#Urban Soccer Park partnered

[marketanalysisdata]

Smart Ticketing Industry Outlook, Share, Opportunities and Forecast to 2030

The global smart ticketing market was valued at USD 10.14 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.5% from 2023 to 2030. The market growth is primarily driven by the increasing adoption of emerging technologies, which have significantly improved the way tickets are purchased, paid for, and used. Innovations such as contactless payment systems, virtual tickets (E-tickets), and smart cards are transforming the transit experience by making it smoother, faster, and more efficient. These advancements have helped to streamline crowd management, reducing the need for traditional paper-based ticketing systems. The availability of multi-modal disbursement channels including online ticketing systems, smartphone apps, E-kiosks, and smart ticketing machines further enhances the appeal of smart ticketing systems over conventional methods.

Changing customer preferences toward digital platforms for accessing transport services are also boosting market growth. Customers are increasingly drawn to smart ticketing systems because they offer several benefits over traditional paper-based systems. These include reduced waiting times, especially during peak hours, subsidized fares, real-time route updates, and personalized mobility experiences. For transport operators, smart ticketing solutions provide advantages like lower maintenance costs, an integrated ticketing infrastructure, and cost-effective use of resources, such as labor, energy, and paper. As a result, the use of smart ticketing systems is expected to continue to rise, fueling further growth in the market.

Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the Smart Ticketing Market

Beyond transportation, smart ticketing solutions are gaining popularity in the sports and entertainment industries, where they are being used to meet ticketing needs for large events. These systems offer scalability when integrated with point-of-sale (POS) and self-service kiosks. They also provide real-time customer data, which enhances customer engagement and improves the overall customer experience. For example, in March 2023, Major League Soccer (MLS) selected Ticketmaster as its official ticketing partner under a multi-year agreement. This partnership aims to personalize the customer experience by using next-generation interactive tools like 3D stadium views. The ability of smart ticketing systems to integrate with various smart and connected devices, providing a seamless and unified experience, is further driving market growth.

Product Segmentation Insights:

In 2022, the E-ticket segment led the market, accounting for more than 25% of the total revenue. The COVID-19 pandemic played a key role in accelerating the adoption of contactless payments and services, particularly in the transportation sector. For instance, in May 2023, VIA Metropolitan Transit enabled riders to purchase tickets using the Uber app and other platforms, such as the VIA goMobile+ application. E-ticketing systems offer users flexibility in payment methods for purchasing tickets across different modes of transportation, making them increasingly popular.

The smart parking system segment is expected to experience significant growth during the forecast period. As the emphasis on building smart cities increases, the need for reliable and productive urban infrastructure, including smart parking systems, is becoming more critical. Smart ticketing solutions are being introduced to improve traffic and parking management. For example, in March 2023, Mobile Smart City installed pay-in-lane contactless equipment to provide efficient entry and exit access control for parking. This trend underscores the growing importance of smart ticketing systems in enhancing urban infrastructure and ensuring smooth traffic flow in increasingly congested cities.

In summary, the global smart ticketing market is set to expand rapidly in the coming years, driven by advancements in technology, growing consumer preferences for digital solutions, and increased applications in sectors beyond transportation, including sports, entertainment, and urban infrastructure management.

Order a free sample PDF of the Smart Ticketing Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.

[reignbardo]

Cheering Loud and Proud: Virginia Sports Game Transportation Options

Virginia, a state steeped in history and known for its scenic beauty, is also a hub for sports enthusiasts. Whether you're a devoted fan or just looking to enjoy the excitement of a live sports game, Virginia has a lot to offer. Attending sporting events in this diverse state can be an exhilarating experience, but getting to the game can be a challenge. This guide explores the various Virginia sports game tranportation, helping you plan your game day adventure with ease.

Virginia's Passion for Sports:

Virginia has a rich sports culture that spans various disciplines, from college football to basketball, baseball, soccer, and more. Some of the state's most notable sports teams and events include:

1. College Football: College football is a way of life in Virginia. The state is home to several prominent college football teams, including the University of Virginia Cavaliers, the Virginia Tech Hokies, and the University of Richmond Spiders. Their games draw passionate fans from all over the state.

2. Baseball: Virginia has minor league baseball teams such as the Richmond Flying Squirrels, Norfolk Tides, and Potomac Nationals. Watching a minor league game can be a fun and affordable way to enjoy America's pastime.

3. Soccer: The state also boasts professional soccer teams like Loudoun United FC and the Richmond Kickers. These teams compete in the United Soccer League (USL) and offer exciting matches for soccer enthusiasts.

4. NASCAR: Racing fans flock to Virginia to witness NASCAR events at the Richmond Raceway and the Martinsville Speedway. These high-speed races are a thrilling experience for motorsports enthusiasts.

Transportation Options for Game Days:

When planning your visit to a sports game in Virginia, it's essential to consider transportation options. Here are some choices to help you reach your favorite sporting events:

1. Personal Vehicles:

Many sports venues in Virginia offer on-site parking facilities. Driving to the game in your personal vehicle provides flexibility and convenience. However, it's crucial to arrive early, as parking lots can fill up quickly, especially for high-profile events. Additionally, be prepared for parking fees, which can vary depending on the venue.

2. Public Transportation:

Some sports venues, particularly those in urban areas like Richmond and Northern Virginia, are accessible via public transportation. You can use buses, subways, or commuter rail services to reach these venues. It's a cost-effective option that eliminates the stress of driving and parking.

3. Ride-Sharing Services:

Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft are widely available throughout Virginia. They offer a convenient and flexible way to get to and from sporting events, allowing you to focus on the game rather than worrying about parking and traffic. Requesting a ride after the game is also hassle-free.

4. Shuttle Services:

Some sports venues partner with shuttle service providers to offer transportation to and from the games. These shuttles often have designated pick-up and drop-off points, making it a convenient option for fans. Check with the venue or visit their website for information on shuttle services.

5. Carpooling:

Carpooling with friends or fellow fans can be an eco-friendly and cost-effective transportation choice. Sharing a ride not only reduces the number of vehicles on the road but also adds to the camaraderie of game day.

6. Bicycle and Walking:

If you live near the sports venue or prefer an active approach, consider cycling or walking to the game. Some venues offer bicycle racks for secure storage. It's a healthy and environmentally friendly way to reach the stadium.

Tips for a Smooth Game Day Experience:

Plan Ahead: Research the game schedule and transportation options in advance. Decide on your preferred mode of transportation and make any necessary reservations.

Arrive Early: Give yourself plenty of time to reach the venue, especially if you're unfamiliar with the area or anticipate heavy traffic.

Check Traffic Updates: Monitor traffic conditions on game day, as congestion can be significant, particularly for popular events. Utilize navigation apps like Waze or Google Maps for real-time updates.

Buy Tickets in Advance: Purchasing tickets ahead of time can save you from waiting in long lines at the ticket booth. Many venues offer online ticket purchasing options.

Dress Comfortably: Depending on the season, game days in Virginia can be hot and sunny or cold and damp. Dress appropriately, wear comfortable shoes, and consider bringing sunscreen or rain gear.

Stay Hydrated: Stadiums and venues usually provide concessions, but it's a good idea to bring a refillable water bottle to stay hydrated, especially during hot summer games.

Respect Parking Rules: If you're driving to the game, follow parking rules and regulations. Avoid parking in prohibited areas to prevent towing or fines.

