Slow tourism defines a sustainable way of experiencing a territory based on environmentally-friendly forms of transportation, the appreciation of nature and the rediscovery of local cultural traditions. Advancements in geo-information technology have opened new possibilities for promoting this practice. A slow tourism ongoing project focused on the cross-border area between Italy and Switzerland is presented. Several FOSS4G-based Web Mapping applications are developed which address different users and feature different functionalities. The applications include: a mobile app allowing tourists to report Points of Interest (POIs) along the paths; a mobile app enabling professionals to survey new paths; a traditional 2D Web viewer providing access to and interaction with the project data; an application offering a virtual tour along the paths; and a virtual-globe based 3D viewer with participative functionalities

Antonovic, Milan

Brovelli, MARIA ANTONIA

Cannata, Massimiliano

Cardoso, Mirko

Kilsedar, CANDAN EYLÜL

Minghini, Marco

Zamboni, Giorgio

BROVELLI, MARIA ANTONIA

KILSEDAR, CANDAN EYLÜL

MINGHINI, MARCO

ZAMBONI, GIORGIO

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Geomatics Workbooks n° 12 – "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015"Promoting slow tourism through FOSS4GWeb Mapping: an Italian-Swiss case studyMilan Antonovic1, Maria Antonia Brovelli2, Massimiliano Cannata1, Mirko Cardoso1,Candan Eylül Kilsedar2, Marco Minghini2, Giorgio Zamboni21 Institute of Earth Sciences, SUPSI, Campus Trevano, 6952 Canobbio, Switzerland2 Politecnico di Milano, Como Campus, DICA, Via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, ItalyAbstractSlow tourism defines a sustainable way of experiencing a territory based onenvironmentally-friendly forms of transportation, the appreciation of nature andthe rediscovery of local cultural traditions. Advancements in geo-informationtechnology have opened new possibilities for promoting this practice. A slowtourism ongoing project focused on the cross-border area between Italy andSwitzerland is presented. Several FOSS4G-based Web Mapping applications aredeveloped which address different users and feature different functionalities.The  applications  include:  a  mobile  app allowing  tourists  to  report  Points  ofInterest (POIs) along the paths; a mobile app enabling professionals to surveynew paths; a traditional 2D Web viewer providing access to and interaction withthe project data; an application offering a virtual tour along the paths; and avirtual-globe based 3D viewer with participative functionalities.KeywordsFOSS4G, mobile, slow tourism, virtual, Web Mapping.1 IntroductionSlow tourism has recently acquired great interest. Based on environmentally-friendly forms of transportation like hiking, cycling and horse-riding, it pursuesthe enjoyment of the territory coupled with a (re)discovery of its local culture(e.g. people lifestyle, history, art, architecture, religion and cuisine). “The Pathsof  Regina”  (http://www.viaregina.eu)  is  an  INTERREG  project  (Cross-borderCooperation  Operational  Programme Italy–Switzerland  2007-2013)  aiming  atthe valorisation of  slow tourism in the beautiful,  hilly  area at the boundarybetween  Italy  and  Switzerland.  Thanks  to  the  synergy  between  Swiss  andItalian experts in geomatics, landscape designers, administrations and culturalassociations, the project seeks to create new tools to rediscover the Europeancultural identity of the area.2 FOSS4G Web MappingTraditional tourism tools providing knowledge of the territory (e.g. paper mapsand signage along the paths) are coupled with innovative, ad hoc Web Mappingapplications developed within the project. They are fully built with FOSS4G and99Geomatics Workbooks n° 12 – "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015"take into account the new trends of mobile visualization, user participation andcrowdsourcing, virtual reality and multi-dimensional view. The applications, thatare partially still under development, are separately described in the followingSubsections. It is worth to state that the geospatial data used were derivedfrom the administrations involved in the project, ad hoc field surveys by hikersassociations (especially for paths and POIs along them) and the OpenStreetMap(OSM) database.2.1 2D Web viewerFOSS4G server-side technologies deployed among Italy and Switzerland for the2D Web viewer take advantage of the latest implementations of GeoServer andZOO WPS. The client application benefits instead of the latest OpenLayers 3 JSlibrary. Besides simple display of data and more advanced functionalities likegeospatial routing and terrain profile computation, it enables navigation to twoother applications, i.e. virtual tour and 3D Web viewer detailed in Subsections2.4 and 2.5, respectively. Routing applied to the cross-border path networksmakes use of Dijkstra's algorithm and is performed by pgRouting. Optimal pathbetween two user-selected points is computed based on its cost, which in turndepends on the user input about the types of  POIs (e.g. religious buildings,museums, etc.) and their relative weights. This way, the returned path is themost suitable to the user interests. The returned path is the input for terrainprofile  computation  which  is  based  on  ZOO GdalExtractProfile  service.  