case studies
| The list of use cases for SITUMET is long and ranges from agriculture over construction, energy and insurance industry, tourism, infrastructure management to vehicle navigation and building telematics (domotics). The following examples illustrate the use and idea of SITUMET. | |
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mobile situation-based city guide For some years now, mobile city guides have been used by tourists and visitors for location-based information about tourist attractions, events, cafes, clubs and other points of interest. The performance of these services has constantly improved: information is compared to archived user profiles and provided to a specific group of people, modern GPS-compatible devices allow exact location of the user, which forms the basis for location-based services, and Web 2.0 technologies support exchange of information between different end users (e.g. route plans that can be uploaded to the system and shared with friends). Despite these technical advances, there is still potential for further development. For example, the context-based adaptivity is still not very evolved and is limited to considering location and profile information. Within the framework of SITUMET, the context-based adaptivity will be extended with weather information being used for more detailed recommendations so that, for instance, route plans and sightseeing programs consider the weather forecast of the next days, and if rain is forecasted for the afternoon, the mobile city guide will recommend the open air part of the tour in the morning and the museum or cafe part in the afternoon. |
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rail weather Railroad traffic is frequently subject to weather-related interruptions and delays. Such weather-related disruptions cannot be avoided, but localized and targeted weather prognoses can be used to improve damage management processes. A goal of SITUMET is to improve the accuracy of such hazard prognoses, both in time and space. Typical weather-related threats for railway traffic are the icing of track switches, inundations of tracks after heavy rainfalls or track blockades and damaged catenaries due to disrooted trees. If railway companies are aware of the locations where damages are most likely to occur, they will be able to position their emergency teams accordingly and can react more swiftly and efficiently. Another important influence of the weather on railway operations is its impact on traffic flow prognoses. If it is sunny, for example, traffic towards typical excursion destinations will surge, and in case of heavy rainfalls public transportation will be more intensely used during rush hours due to commuters who do not dare to ride to work on their bikes. |
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agro weather Weather conditions are one of the most important factors determining crop yields and thus farming success. Therefore, demand for relevant meteorological information like ground moisture, ground temperature or precipitation forecasts is strong throughout this industry. The goal of SITUMET is to provide farmers with localized and highly accurate weather prognoses using prediction models based on natural spaces. Furthermore, it is planned to develop additional services which support farmers in their decision processes, such as tailor-made weather data for harvest planning or for the spray-drift management of pesticides. SITUMETs service portfolio is completed by warning services, e.g. against bush fires or against weather-dependent crop infestation threats (pests, fungal decay etc). Additionally, SITUMET will enable telematically driven irrigation based on precipitation, temperature and soil moisture forecasts with very high spatial and temporal resolution. |
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hiking weather One of the biggest dangers for hikers in the mountain is the rapidly changing weather. Especially during hiking tours of several days it is dificult to get weather information. Though there is the possibility to receive severe weather warning via short message system (sms) on the mobile phone, but these messages are localized based on ZIP code, which is often not known. More practical and convenient would be to use the GPS-functionallity of the new generation of mobile phones, to provie the hiker with weather information based on his location.Thus, the hiker can be informed about severe weather in his close surrounding and either climbing down or looking for cover. This examble of location-based services will be one of the key-functionalities of SITUMET. |
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