Conclusion:

Virginia's sports culture is diverse and vibrant, offering something for every sports enthusiast. Attending sporting events can be an exhilarating experience, and with the right transportation plan, you can make the most of your game day adventure. Whether you prefer to drive, use public transportation, or opt for ride-sharing services, Virginia's sports venues have various transportation options to cater to your needs.So, don your team's colors, grab your tickets, and get ready to cheer loud and proud at your favorite sports games in Virginia.

[evernest]

Urban Soccer Park partnered with @San Jose Earthquakes to bring the new "Thrive Court' to PayPal Park! Check out this video to learn more about how the new and exciting addition will elevate their fan zone and benefit the community.

For more on bringing the Urban Soccer Park experience to your community, visit https://www.urbansoccerpark.com

Urban Soccer Park is a unique combination of sport and court that allows both players and spectators to be immersed in a fast-paced, high-energy game. Help us meet soccer demands in your neighborhood with an Urban Soccer Park, and see your community thrive. At Urban Soccer Park less is more. How do we know less is more? Why are we so confident in mini-soccer?

[snibnoom]

ASTRO FUN FACTS

A collection of facts that some fans may not know! This list is far from exhaustive, so feel free to add on! Or you could shoot me a question and see if I know the answer

Families

MJ has an older brother

Jinjin has an older brother

Eunwoo has a younger brother (named Donghwi) 2 years younger than him (99er) who has studied abroad in China

Moonbin has a younger sister, Moon Sua (99er), who is currently a trainee at YG and was on Unpretty Rapstar

Rocky has a brother (named Junggeon) 4 years younger than him (03er) 

Sanha has two older brothers (named Junha and Jeha); both of his brothers and his dad play guitar, and Junha writes his own music; Sanha’s mom was also a body builder

Education

MJ received perfect attendance awards in middle and high school, and played soccer during elementary school

Jinjin attended Hanlim Multi Arts High School after passing the entrance with the highest score for those being admitted, achieved with his house dancing; he also attended NY Dance Academy in Ilsan prior to joining Fantagio

Eunwoo attended Suri Middle School and Suri High School, then transferred to Hanlim Multi Arts High School and graduated from Hanlim on February 15, 2016; he was accepted into Sungkyunkwan University at the end of 2016 and is currently attending with a major in acting

Moonbin attended Hanlim Multi Arts High School from 2014 until his graduation on February 15, 2016; due to having a birthday very early in the year, Moonbin attended school mostly with 97-line

Rocky attended Eonbuk Middle School and graduated on February 7, 2015; he then attended Seoul Music High School from February 2015 until October 2015; starting in October 2015, Rocky began attending Hanlim Multi Arts High School and graduated on February 9, 2018

Sanha attended Baegwoon Middle School; he attends Hanlim Multi Arts High School and will graduate in 2019

Before ASTRO

MJ auditioned for JYP Entertainment in 2010 with iKON’s Donghyuk (but didn’t make it into the company); he auditioned again in 2012 and won a one year scholarship to Seoul National University; MJ  began training with Fantagio in 2014

Prior to joining Fantagio as a trainee, Jinjin was part of a house dance crew (under the dancer name “Kkorang”) with GOT7′s Yugyeom; he began training with Fantagio in 2012, not long after Sanha

Eunwoo began training with Fantagio in 2013 after being scouted on the street when he was on the way to the bathroom; he refused the offer several times until his parents eventually told him just to try it out and that he could quit if he didn’t like it; he played the younger version of a character in the movie “My Brilliant Life”; he was the 2014/2015 Shara Shara make up brand ambassador

Moonbin began training with Fantagio in 2009 after having been with Kids Planet Entertainment since 2004; under Kids Planet Entertainment, he modeled for various companies (Samsung, Blue Dog, Soie, Tiffany), starred in TVXQ’s music video for Balloons in 2006, and played the role of young So Yijeong (Kimbum) in “Boys Over Flowers” in 2009; he appeared in episode 1 of the 2015 drama “Perseverance Goo Haera” with Rocky

Rocky began training with Fantagio in June 2010; he auditioned for Korea’s Got Talent on July 14, 2011 where he didn’t pass but a judge told him “In the future, I am sure we will meet again in the music industry”; Rocky drove from his hometown of Jinju to Seoul daily for several years (attending school in Jinju then training in Seoul) before his mom and younger brother finally made the move to Seoul

Sanha began training with Fantagio in 2012

Other

ASTRO was technically Fantagio’s first music group, as 5urprise is an actor group and Hellovenus started out as a joint venture with Pledis

Eunwoo was an MC for Show! Music Core from October 1, 2016 to January 27, 2018; following his final episode, the other members started up a vlive as they prepared to surprise Eunwoo upon his return to the company; the video was later removed, as you could clearly hear Rocky saying “f*** off, f***” after Sanha accidentally blew out the candles on a cake they’d gotten for Eunwoo

The MV shooting for Hide & Seek happened on Moonbin’s birthday in 2016

Jinjin can speak English and some Chinese; Eunwoo can speak English, Chinese and Japanese (and recently took the Japanese fluency test, but failed)

When once asked in an interivew what he has to be sure to bring along with him, MJ answered that he has to make sure the other members are with him

Just before the release of Summer Vibes, Eunwoo went away to film for Law of the Jungle

Sanha is allergic to shrimp

Moonbin is allergic to dog hair and Jinjin is allergic to cat hair

During Spring Up era, ASTRO partnered with the Line Play app to add their own custom characters and content and later added Summer Vibes content as well; they also held a virtual fan meeting on the app

MJ likes retro-style fashion and his favorite food is sushi

As a child, Moonbin liked math in school and wanted to be a prosecutor

Eunwoo played soccer and basketball until high school, and MJ played soccer in elementary school

Eunwoo was class president until the end of his first year of high school

While filming the MV for Crazy Sexy Cool, MJ hurt his leg

When filming for an MV, Eunwoo fell off a set prop and onto a nail but he didn’t feel it; the manager took him to the hospital right away, and the doctor said that because Eunwoo’s butt is so plump, he avoided any real damage

The fandom name, AROHA, was picked by a fan; prior to debut, Fantagio allowed fans to submit fandom name ideas with their meanings on the fan cafe and then the members chose which one they liked the most

AROHA comes from AstRO Hearts All fans, and it also means “love” in Maori

Eunwoo has had many appearances: Hellovenus’ Mysterious MV, “The Best Hit” as MJ, “Revenge Note” as Cha Eunwoo, “My ID is Gangnam Beauty” as Do Kyungseok, “Top Management” as Woo Yeonwoo, Urban Zakapa’s You’re the Reason MV

Eunwoo has appeared in CFs for many companies: Blue Mountain, Polham, Tommy Hillfigure Denim, LaFuma, Cleratin, Baskin Robbins 31, Lotte World Park

Jinjin once said he’d like to be able to collaborate with Big Bang

Sanha had braces at debut and until Stray Kids debuted, he was the only idol to ever debut with braces

Rocky has choreographed a large number of ASTRO’s side tracks and has also made choreography for a few of Fantagio’s other groups (5urprise and Hello Venus)

During Summer Vibes promotions, Jinjin also performed as a special guest rapper on Eric Nam’s performances of “Can’t Help Myself” and also featured in the performance at KCON LA 2016

An early demo of My Style from Summer Vibes can be heard in the background of one of the episodes in To Be Continued

ASTRO’s very first concerts, THANKx AROHA, were held in August 2016; all 3 performances sold out in under 30 seconds

Following the above, ASTRO held 2 concerts in Japan in October 2016; after the first show’s 1,300 seats sold out and roughly 8,000 more fans expressed interest, Fantagio added a second show

Continuing the tour of above was a concert in Jakarta also in October 2016 and a concert in Thailand in February 2017

[threadatl]

2018: the year in Atlanta urbanism, from best to worst

The BEST of urbanism in Atlanta, 2018

More attention going to urbanism issues in online media

This year we were grateful for the work of King Williams and Sean Keenan, who write for Saporta Report and Curbed Atlanta respectively — both are covering stories related to urbanism topics, and doing it well.

