the prediction of hotel guest ratings based on the Alternating Least Squares algorithm. Our experiments with crowd-sourced Expedia and TripAdvisor data show that the proposed method improves the accuracy of the hotel rating predictions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ReefKIM: An integrated geodatabase for sustainable management of the Kimberley Reefs, North West Australia

Coral reefs of the Kimberley Bioregion are seldom studied due to limited accessibility and extreme water conditions, which make management of these vital ecosystems a challenging task. Managing reef resources requires a considerable amount of credible, consistent and continual information. We identified the geographic information system (GIS) approach to be useful in developing an integrated geodatabase by acquiring information from different sources relating to the Kimberley reefs. Based on this approach, the study aimed to create a foundation for the first comprehensive geodatabase of the Kimberley reefs, called ReefKIM. The work included compiling existing spatial and non-spatial data, as well as collecting new data to complete information gaps. The study demonstrates how new technologies can be harnessed to crowdsource data from a wide range of people though a web-based platform. ReefKIM will provide a practical tool for scientists and managers to facilitate better monitoring and sustainable management of these vital natural resources. Moreover, it will support further studies in various disciplines leading to a more detailed understanding of the Kimberley Bioregion reefs

Using Big Data to measure tourist sustainability: myth or reality?

The concern about the production of international standards to measure the sustainability of tourism is present today, especially the discourse on the introduction of new sources. This article aims to survey and describe the main approaches and methodologies to use big data to measure tourism sustainability. Successful cases are addressed by explaining the main opportunities and challenges for the creation of official tourist statistics. A comprehensive review of publications regarding this field was carried out by applying the systematic literature review technique. This contributes a knowledge base to destination management organisations to encourage the implementation of official tourism statistics systems using big data.This research was funded by the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Social Fund—FSE) through predoctoral stage grants to universties and public research organisations in Galicia and other organisations of the Galician R+D+I System (2017), grant number ED481A-2017/230S

FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LOW-COST IMAGE-BASED HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION IN NEPAL

Cultural heritage structural documentation is of great importance in terms of historical preservation, tourism, educational and spiritual values. Cultural heritage across the world, and in Nepal in particular, is at risk from various natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes, flooding, rainfall etc), poor maintenance and preservation, and even human destruction. This paper evaluates the feasibility of low-cost photogrammetric modelling cultural heritage sites, and explores the practicality of using photogrammetry in Nepal. The full pipeline of 3D modelling for heritage documentation and conservation, including visualisation, reconstruction, and structure analysis, is proposed. In addition, crowdsourcing is discussed as a method of data collection of growing prominence

SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE DEMAND FOR INDUSTRY READY TOWN PLANNING GRADUATES

Emerging of new technologies skills are fundamentally changing how urban planners think, analyses and determine development decision. Application of mobile technologies and increase of public awareness are new challenges that affect traditional planning procedures and design process, resulting widening knowledge and skills gaps between town planning graduates and demand by the industry. This poses questions on the graduates’ capability to meet the job market demands especially on handling town planning related tasks. Therefore, this research endeavours to determine current knowledge and skill demands among planning agencies by using quantitative research approach as main research strategy. Findings of the study suggest Spatial Information System, Online Mapping, Crowd Sourcing technology along with instilling collaborative and multidisciplinary soft skills, in the new syllabus are considered vital.  Thus the implementation of a revised syllabus which take into consideration both knowledge and skills components, would surely offers well equip market ready town planning&nbsp

A strategic framework to support the implementation of citizen science for environmental monitoring. Final report to SEPA

In this report we provide a decision framework that can be used to guide whether and when to use a citizen science approach for environmental monitoring. Before using the decision framework we recommend that five precursors to a citizen science approach are considered