AI vision increasingly implemented on Alicante’s beaches

A second sandy stretch in the city will have the ‘Ion Beach’ system

On 29 June, Alicante authorities introduced an artificial intelligence beach occupancy verification system at La Albufereta beach – the second sandy stretch of that city to feature it after it was successfully tried out last year at El Postiguet beach. The system will warn visitors and tourists on how busy the beach is so they can plan ahead on whether to include a visit to it in their daily plans.

The system will use traffic light colour indications of red, yellow and green

This innovative system of artificial vision cameras will allow the user to know the occupation of the beach in real-time, through simple traffic lights that change colour (green, yellow and red) depending on the beach capacity and occupation. Thanks to artificial intelligence it is able to define whether the concentration of bathers is high or low at each point of the strip.

The data capture system processes the concentration of people distributed on the sand with a temporal cadence of five minutes, strictly complying with European legislation on this matter. ‘Ion Beach’ (as the system is called) scrupulously respects the protection of personal data, not transmitting images per se. It processes the information from the cameras and data management through a special algorithm.

The information generated is available to residents and tourists, both through the municipal website of Alicante and in the new control panel at La Albufereta beach, which was also installed on the day of the system’s formal unveiling.

“With this new system, users will be able to know in real-time the degree of occupation of the beach to better plan their visits and trips, while providing essential information to the Local Police and Civil Protection to anticipate responses in case of need,” stressed Luis Barcala, the mayor of Alicante, adding that this action consolidated his administration’s strategy to make the city a Smart Tourist Destination.