Smart precinct delivered for community through data-based analysis

The City of Marion is a local government area in the southern suburbs of Adelaide,  approximately 10km from the CBD. One of  South Australia’s largest metropolitan councils, City of Marion covers more than 55m2 and has a population of more than 94,800 residents.

Located in the heart of the City of Marion, Oaklands Smart Precinct covers a 16ha area between Oaklands Crossing and Diagonal Rd. A number of significant community spaces are adjacent to the precinct, including Westfield Marion, Marion Cultural Centre and the State Aquatic and Leisure Centre. 

The City of Marion (CoM) committed to increasing the livability and sustainability of the area while enabling connectivity between the Oaklands Railway Station and the Marion Regional Centre. This involved understanding current and potential problems and opportunities to maximise the benefits to the local neighbourhood, visitors and significant numbers of passing commuters. 

Oaklands Smart Precinct connects a number of services and community spaces, including Oaklands Railway Station and
Marion Regional Centre. 

SAGE Automation was engaged by the City of Marion for a three-part solution:

• To enable CoM to gain an understanding of pedestrian and traffic movements around the precinct
• To deliver a digital kiosk that provides wayfinding and public information on nearby services, and
• To provide metrics on playground equipment usage. 
  
  

Data collection for pedestrian routes

A key metric in determining potential problems and opportunities with making changes to popular walking routes is pedestrian and traffic movement within the area.

The City of Marion wished to understand the most popular routes pedestrians were using between Oaklands Train Station and Marion Regional Centre (Marion Cultural Centre, South Australian Aquatic and Leisure Centre, GP Plus and Westfield Marion) - Diagonal Road or Diagonal Way.

Understanding these movement patterns was an important prerequisite to upgrading a park that would include a walking path following along Diagonal Way.

In order to gain an understanding of pedestrian movements, SAGE Edge detection devices were installed at four separate locations so that pedestrian visits could be correlated between sites.

Using this data, it was possible to identify the number of pedestrians who travelled between the Diagonal Rd sensor, Diagonal Way sensor, and the Oaklands Train Station sensor.

Using the data collected, the council could determine the current split of pedestrian movement, and compare that to data obtained after the park upgrade was completed.

Understanding traffic movement data

Oaklands Park residential area sees significant traffic movement through the back streets (coined “rat-running”) to access the nearby Westfield shopping precinct and train station.

The City of Marion, on behalf of the Smart South Consortium, engaged SAGE Automation to design a solution to collect and analyse real-time traffic data in the Oaklands Park area.

The analytics provided the City of Marion with the following benefits:

• A 24/7 destination survey of the included roads to better assess delays and congestion caused by traffic
  
  
• The ability to contextualise and measure the severity of residential complaints to best allocate resources and achieve measurable outcomes
  
  
• The ability to measure traffic management such as speed bumps and turning restrictions against real traffic flow.

SAGE proposed a collaboration between the City of Marion, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) and SAGE Automation.

This solution used new and existing traffic detection hardware aggregated by the Addinsight platform and displayed through dashboards customised for the City of Marion. This partnership broadened DIT’s coverage of their existing traffic congestion analysis platform and provided the City of Marion insights into the surrounding road network.



SAGE also repurposed previously utilised playground sensors to measure the amount and duration of equipment use. These were deployed to provide metrics for each item of equipment so that previously collected telemetry describing relative playground equipment use can be confirmed to ensure that the council is providing enjoyable experiences for children in the local area.

Playground equipment usage metrics

City of Marion engaged SAGE to collaborate on a project to understand how people are using individual items of equipment.

SAGE led the development and implementation of this world-first study of real-time playground usage. SAGE delivered a real-time measurement of park usage which required no local gateway or hard-wired infrastructure.

The devices measure per-equipment usage counts and duration, allowing better planning and resource allocation for parks across the City of Marion’s council. Using algorithms that combine weather, term dates and days of the week, the City of Marion can use the data to identify equipment faults quickly – which can be used to reduce liability and risk of injury. City of Marion can also focus spending based on the popularity of equipment, and use this information to guide future playground design.

Digital kiosk

SAGE delivered a digital kiosk that connects to existing and open datasets to provide at-a-glance wayfinding information and the ability to view surrounding points of interest.

The kiosk pulls existing information from the City of Marion’s website including:

• Real-time public transport updates
  
  
• Public toilet locations
  
  
• Upcoming community events.

Digital kiosks provide real-time schedules and updates for public transport, as well as community information and nearby services. 

As part of the kiosk’s delivery, SAGE engaged with the Royal Society for the Blind to ensure the accessibility functionality met the needs of people with visual impairments and drew on experience from previous deployments to implement wheelchair accessibility modes.

The kiosk will be an ongoing touchpoint for visitors to provide feedback on their experience and for the council to inform park users of upcoming events.

The Oaklands Smart Precinct has been transformed by smart city innovations that use real-time data and data sharing models to better inform service delivery as well as community experience. The area now offers enhanced transport and leisure facilities through integrated technology and greater data visibility.

Oaklands Smart Precinct includes smart furniture, where visitors can recharge their devices (wirelessly or with a cable) while
enjoying a coffee. 

Visitors to Oaklands Precinct have greater access to information that improves their visitor experience. They can quickly find toilets or local services, look up train and bus services and view event information.

The City of Marion benefits from data collection that can inform decisions on future spending, as well as improving the allocation of resources for maintenance and upgrades of the precinct.