At Curbed, Keenan often picks up some important slack by covering the kinds of city-legislation storiesthat we wish Atlanta’s paper of record would bother to write about. And at Saporta Report (which also has some great coverage of local politics), King Williams is writing strong posts that call for, among other things, better urban design in the city, better transit policy, and better leadership.

Zoning changes that support good urbanism

The December 13 Zoning Review Board meeting saw approval for some big changes to Atlanta zoning (which will need City Council approval in 2019). In addition to reducing parking requirements, there’s also a proposal for allowing multi-unit housing and accessory-dwelling housing as urban infill.

This was the second phase of “fixes” for the City’s zoning ordinance, which is targeted for a complete rewrite as a much longer, multi-year process.

The City website has a bunch of info about the Zoning Reform project here. There’s also an entire website dedicated to it at ZoningATL.com.

Fuqua proposal at Piedmont Park gets the axe

The contentious plan for a Fuqua-built development near Monroe and 10th Street is dead. The Beltline has decided to not move forward with the sale of the land, next to Piedmont Park, that would have been the location.

A lot of Atlantans had concerns about the development on multiple levels, including the effect it might have had on bringing more car trips into an intersection with the BeltLine path (the project included 750 parking spaces). Bringing that many cars into an area that needs to be safer and more welcoming for active transportation would have been a mistake. It’s refreshing to see an inappropriate development proposal like this going away, rather than sprouting up quickly with the help of tax incentives.

More people are fighting for good things

The fight against the bad deal for development of the Gulch, and the fight for more BeltLine transit spending — both of these saw people getting excited and passionate about big projects in the city.

With the BeltLine Rail Now initiative, advocates who wanted to see the original vision of transit on the route got organized and made their voices heard — with succes. MARTA, to its credit, really listened to community input. As a result, a greater amount of More MARTA spending will now go towards transit on the BeltLine.

Reaction to the Gulch development proposal, with its large incentives package, was strong.  We saw groups speaking out in favor of good things like intercity rail investment, public streets, public engagement, community benefits, and more careful use of investment incentives. The City Council vote on incentives didn’t go the way we wanted, but it was nonetheless encouraging to see the vote be a close one — which in itself shows a shift from the “nod squad” days of the Kasim Reed administration, when the mayor was guaranteed of Council support.

Additionally, it’s good to see Invest Atlanta’s newer board member Fred Smith openly questioning the public benefits of big incentives for projects like the Gulch and the Georgia Aquarium expansion. Smith is reminding Atlanta that it’s not enough to spur investment for its own sake — we have to consider what Atlantans are getting in the way of benefits.

City of Atlanta’s support for placemaking projects

Two projects were selected by the Department of City Planning as winners of the City of Atlanta Placemaking Program.

The Jackson Street Bridge Parklet will take advantage of the crowds that gather to snap pics of the iconic Downtown view, and the West End Placemaking project will “activate key intersections along the White Street corridor to improve bike and pedestrian access in the area.” The planning department has already announced a 2019 version of the program. It’s good to see the City funding these small-scale investments in public spaces, where the projects are driven by input from neighborhoods.

The WORST of Atlanta urbanism, 2018

We shut down the Atlanta Streetcar on New Year’s Eve

The City of Atlanta handed over operations of the Downtown streetcar to MARTA this year. We were hopeful that the transition would mean fewer frustrating shutdowns of service during big events — something we’ve covered previously at ThreadATL.

We were wrong. On New Year’s Eve of 2018, while cities like Portland, Seattle, and Kansas City were promoting the use of their own streetcars during events and even offering free rides, the Atlanta Streetcar was shut down for service. It was embarrassing, perplexing, and frustrating all at once — a mix of emotions represented well in a tweet by ThreadATL co-founder Matthew Garbett, who sarcastically wrote this addendum to MARTA’s tweet about the closure:

“Due to human activity, we will no longer be providing our service of moving humans around. Please note that there is ample parking around the event. AMPLE! We strongly encourage you to drink and drive rather than use this mass transit service that we won’t be providing.”

Will the streetcar also be closed during the Super Bowl? Who is making these decisions and why can’t we do what other cities are doing by keeping the rail running during big events?

Complete Streets projects, already delayed, are now in further jeopardy

There’s a $410 million funding gap for the Renew Atlanta bond initiative, which was supposed to provide money for several good Complete Streets projects that we were promised — ones that had already seen repeated delays in construction timelines.

The resulting”rebaselining” of all projects funded by the bond could put those redesigns of streets, with their improved pedestrian infrastructure and bike lanes, in danger of being de-prioritized or deleted completely.

The pedestrian bridge over Northside Drive is for the benefit of drivers, not pedestrians

This year, ThreadATL was able to use the city’s Open Checkbook portal to piece together the true public cost of the ridiculously expensive pedestrian bridge over Northside Drive to the Mercedes-Benz stadium, and it’s worse than we’d thought, adding up to around $27 million instead of the $23 million that’s usually reported in the media.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, after the championship soccer game where Atlanta United took the trophy, the bridge was first put to use and we got to truly understand who it was for: drivers. Police officers directed all pedestrian traffic to the winding bridge and disallowed use of the crosswalk on the street. Everyone walking from the stadium to the Vine City MARTA Station was forced to use the bridge. The message was clear. This bridge separates people from the street so that drivers can have it all to themselves. So much for all the talk about the bridge being a great connection for people in Vine City. It’s clearly a traffic-control device to benefit cars.

The removal of the Zero Mile Post from the zero mile, rendering it just a post in a museum

Something that ThreadATL and gloATL worked together to explore in 2018 was the sense of place around the historic center point of the city and the Zero Mile Post that has stood at that spot since the 1850s. We did it with a walking tour and activation of the space (partnering with Historic Atlanta), and also with the Starting from Zero event, where we hosted a public forum about landmark and about city identity in general.

It was a shock to us when, without warning, the post was removed from the spot where it had stood for over 160 years and taken to the Atlanta History Center. The city deserves assurance that it will return to the zero mile. We’re disappointed that instead of creating something great around our city center, the State of Georgia (which owns the post and the land it’s on) allowed the relocation of the city center to a museum in Buckhead.

Things to watch in 2019

E-scooters are a disruptive new technology in the city that’s forcing us to look at how we design streets, while also drawing attention from neighborhood groups and from City Council due to concerns about sidewalk safety.

The possibility of a citywide Department of Transportation — there’s actually a working group focused on it already. Atlanta seems to be taking this seriously.

The rise of interest in our city identity through groups like Historic Atlanta, Wonderroot murals about civil rights icons, the art on the BeltLine by Karcheik SIms-Alvarado focused on civil rights.

The HouseATL task force is working on recommendations for the implementation of its recommendations for a major investment in affordable housing for the city.

[helpforcollegenow20]

Urban Soccer Park partnered with @San Jose Earthquakes to bring the new "Thrive Court' to PayPal Park! Check out this video to learn more about how the new and exciting addition will elevate their fan zone and benefit the community.