Thedisplay  of  the  chart  is  then  supported  by  external  JS  libraries  such  asHighcharts and jQuery. Before walking on the field users can print a customizedpage including the returned path, its terrain profile and some additional relatedinformation like the total distance, the average slope and the height differencebetween the start and end points. Lastly, POI data are enriched with TripAdvisorinformation retrieved by its official API. When clicking a certain position on themap the attractions, hotels and restaurants from TripAdvisor located within apredefined radius are returned to the user together with the related informationwhich is accessible inside a popup.2.2 Mobile app for slow touristsA second application involves people in contributing the local knowledge theyacquire during slow tourism experiences. Open Data Kit (ODK) is exploited tomanage field data collection. This suite is mainly composed of a server module(ODK  Aggregate),  running  under  Tomcat  and  synchronized  to  a  PostgreSQLdatabase to store the data; and an Android app (ODK Collect) allowing users toreport  POIs  (ranging  from  historical/cultural  points  of  interest  to  tourismservices and morphological elements) through their mobile devices (see Figure1). Users have to enter the details of the POI (e.g. name, type and description),register  its  position  (e.g.  using  the  device  GPS),  and  take  a  picture  (andoptionally also a video and audio) of it. Thanks to the PostGIS extension of thePostgreSQL database, GeoServer can then read and publish this crowdsourcedinformation which is made available as a separate layer in the Web viewerdescribed in Subsection 2.1.  Besides being a typical feature of  GeoWeb 2.0(Maguire, 2007) the bottom-up approach where citizens are not only consumersbut also active producers of geospatial information, or Volunteered GeographicInformation (Goodchild, 2007), represents a major innovation in slow tourism100Geomatics Workbooks n° 12 – "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015"projects. The app was successfully tested during a number of mapping partiesperformed  all  along  the  project  area  (see  e.g.  the  data  collected  during  amapping party in Cernobbio at http://viaregina.como.polimi.it/mapparty).Figure 1: Sample screenshots of the mobile app for slow tourists.2.3 Mobile app for professionalsDuring the last decades Switzerland has developed a well-defined procedure tomap historical routes. However its application relies only on the manual work ofprofessionals without a specific supporting instrument. An application namedGeoIVS was thus developed to fill this gap. Before entering the survey mode, itasks for the definition of the path and its initial surface type. The survey modeinterface, which also works offline, is organized into three columns split intotwo horizontal sections (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Sample screenshot of the Android virtual tour application.101Geomatics Workbooks n° 12 – "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015"Left column represents the elements on the left side of the path, right columnrepresents the elements on the right side of the path, while central columnrepresents the path surface. For each column, the lower section shows all thepossible elements the user can enter while the upper section represents theelements  being registered.  Tapping on an element  starts  its  registration  byacquiring the starting point; sliding of an element under registration acquiresits  ending  poi1t and  stops  its  registration.  Starting  and  ending  points  arerecorded using the device GPS and specific algorithms which search for thebest accuracy in a user-defined period. Linear referencing is then applied todetermine the element geometry. Textual and vocal notes as well as picturesand  videos  can  be  also  associated  to  each  surveyed  element.  The  surveyresults in a JSON file, which encapsulates all the information and – as soon as aconnection  is  available  –  is  sent  to  a  server  for  storage,  processing  andpublication. From the technological point of view the application relies on FOSSsoftware like OpenLayers 3, Android SDK, JTS Topology Suite and proj4js.2.4 Virtual tour applicationThe  objective of this application is the provision of cultural information in anattractive context in order to transform a path without outstanding attractionsin an emotional experience. To achieve this goal, an integrated  framework wasadopted which combines geospatial technologies, the concept of virtual tour,the  use  of  multimedia  and  the  location-based  approach.  