25 November 2021 – The Municipality of The Hague has launched the ‘Crowd Safety Manager’ project. The aim is to investigate whether models can help the municipality predict crowds in the city centre or in Scheveningen, for example. MICD is also participating in the project with a team of TU Delft researchers.
Apart from MICD, the police and market parties are also participating in the research. The aim is not only to predict crowds, but also to then take appropriate measures, such as dosing and spreading pedestrian flows, and issuing timely warnings (‘don’t come to Scheveningen’). Forecasts up to a week ahead are again useful with a view to staff deployment; is extra deployment needed or not.
Data included in the forecasts are weather forecasts, historical data on the crowds at Scheveningen, holidays, planned events and so on. Data from social media is also used; it often paints a clear picture of the mood in the crowd. Based on all this data, the model will estimate the (upcoming) risk and make suggestions to get ahead of those problems.
Read more: Crowd Safety Manager