For more on bringing the Urban Soccer Park experience to your community, visit https://www.urbansoccerpark.com

Urban Soccer Park is a unique combination of sport and court that allows both players and spectators to be immersed in a fast-paced, high-energy game. Help us meet soccer demands in your neighborhood with an Urban Soccer Park, and see your community thrive. At Urban Soccer Park less is more. How do we know less is more? Why are we so confident in mini soccer

For more details, please visit – https://www.urbansoccerpark.com

https://m.me/UrbanSoccerPark

https://www.urbansoccerpark.com/contact

Call To Day: +1 415-347-9895          

Email: austin@urbansoccerpark.com

Address: USA

[urbansoccerparksblog]

At Urban Soccer Park, we understand these challenges all too well because we work hand-in-hand with local schools on these very issues. We have helped leaders across the nation navigate the production process, like land use regulations and approvals, and identify potential partnerships and funding sources where possible. This is our passion, so you can rest assured you will have a willing, well-informed partner by your side. We got your back.

 For more details, please visit - https://www.urbansoccerpark.com

https://m.me/UrbanSoccerPark

https://www.urbansoccerpark.com/contact

Call To Day: +1 208-996-4965

Email: austin@urbansoccerpark.com

Address: USA

[knightsholyeucharist]

School Mini Soccer Field

Urban Soccer Park built a School Mini Soccer Field in a schoolyard in San Francisco, CA.

Mini-pitches are outdoor hard surfaces, the size of a tennis court, where small-sided matches foster technical skill and creativity — not unlike pickup basketball in parks and schools around the country. We think that the same soccer culture exists here in this country. It's just creating access and opportunity. The smallest acceptable FIFA regulations size soccer field is 50 by 100 yards, which translates to about 5000 square yards of playing area.

As administrators, you juggle a lot when it comes to making decisions for your school. Identifying programs that will best serve your students is not an easy task—not only are budgets a constant concern, but you also want to invest in projects that will get the highest level of utilization, spawn new revenue opportunities, and be something the whole community can get behind.

At Urban Soccer Park, we understand these challenges all too well because we work hand-in-hand with local schools on these very issues. We have helped leaders across the nation navigate the production process, like land use regulations and approvals, and identify potential partnerships and funding sources where possible. This is our passion, so you can rest assured you will have a willing, well-informed partner by your side. We got your back.

For more details, please visit - https://www.urbansoccerpark.com

https://m.me/UrbanSoccerPark

https://www.urbansoccerpark.com/contact

Call To Day: +1 415-347-9895

Email: austin@urbansoccerpark.com

Address: USA

[stephenmccull]

Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado

Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament.

But the sounds were muted inside a mobile medical RV parked near the stadium, and the tone was professional. During halftime of Mexico’s game against the U.S., soccer fan Oscar Felipe Sanchez rolled up his sleeve to receive the one-dose covid-19 vaccine.

Sanchez is a house painter in Colorado Springs. After getting sick with covid a few months ago, he thought he should get the vaccine. But because of the illness, he was advised to wait a few weeks before getting the shot. Asked if he’s glad he got it, Sanchez answered through a translator: “Yes! He’s more trusting to go out.”

Bringing the mobile vaccine program to an international soccer match was the latest effort by the state of Colorado and its local partners to meet unvaccinated residents wherever they are, rather than ask them to find the vaccine themselves.

Long gone are the days in early spring when vaccine appointments were snatched up the instant they became available, and health care workers worried about making sure patients were eligible under state and federal criteria for age and health status.

Colorado, and most of the nation, has now moved into a new phase involving targeted efforts and individual interactions and using trusted community influencers to persuade the hesitant to get jabbed.

With about half of Colorado’s 5.78 million people now fully immunized, the challenge cuts across all demographic groups. According to the state’s vaccination dashboard, men are slightly more hesitant than women and rural residents are more hesitant than urban dwellers. Younger Coloradans have been less likely than their elders to prioritize the shots.

But perhaps no group has been harder to get vaccinated than Coloradans who identify as Hispanic. Despite Hispanics making up more than 20% of the state population, only about 10% of the state’s doses have gone to Hispanic residents, according to the state’s vaccination dashboard.

The gap is not as wide nationally: Hispanics, or Latinos, make up 17.2% of the U.S. population, and 15.8% of people who have gotten at least one dose — and whose race/ethnicity is known — are Hispanic.

At first, the gap in Colorado seemed to be an issue of inadequate access to health care. Nearly 16% of Hispanic Coloradans are uninsured, according to a KFF report. That’s more than double the rate for white Coloradans. That disparity may play a role, even though the vaccine itself is free, with no insurance requirement.

Denver has hit the 70% threshold for resident vaccination, but some Latino neighborhoods are getting vaccinated at much lower rates, according to Dr. Lilia Cervantes, an associate professor in the department of medicine at Denver Health.

“There are some very high-risk neighborhoods where most of the community are first-generation or foreign-born individuals,” said Cervantes. “And that is where we’re seeing the highest disparities.”

According to data from Denver’s health agencies, about 40% of Latinos older than 12 are vaccinated in Denver County — that’s far below the roughly 75% rate for whites.

Latinos make up 29% of the Denver population but represent nearly half of cases and hospitalizations.

If the state hopes to reach broad levels of protection from the virus, Cervantes said, “I think that it is critical that we improve vaccine uptake in our most marginalized groups, including those who are undocumented and those who are Spanish-language dominant.” Cervantes added she’s concerned the state will keep seeing a higher covid positivity rate in those marginalized groups, who make up much of the essential workforce. “This past year, I think we have seen stark health inequities in the Latino community.”

All this portends a more uneven pandemic, said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the Latino Research & Policy Center at the Colorado School of Public Health.

He worries cases, hospitalizations and deaths will keep flaring up in less vaccinated communities, especially predominantly Hispanic populations in parts of Colorado or other states where overall vaccination rates are poor. “They’re at risk, especially moving into the fall of seeing increasing waves of infections. I think it is really critical that people really become vaccinated,” Holguin said. Even as parts of Colorado and parts of the U.S. — like the Northeast — are getting vaccinated at high rates, for the mostly unvaccinated “covid infections in certain communities still will be devastating for them,” he said.

He’s especially concerned about migrant farmworkers, who often have poor access to the internet and may struggle to find good information about the vaccine and avoiding the virus. “So overcoming those access, cultural, language barriers is important,” he said.

When asked what the state has done to reach out to Latino Coloradans, a health department spokesperson pointed to over 1,500 “vaccine equity clinics” in 56 counties; the Workplace Vaccination Program, which partners with businesses and organizations to provide vaccine clinics at worksites; and a Spanish-language Facebook page and covid website. She said the state’s “Power the Comeback” campaign is available in English and Spanish and aims to reach disproportionately affected populations with awareness ads, testimonial videos and animated videos.

About a third of all adults in the U.S. are unvaccinated, a “shrinking pool” that skews younger and includes people more likely to identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, according to a KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report.

They also tend to be poorer, less educated and more likely to be uninsured. The KFF report found 19% of unvaccinated adults are Hispanic; of that group, 20% said they will “wait and see” about getting vaccinated, and 11% said they’d “definitely not” get it.

Both Cervantes and Holguin credit local, state and community groups with aggressively looking to boost vaccination rates among Latino Coloradans, while also encouraging them to keep recruiting trusted community voices from within, to help deliver the message.

“You know, it’s not going to be Dr. [Anthony] Fauci saying something, that someone translates in Spanish, that you need to get vaccinated,” Holguin said. “There’s going to be people in the community convincing others to get vaccinated.”

At Empower Field, soccer fan Diego Montemayor of Denver echoed that sentiment, saying some fans who got shots themselves urged friends who came to the stadium to visit the RV and get one, too. “When they hear people that they trust sharing their experiences, that goes a long way,” Montemayor said.

