GreenMov
Harmonized data pave the way to greener mobility.
This project is funded by the European Commission within the context of the Connecting Europe Facilities (CEF) program.
Greener mobility is all about making the right choices every day. For example:
- As an individual, you can choose to leave your car at home and take the train in combination with a shared bike to work.
- As a city or community, you can choose to steer traffic in such a way that, at busy moments, the most densely populated neighborhoods suffer least from air and noise pollution.
IT companies design applications that help citizens and governments with making these choices. For instance, a route planner that shows you which combination of public transport gets you to the football stadium quickest. These applications are nourished by open data, which are often collected and supplied by (public) service providers.
Harmonizing data
However, we’re not nearly exploiting all the opportunities open data have to offer. For example, wouldn’t it be convenient if you could check before your departure if there will be a shared bike available at your last stop?
This kind of application is accomplished by complex models that combine several sources of data. Like the up-to-date train traffic information with a prediction of the number of shared bikes at the station – based on realtime and historic data, and personal preferences.
A significant obstacle soon pops up: individual data sources are often developed from a specific viewpoint, which means they can’t be used for multiple applications and processes. We need to better describe these data sources and make them more accessible. Only then can we find a user-friendly way to integrate them into different applications.
Within the GreenMov project, we realize this through concrete examples. OSLO provides a semantic description of the exact meaning of a dataset. We demonstrate that the OSLO schematics are compatible with others. And Linked Data Event Streams (LDES) and NGSI-LD are two variants of Linked Data that GreenMov brings together.
By making data more accessible, it becomes easier to develop new applications. For instance, for the combined use of different means of transport.
Basis for high-quality mobility services
GreenMov is part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program, which is funded by the European Commission. It started in 2021 and lasts for two years. The goal is to make it easier for IT companies to use interoperable data sources. That allows for the development and offering of new services that support greener mobility – contributing to Europe’s sustainability ambitions.
GreenMov realizes this by:
- Defining smart data models, including a shared ‘vocabulary.’ For example, how do you describe a site for shared bikes: location, total number of bikes, number of available bikes, ...? If you do this right, it becomes easier for route planners and other apps to propose the best solution.
- Improving the accessibility of data by publishing them as Linked Data in open data portals. For instance, providing the real-time availability of Blue-bike shared bikes as LDES makes the app developer’s job easier.
- Developing a number of pilot projects that demonstrate the possibilities that open up when different data sources, data, and AI models are combined. Specifically, this pertains to traffic and environmental data, and the models to process them. For instance to predict the air quality and act if needed.
In the Spanish cities of Murcia and Molina, researchers are looking into the possible role of data when developing a shared and smart mobility policy. In the French city of Nice, they’re investigating how data on air and noise pollution can contribute to efficient traffic management.
Finally, in Flanders, imec and Digitaal Vlaanderen work together on the reuse of data for the combined use of public and shared transport – such as the train and a shared bike.
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