Recent Seodaemun Festival Attracts 410,000 Spring Visitors
Crowd Measured Using Foot Traffic Sensors
Accurate Data Utilized for Safety Management and More
These days, local government festivals are held regardless of the season. Spring and autumn, which are ideal for outdoor activities, are truly the seasons of festivals.
Seoul's autonomous districts announce the number of participants ranging from tens of thousands to millions depending on the scale after the festivals end. However, when there is no precise basis, people tend to be skeptical.
Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Lee Seongheon) announced on the 17th that over 410,000 visitors came to Seodaemun Hongje Waterfall and Ansan during the ‘2024 Seodaemun Spring Light Festival’ held from the 30th of last month to the 7th of this month.
The reason Seodaemun-gu confidently disclosed the number of visitors is due to the 18 ‘floating population sensors’ installed along the Ansan Jarak-gil trail and Hongjecheon Stream. These floating population sensors are MEC (Mobile Edge Computing)-based smart technology that collects WiFi wireless signal data emitted from visitors' smartphones through IoT (Internet of Things) sensors.
The collection range can be set within a maximum radius of 100 meters depending on the purpose, and the sensors can be installed wherever there is electricity and wired or wireless networks. Seodaemun-gu installs these sensors on closed-circuit televisions (CCTV) or smart poles (intelligent pillars) and uses them as tools to manage crowds in key areas.
According to the aggregated results, the highest number of visitors came between 12 PM and 5 PM during the festival period (about 6,000 people), and more than 70,000 people visited Seodaemun Hongje Waterfall and Ansan on April 6th and 7th.
The district believes that considering children without smartphones and users of phones without WiFi functions, many more people visited the Seodaemun Spring Light Festival. Aggregating data through floating population sensors allows for realistic event planning when such evidence is available. Understanding the number of users by time is essential for event safety management. It can also be used as data to revitalize event auxiliary facilities and commercial districts.
Seodaemun-gu plans to install additional floating population sensors to more accurately grasp the number of visitors to Hongje Waterfall and Ansan, which have become hot places in Seoul. District Mayor Lee Seongheon stated, “We will continue administration based on scientific data for a safer and smarter Seodaemun-gu.”
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