Community health advocate Karimme Quintana agreed. She had come to the game as well to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. She works as a promotora de salud pública, a public health outreach worker, focusing her efforts on Denver’s majority-Latino Westwood neighborhood. Quintana said that population may trust someone close to them more than even a doctor.

“They need to be more educated about the covid because they have a lot of questions,” said Quintana, whose button read “¿Tiene preguntas sobre covid? Pregúnteme.” (“Do you have questions about covid? Ask me.”)

“Latino people, they listen [to] the neighbor, they listen [to] my friend,” Quintana said.

University of Colorado Health nurse Danica Farrington said the vaccine effort at the soccer tournament was heavily promoted beforehand on billboards and big screens inside the stadium during the game.

“They just plastered it everywhere and said, go get your shot,” she said. “That’s pretty influential.”

The carnival atmosphere at the stadium helped him make the pitch, said Jesus Romero Serrano, a community ambassador with Denver’s mayor’s office: “It’s a Mexico game versus Honduras! So lots of Latinos are here. This is the perfect place to be, to reach the Latin community. Absolutely!”

To capitalize on the playful spirit of the day, Romero Serrano wore a Mexico soccer jersey and a red-and-green luchador wrestling mask. In his work with the city government, he’s what you could call a community influencer. He filtered through the tailgate crowd in the parking lot, handing out cards about where to get a vaccine.

As he circulated, he admitted it’s sometimes hard for some Latino Coloradans to overcome what they see as years of historical mistreatment or neglect from medical providers. “They don’t trust the health care system,” he said.

Still, Romero Serrano kept wading into the crowd, shaking hands and shouting over the constant din of the drum bands, asking people whether they had gotten a vaccine.

The most common answer he heard was “everybody has it” — but he was skeptical about that, thinking people were just being nice.

A few miles from the stadium is the Tepeyac Community Health Center, in the predominantly Hispanic Globeville neighborhood. That’s home base for Dr. Pamela Valenza, a family physician and the chief health officer at the clinic. She tries to address her patients’ fears and concerns about the new vaccines, but many have told her they still want to wait and see that people don’t have serious side effects.

Valenza’s clinic recently held more vaccine events, at more convenient times that didn’t interfere with work, like Friday evenings, and offered free grocery cards for the vaccinated. She said she likes the idea of pairing vaccines with fun.

“The Latino culture — food, culture and community — is such a central part of the Latino community,” Valenza said. “Making the events maybe a little bit more than just a vaccine might encourage some community members to come out.”

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

  KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado

Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament.

But the sounds were muted inside a mobile medical RV parked near the stadium, and the tone was professional. During halftime of Mexico’s game against the U.S., soccer fan Oscar Felipe Sanchez rolled up his sleeve to receive the one-dose covid-19 vaccine.

Sanchez is a house painter in Colorado Springs. After getting sick with covid a few months ago, he thought he should get the vaccine. But because of the illness, he was advised to wait a few weeks before getting the shot. Asked if he’s glad he got it, Sanchez answered through a translator: “Yes! He’s more trusting to go out.”

Bringing the mobile vaccine program to an international soccer match was the latest effort by the state of Colorado and its local partners to meet unvaccinated residents wherever they are, rather than ask them to find the vaccine themselves.

Long gone are the days in early spring when vaccine appointments were snatched up the instant they became available, and health care workers worried about making sure patients were eligible under state and federal criteria for age and health status.

Colorado, and most of the nation, has now moved into a new phase involving targeted efforts and individual interactions and using trusted community influencers to persuade the hesitant to get jabbed.

With about half of Colorado’s 5.78 million people now fully immunized, the challenge cuts across all demographic groups. According to the state’s vaccination dashboard, men are slightly more hesitant than women and rural residents are more hesitant than urban dwellers. Younger Coloradans have been less likely than their elders to prioritize the shots.

But perhaps no group has been harder to get vaccinated than Coloradans who identify as Hispanic. Despite Hispanics making up more than 20% of the state population, only about 10% of the state’s doses have gone to Hispanic residents, according to the state’s vaccination dashboard.

The gap is not as wide nationally: Hispanics, or Latinos, make up 17.2% of the U.S. population, and 15.8% of people who have gotten at least one dose — and whose race/ethnicity is known — are Hispanic.

At first, the gap in Colorado seemed to be an issue of inadequate access to health care. Nearly 16% of Hispanic Coloradans are uninsured, according to a KFF report. That’s more than double the rate for white Coloradans. That disparity may play a role, even though the vaccine itself is free, with no insurance requirement.

Denver has hit the 70% threshold for resident vaccination, but some Latino neighborhoods are getting vaccinated at much lower rates, according to Dr. Lilia Cervantes, an associate professor in the department of medicine at Denver Health.

“There are some very high-risk neighborhoods where most of the community are first-generation or foreign-born individuals,” said Cervantes. “And that is where we’re seeing the highest disparities.”

According to data from Denver’s health agencies, about 40% of Latinos older than 12 are vaccinated in Denver County — that’s far below the roughly 75% rate for whites.

Latinos make up 29% of the Denver population but represent nearly half of cases and hospitalizations.

If the state hopes to reach broad levels of protection from the virus, Cervantes said, “I think that it is critical that we improve vaccine uptake in our most marginalized groups, including those who are undocumented and those who are Spanish-language dominant.” Cervantes added she’s concerned the state will keep seeing a higher covid positivity rate in those marginalized groups, who make up much of the essential workforce. “This past year, I think we have seen stark health inequities in the Latino community.”

All this portends a more uneven pandemic, said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the Latino Research & Policy Center at the Colorado School of Public Health.

He worries cases, hospitalizations and deaths will keep flaring up in less vaccinated communities, especially predominantly Hispanic populations in parts of Colorado or other states where overall vaccination rates are poor. “They’re at risk, especially moving into the fall of seeing increasing waves of infections. I think it is really critical that people really become vaccinated,” Holguin said. Even as parts of Colorado and parts of the U.S. — like the Northeast — are getting vaccinated at high rates, for the mostly unvaccinated “covid infections in certain communities still will be devastating for them,” he said.

He’s especially concerned about migrant farmworkers, who often have poor access to the internet and may struggle to find good information about the vaccine and avoiding the virus. “So overcoming those access, cultural, language barriers is important,” he said.

When asked what the state has done to reach out to Latino Coloradans, a health department spokesperson pointed to over 1,500 “vaccine equity clinics” in 56 counties; the Workplace Vaccination Program, which partners with businesses and organizations to provide vaccine clinics at worksites; and a Spanish-language Facebook page and covid website. She said the state’s “Power the Comeback” campaign is available in English and Spanish and aims to reach disproportionately affected populations with awareness ads, testimonial videos and animated videos.

About a third of all adults in the U.S. are unvaccinated, a “shrinking pool” that skews younger and includes people more likely to identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, according to a KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report.

They also tend to be poorer, less educated and more likely to be uninsured. The KFF report found 19% of unvaccinated adults are Hispanic; of that group, 20% said they will “wait and see” about getting vaccinated, and 11% said they’d “definitely not” get it.

Both Cervantes and Holguin credit local, state and community groups with aggressively looking to boost vaccination rates among Latino Coloradans, while also encouraging them to keep recruiting trusted community voices from within, to help deliver the message.

“You know, it’s not going to be Dr. [Anthony] Fauci saying something, that someone translates in Spanish, that you need to get vaccinated,” Holguin said. “There’s going to be people in the community convincing others to get vaccinated.”