Thanks  to  thecollaboration with designers and experts of the territory (historians, geologists,ethnographists  and  biologists),  the  two  test  paths  selected  for  the  project(Sagno-Bisbino-Cernobbio and Bellinzona-San Jorio-Menaggio) were studied andrepresented in two storyboards. They highlight the cultural aspects of the areastraversed by the two paths through the use of thematic POIs. From a designperspective, the application represents the virtual location of the tourist with ared circle that moves along the path and that is synchronized with the altitudeprofile at the bottom of the page (see Figure 3). Figure 3: Sample screenshot of the virtual tour application.102Geomatics Workbooks n° 12 – "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015"When a POI is intercepted, instead of a classical popup a full-screen animationshowing sliding bands over a series of background images is activated. Eachband has a title, a subtitle and a description which are narrated in an audio.Bands  are  enriched  by  multimedia,  which  currently  consist  of  images,slideshows, videos and photospheres. Notification for users exploring the pathon the field is  currently  under development.  The application relies  on opensource  technologies,  open  formats  and  open  data  such  as  OpenLayers,Bootstrap, JQuery, D3.js, Less.js, GeoJSON, and OpenStreetMap.2.5 3D Web viewerUnlike the classic 2D visualization, multi-dimensional viewers like virtual globesoffer fully-realistic content visualization that is particularly suitable for tourismpurposes (Brovelli,  Hogan, Minghini,  and Zamboni,  2013).  A 3D Web viewerbased on the NASA World Wind virtual globe was developed which aims at thevalorisation of tourism paths on the project area (see Figure 4). Moreover, thenew trend of participation was exploited within the viewer allowing users toadd relevant contents (photos, videos, documents and notes) which becomeheritage of  the whole community.  A first  level  of  information is  the map ofpaths, which is superimposed to one among several user-selected base maps.In  addition  to  the  servers  specifically  deployed  within  the  project,  theapplication can transparently connect to any WMS compliant server availableon the network. A second level of information consists of the crowdsourceddata collected by professional hikers as well  as occasional walkers, tourists,citizens, etc. The platform has in fact the innovative capability to connect tothe ODK server of the project, and to publish the related POIs reported by usersthrough their mobile devices (see Subsection 2.2). When clicking on a POI, itsfield-collected information is displayed. Visualization of the field-reported POIscan be also filtered in time through the use of a slider.Figure 4: Sample screenshot of the 3D Web viewer.103Geomatics Workbooks n° 12 – "FOSS4G Europe Como 2015"3 ConclusionsIn  contrast  to  the  current  mass-process  phenomenon  tourism  has  largelybecome, the practice of slow tourism represents a challenging model based onsustainability, environmental friendliness and discovery of local knowledge. Inthe frame of a slow tourism project focused on a cross-border area among Italyand Switzerland, a set of Web Mapping applications are developed to valorizethe local  cultural  richness  through the  exploitation  of  modern technologicaltrends including mobile data collection, virtual reality and 3D visualization. Thisset of applications greatly extends the geospatial tools typically developed forslow tourism projects and mainly consisting of simple 2D Web viewers. A majorpoint of innovation is represented by the involvement of users, who are not justconsumers but also contributors of new data. From the technical perspective,the use of FOSS4G technologies was fundamental as they allowed to developcustomized products according to the project needs.AcknowledgementsThis study has been funded by the project “I Cammini della Regina – Percorsitransfrontalieri  legati  alla  Via  Regina” (“The paths  of  Regina –  Cross-borderpaths  linked to  Via  Regina”)  within  the  INTERREG Cross-border  CooperationOperational Programme Italy–Switzerland 2007-2013 (ID 33829732).References✔ Brovelli, M. A., Hogan, P., Minghini, M., & Zamboni, G. (2013). The power ofVirtual  Globes  for  valorising  cultural  heritage  and  enabling  sustainabletourism:  NASA  World  Wind  Applications  .  International  Archives  of  thePhotogrammetry,  Remote Sensing and Spatial  Information Sciences,  XL-4/W2, 115-120. doi: 10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-4-W2-115-2013. ✔ Goodchild,  M.  F.  (2007).  Citizens  as  sensors:  the  world  of  volunteeredgeography. GeoJournal, 69(4), 211-221. doi: 10.1007/s10708-007-9111-y.✔ Maguire, D. J. (2007). GeoWeb 2.0 and volunteered GI . In  Workshop onVolunteered  Geographic  Information,  University  of  California,  SantaBarbara, 104-106.104

Promoting slow tourism through FOSS4G Web Mapping: an Italian-Swiss case study

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Promoting slow tourism through FOSS4G Web Mapping: an Italian-Swiss case study

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