At Empower Field, soccer fan Diego Montemayor of Denver echoed that sentiment, saying some fans who got shots themselves urged friends who came to the stadium to visit the RV and get one, too. “When they hear people that they trust sharing their experiences, that goes a long way,” Montemayor said.

Community health advocate Karimme Quintana agreed. She had come to the game as well to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. She works as a promotora de salud pública, a public health outreach worker, focusing her efforts on Denver’s majority-Latino Westwood neighborhood. Quintana said that population may trust someone close to them more than even a doctor.

“They need to be more educated about the covid because they have a lot of questions,” said Quintana, whose button read “¿Tiene preguntas sobre covid? Pregúnteme.” (“Do you have questions about covid? Ask me.”)

“Latino people, they listen [to] the neighbor, they listen [to] my friend,” Quintana said.

University of Colorado Health nurse Danica Farrington said the vaccine effort at the soccer tournament was heavily promoted beforehand on billboards and big screens inside the stadium during the game.

“They just plastered it everywhere and said, go get your shot,” she said. “That’s pretty influential.”

The carnival atmosphere at the stadium helped him make the pitch, said Jesus Romero Serrano, a community ambassador with Denver’s mayor’s office: “It’s a Mexico game versus Honduras! So lots of Latinos are here. This is the perfect place to be, to reach the Latin community. Absolutely!”

To capitalize on the playful spirit of the day, Romero Serrano wore a Mexico soccer jersey and a red-and-green luchador wrestling mask. In his work with the city government, he’s what you could call a community influencer. He filtered through the tailgate crowd in the parking lot, handing out cards about where to get a vaccine.

As he circulated, he admitted it’s sometimes hard for some Latino Coloradans to overcome what they see as years of historical mistreatment or neglect from medical providers. “They don’t trust the health care system,” he said.

Still, Romero Serrano kept wading into the crowd, shaking hands and shouting over the constant din of the drum bands, asking people whether they had gotten a vaccine.

The most common answer he heard was “everybody has it” — but he was skeptical about that, thinking people were just being nice.

A few miles from the stadium is the Tepeyac Community Health Center, in the predominantly Hispanic Globeville neighborhood. That’s home base for Dr. Pamela Valenza, a family physician and the chief health officer at the clinic. She tries to address her patients’ fears and concerns about the new vaccines, but many have told her they still want to wait and see that people don’t have serious side effects.

Valenza’s clinic recently held more vaccine events, at more convenient times that didn’t interfere with work, like Friday evenings, and offered free grocery cards for the vaccinated. She said she likes the idea of pairing vaccines with fun.

“The Latino culture — food, culture and community — is such a central part of the Latino community,” Valenza said. “Making the events maybe a little bit more than just a vaccine might encourage some community members to come out.”

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

  KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[architectnews]

Docklands Park on Yangtze River, Jiangyin

Docklands Park Yangtze River by BAU, Jiangyin, Jiangsu Building Development, Chinese Architecture Photos

Docklands Park, Yangtze River, Jiangyin, Jiangsu, China

20 May 2021

Docklands Park on Yangtze River, Jiangyin

Architects: Designed by BAU Brearley Architects + Urbanists

Location: Jiangyin, Jiangsu, China

Docklands Park, Yangtze River, Jiangyin

Ship Building Park:

Introduction

Jiangyin is on the Yangtze, the world’s busiest working river. The city is regenerating part of its industrial docklands as a high density live-work district. Stage one of this major project is the creation of a 4km public realm along the river edge. The design was selected through invited competition.

Ambitions

re-establish indigenous eco-system corridors;

preserve the industrial character;

maintain presence of the historic past;

introduce leisure infrastructure for the new era

link beyond the site for the emergence of a city park network.

  Soft edges and eco corridors

The Yangtze at this location is tidal. This project rehabilitates, preserves, enhances and extends a raft of microhabitats. Complexity of the existing river edge is formally maintained, enhanced and secured with loose rock scaled for habitat. A new corridor of indigenous trees and plants weaves through the project’s length to connect the Ebizui mountain ecological node to the east with the canal eco corridor towards the west.

Shiyu Port Docklands Park:

  Post-industrial poetics

The vast worn concrete wharves are colored by the brown earth washed down the Yangtze. Overlooking the two-kilometer river from the prosaic empty docks presents an overwhelming scale and sense of the sublime. This design preserves even the most brutal of structures. Necessary new interventions on and around the wharves share the scale, robustness and clarity of this industrial context. Whilst the future district promises to be filled with vibrancy, and much of the landscape is rich in complexity, the wharf edges provide a rare escape.

  Continuity with the Past

Palimpsest – Ship Building Park

Whilst the majority of the site was open and flat for stockpiling raw materials, the eastern portion of the site was recently a functioning ship building facility. The design strategy maintained traces of the site’s history and overlaid a number of ecological, circulation and programmatic layers. The result is a complex palimpsest supporting inclusive and diverse open spaces and activities.

The history layer includes ship slipways; gantry cranes and rails; ship building factory structures; jetties; a Chinese garden; a tree lined road; and numerous other artefacts. Other layers across the site include: connections (pedestrian paths, bike paths, water boardwalk, extensions of views to and from the site, and paths from the new districts – all maximizing links between the city and the water); active leisure (sports courts and skate park); play (children’s adventure playground in the form of a ship, and elderly exercise area); social gathering (large plaza, visitor center, and large pavilions); relaxation (small pavilions, intimate seating, picnic tables, and  ship interpretation installation); and ecological (rain gardens, water edge habitats, eco-corridor).

Shiyu Port:

Jiucai Port:

Hungtian Port:

Three Historic Ports

Jiangyin’s origins as a port city date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Research revealed the location of three historic ports. The site of Huang Tian Port, reputedly dating back nearly 2000 years, has been developed as the dockland’s major open space for public events. Interpretive mapping of the Yangtze River is integrated in its paving. Historic Jiu Cai Port has been named and restored in its most recent iteration, as industrial port. A new restaurant designed as an urban hill provides a lookout point. Shiyu Port dates from the 1500s and was a renowned fish market. The new landscape here establishes a plaza, park, and fish restaurant. An integrated paving artwork provides further interpretation.

new era of leisure

After a hiatus of nearly fifty years China is prospering and its citizens are rediscovering all variety of leisure pursuits. This landscape introduces opportunities for the very young to the very old. It is the city’s largest playground. Linked by a 4km jogging track are dozens of outdoor sports courts and frequent gym equipment stations for public use. A more leisurely path weaves the length of the site and connects several large children’s playgrounds, a skate park, and numerous groupings of exercise equipment for the elderly. Frequent throughout the landscape are dancing plazas, a popular local pursuit. A host of pavilions, tables for games, and lawns for picnics, tents and programs yet to come. The park ushers in a novel, exotic era of health and play.

Emerging park network

The bicycle path in this docklands park has initiated a 20km bicycle loop tracing existing and proposed lineal parks in the city. Linking the disparate parks with this loop, or greenway, brings about an accompanying ecological link. An extensive eco-system network is emerging. Pedestrian paths extend along the Yangtze either way. To the east a narrow boardwalk has been installed to enable people to pass around the steep mountain edge. The docklands park is also designed to smoothly connect to the urban district under construction. The circulation of the foreshore is coupled with the urban circulation. Plazas and city-river view corridors are located on street axis from where landscape paths radiate.

Hungtian Port:

Project Data：

Project Status: Completed 2020

Location: Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, China

Year: 2012-2020

Client: Jiangyin Urban Planning Bureau

Construction Area: 36.7 Ha (Ship Building Park 7.6Ha; Shiyu Port Park 6.9 Ha; Jiucai Port Park 7.2 Ha; Huangtian Port Park 15 Ha)

Construction Cost: RMB 369 million (Ship Building Park RMB 30 million; Shiyu Port Park RMB 59 million; Jiucai Port Park RMB 70 million; Huangtian Port Park RMB 210 million)

Typology: Public park, sports park, waterfront

Program: Sustainable urban drainage, city garden, wetland, parkland, heritage preservation, plazas, emergency docks, skate park adventure playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, gate ball courts, table tennis courts, soccer fields, outdoor swimming pool, outdoor theater, bike paths, running track, pavilions, commercial and amenities buildings and tourist information centers.

BAU Project Team:

Principal: James Brearley

Hungtian Port:

Landscape

Project Leader: Fang Huang

Landscape Architecture Team: Robin Armstrong, Wang Can, Xiong Juan, Li Shuyun, Lu Yinghong, Fang Xujie, Chen Yanling, Wang Chenlei, Huang Junbiao, Liu Xiaobo, Lisa Ann Gray, Alexander Abke, Wang Tiankui, Luo Li, Cheng Yedian

Docklands Park Yangtze River by BAU, Jiangyin, Jiangsu:

Architecture

Project Manager: Jiang Han

Architecture Team: Steve Whitford, Joseph Tran, Zhang Xu, Gao Weiguo, Ni Wei, Hou Huilin, Tatjana Djordjevic, Li Fuming, Wang Keming, Li Dongdong, Yang Tai, Pu Lengfeng

Contractor: Jiangsu Natural Environment Construction Group Co., Ltd., Changshu Traditional Chinese Architecture & Landscaping Construction Co.,Ltd., Suzhou Wu Lin Landscape Development Co., Ltd.

Engineer: Jiangyin Urban and Rural Planning Design Institute

Landscape Construction Documentation: Jiangyin Urban and Rural Planning Design Institute

3D Rendering: BAU

Photographs: Zeng Jianghe, Xiazhi

Docklands Park, Yangtze River, Jiangyin images / information received 200521

Location: Jiangyin, Nanjing, China

Nanjing Building Designs

Nanjing Architecture

Nanjing Buildings

Chinese Architecture News

Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center Design: MAD Architects image : CreatAR Images, MAD Architects Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center Building

Nanjing International Youth Cultural Centre, Jiangsu Design: Zaha Hadid Architects photo © Hufton+Crow 2nd Nanjing Youth Olympic Games International Convention Center

Futureland Puye Experience Centre and Show Office Design: HASSELL, Architects image courtesy of architects Futureland Puye Experience Centre and Show Office

Purified Residence Design: Wei Yi International Design Associates photograph : JMS Purified Residence

Nanjing Financial City II Master Plan Design: von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) photo © Gärtner Christ Nanjing Financial City II Masterplan

Chinese Architecture

China Architecture Design – chronological list

Chinese Architect – Design Practice Listings

Chinese Buildings

Comments / photos for the Docklands Park on Yangtze River, Jiangyin page welcome

The post Docklands Park on Yangtze River, Jiangyin appeared first on e-architect.

[generalcomputerdetective]

Insights from Aerial & Satellite Images

Aerial & Satellite Image Analytics (SIA) Platform uses computer vision and object detection, to monitor changes to urban areas, count vehicles, and map open spaces. Some of the applications include Buildings detection, Sport-Facilities detection, Vehicles detection, and Ships and Airplanes detection. Applications of these range from urban planning & monitoring, construction, energy & utilities, traffic management, intelligence & reconnaissance. The SIA platform is capable of processing aerial and satellite imagery in RGB mode and is capable of processing images and videos that have 55 cm or less in resolution (Ground Sampling Distance - GSD). The source of images could be Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, High-Altitude Pseudo Satellites (HAPS), Aircraft, drones/UAVs.

Aventior offers the SIA platform in multiple models depending on client needs. These include SaaS-based access, API based data service, and Product embedding. A consumer version of the key SIA algorithms is also available through our partner platforms such as UP42 (www.up42.com) and Esri (www.esri.com).

Applications

Building Detection

Using the Building Detection module within SIA, organizations can classify and count buildings in an urban location. It is capable of running the detection algorithm at a large scale to cover areas over 100 square kilometers. Urban planners can use this platform to detect changes over a period of time, measure modifications and extensions to houses, count apartments for the census, and determine the quality of infrastructure. Retail and telecommunication companies can use this to determine market density, logistics. Additional applications: Building Detection, Apartments Detection, House Detection, Urban Planning, Construction, Change detection, illegal construction monitoring, census and population, urban planning, solar power potential, ad and billboard placement, first responders, police, law enforcement, emergency routes.

Sports Facilities Detection

Detect sports facilities like soccer fields, baseball parks, tennis courts and stadiums. Urban planners can use this information to understand use of open spaces, planning of recreational spaces and entertainment facilities. Governments, real estate developers, private equity funds can use this data to measure urban development, facility usage and earning potential. Ad companies can determine best locations to place billboards, run ad campaigns. Real estate developers, food companies can determine placement of eateries, complementary services and earning potential. First responders, public safety officers, and law enforcement can map access points, do crowd management and design emergency routes.

Vehicle Detection

SIA has an inbuilt capability to detect small and large vehicles in urban, rural, and industrial settings. It has the capability to classify vehicles, provide counts, and geo-coordinates. Counting, classifying, and tracking vehicles can be used by hedge fund investors to determine economic activity, retailers to track actual sales, mining companies to manage heavy machinery and assets, customs and border protection to monitor border activities, urban planners to manage traffic and illegal parking.

Urban Super Resolution (USR)

The Urban Super Resolution is an image enhancement processing powered by AI. The USR module within SIA is an image per-processing sub routine that has been configured to process images of cities, towns and suburban locations to improve the Ground Sampling Distance (GSD). It is an effective alternative to image enhancement that uses heuristics instead of commonly used weighted algorithms. The SIA platform’s USR is capable of improving the image resolution by 4X. Common applications are around improving the resolution of 70 cm GSD images to 17.5 cm and 50 cm GSD images to 12.5 cm.

Human Detection

The SIA has been modified to also process drone footage (4K images and videos). One of the primary applications has been around human detection for search and rescue and for homicide investigation. This is particularly effective for relatively open areas, desert, mountainous and urban locations. With the primary users being local police, sheriff and custom & border protection agencies to help locate missing individuals and victims.

Maritime Surveillance

The SIA platform can be used to detect ships, flotilla, oil tankers and other vessels in open seas, harbors and ports. This data can be then merged with real-time AIS data to ensure validity of vessels in the open ocean, ensure safety of cargo operations, sailor safety, anti-piracy and environment protection. Law enforcement and security agencies can feed drone videos or high-altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) data to gather situational awareness on a real-time basis. Additional predictive modeling can be used to model ship movement to avoid port congestion.

Aircraft Detection

Aircraft detection module helps locate, track and count aircrafts on the ground (airports and hangars). It can be used to determine economic activities - important for investors in the travel, transportation and logistics industry. Airports and aircrafts are strategic assets and information to track such data is key for surveillance and intelligence.

Power Line Inspection and Anomaly Detection

Power infrastructure such as power poles and power lines pose safety challenges for inspectors. A typical power line and transmission pole inspections are carried out using aerial platforms such as airplanes and helicopters. These methods are expensive and unsafe. Increasingly, utility companies are using drones to facilitate large scale inspection. SIA’s module for power line detection, inspection and anomaly detection provides a faster AI based processing of drone feeds that reduces the processing time significantly.

[utcampuslifeupdate]

University Honors Outstanding Student Employees

2017-2018 Student Employee of the Year Award Winner and Finalists: (front row) Brianna Barth, Bianca Eubanks, Kacey Davidson and Susan Ward; (back row) Alexander Bruce, Dominykas Bytautas, James Collins (winner), Sarah Ritch, Adrienne Boni Banks and Danny Bacic (Bex Orton not pictured)

As a Campus Environmental Center ambassador, James Collins has helped the university pursue the goal of global environmental sustainability. Today, President Gregory L. Fenves honored him with the Student Employee of the Year Award for his work collaborating with campus partners and student organizations.

As part of National Student Employee Appreciation Week, the Offices of the President and Vice President for Student Affairs, and Human Resources recognized Collins and 10 finalists at today’s ceremony.

“I’ve had opportunities to fine-tune skills such as time management, delegation and professional communication. On-campus jobs in sustainability are equipping environmentally-minded students with the professional experience needed to jump into impactful careers and succeed,” he said.

The environmental science and government major also advocated for environmentalism through Texas State Parks Club, Lions Club and Texas Water Research Network. He’s worked at the UT Microfarm, the university’s first student-run, on-campus farm and a partner of University Housing and Dining’s UT Farm Stand.

These kinds of experiences contribute to Longhorn alumni wellbeing after graduation according to a recent Gallup survey. The survey found that being extremely involved in extracurricular activities strongly correlates to future success.

Hear from this year’s finalists below about how their on-campus employment are getting them ready for a career, graduate or professional school, or other pursuits.

Danny Bacic • Employment: Recreational Sports, Student Assistant • Major: Biomedical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering, Class of 2018 • Activities: Longhorn Band, UT Student Engineers Educating Kids, Kappa Psi, Intramural Basketball, Dodgeball, Flag Football, Futsal, Soccer, Softball, Ultimate and Volleyball

“The true test of readiness is the ability to adapt to changing situations as they unfold. Recreational Sports has given me invaluable management experience. Leading a team requires confident decision-making, consistent moral standards, effective communication and teamwork.”

Brianna Barth • Employment: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Undergraduate Research Assistant • Major: Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Class of 2020 • Activities: Women in Natural Sciences

“Through research, I’ve been able to gain skills in applying what I’ve learned in class to a practical purpose. My supervisors have taught me how to recover from failure and the value of perseverance in solving problems.”

Adrienne Banks • Employment: Texas Performing Arts, Senior Student Associate • Master’s Degree: Social Work (Clinical), Steve Hicks School of Social Work, May 2018 • Activities: Texas Performing Arts Student Employee Advisory Council, Phi Alpha Honor Society

“The energy and spirit of my undergraduate coworkers is contagious and constantly reminds me why I devote time to this school and organization. The experiences, connections and knowledge I gain at UT Austin will inform everything I go out and do when I leave this university.”

Alexander Bruce • Employment: School of Undergraduate Studies, Undergraduate Assistant • Major: Economics, College of Liberal Arts, Class of 2019 • Activities: Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, Transfer-year Experience Program Mentor, Family Orientation Student Leader

“I firmly believe that here at UT Austin we lay the groundwork for our future success. It gives you great leadership experience and it also connects you even more within the university which can be a great benefit.”

Dominykas Bytautas • Employment: Recreational Sports, Senior Student Associate • Major: English, College of Liberal Arts, Class of 2018 • Activities: University Leadership Network, University Unions Audio/Visual Technician (internship)

“This job has revealed to me that I can adapt and I can problem solve, and in fact that I enjoy solving problems. Life after graduation is a scary thought, but this job has taught me that it can be exciting, too.”

Kacey Davidson • Employment: University Health Services & Recreational Sports, Senior Student Associate • Major: Public Relations and Communication Studies, Moody College of Communications, May 2018 • Activities: Ignite Texas, Texas Darlins, Longhorn Run Committee

“I have learned how to be a leader and specifically lead a team of peers to complete tasks. I am equipped with the ability to anticipate problems and create a plan of action to resolve that issue. I have also learned the importance of building a positive culture.”

Bianca Eubanks • Employment: Texas Interdisciplinary Plan (TIP), Undergraduate Tutor; Biology Instructional Office, Undergraduate Assistant • Major: Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Class of 2018

“I realize that being a good leader requires one to first be a good follower acknowledging that there is always room for improvement. My supervisors and team have helped me develop skills necessary for a future in a medical career where I will be able to work in teams to help people.”

Bex Orton • Employment: Voices Against Violence & Gender and Sexuality Center, Student Technician • Major: Theatre and Dance, College of Fine Arts, Class of 2018

“I try to remind myself to be confident in the skills that I have, honest about how and where I can challenge myself and open to collaboration and new perspectives. I’ve also learned time management, collaboration and project management.”

Sarah Ritch • Employment: University Health Services & Biology Instructional Office, Student Assistant • Major: Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Class of 2018

“In some ways, my experience as a student employee has been more fulfilling than my time in the classroom. Students might be surprised at how many jobs on campus are similar to the jobs they may want to pursue after graduation.”

Susan Ward • Employment: Office of Sustainability, Student Associate • Major: Urban Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Class of 2019 • Activities: Texas Latin Dance, Campus Environmental Center, Texas Squash Box League

“Working on campus has really taught me about the importance of collaboration and communication, which I will take with me regardless of what I do in the future. Being able to impact the community we’re part of is so rewarding.”

Congratulations to all of the student employees recognized this year. Check out past recipients. Stay tuned for profiles on each finalist. 

[sciencespies]

Searching for the Invisible, Invincible Peruvian Tern

https://sciencespies.com/nature/searching-for-the-invisible-invincible-peruvian-tern/

Searching for the Invisible, Invincible Peruvian Tern

Smithsonian Voices National Zoo

Searching for the Invisible, Invincible Peruvian Tern

November 5th, 2020, 9:30AM / BY Ximena Velez-Zuazo

The Peruvian tern’s desert camouflage makes it almost impossible to track, but that’s exactly what our research team set out to do. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

Esta historia esta disponible en español aquí.

On Peru’s pacific coastline, where desert meets sea, lives one of the least studied and most at-risk birds: the Peruvian tern, known locally as “gaviotin Peruano” (Sternula lorata). The tern is nearly invisible in its native habitat, which looks more like a moonscape than anything you would expect to find on Earth. Its desert camouflage makes it almost impossible for scientists to track, but that’s exactly what our team set out to do. It would take us four months to survey more than 1,851 acres, battling sandstorms, stifling heat and impossible landscapes inside Paracas National Reserve — terrain that the Peruvian tern has mastered.

Peruvian terns are part of a small group of terns (Sternula) that are slender, with long beaks and short legs. They have white feathers with black “caps” that look like masks, and they lay their eggs in shallow depressions in the bare ground. They are found in Paracas National Reserve, Peru’s oldest marine protected area, where reports suggest they began nesting as early as 1920. One hundred years later, the Reserve treasures the largest nesting colony in the country.

But Peruvian terns are on a path toward extinction, and the population in Paracas is no exception. According to the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species, Peruvian tern populations are decreasing. A 2018 survey of Paracas’ nonbreeding terns reported fewer individuals than in the past, and the last survey of the Reserve’s breeding population was conducted nearly a decade ago. Our team wanted to find out how many terns still nest in the park and what threats they face. Locating them would be the hardest part.

It took our team four months to survey more than 1,851 acres, battling sandstorms, stifling heat and impossible landscapes inside Paracas National Reserve — terrain that the Peruvian tern has mastered. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

Paracas National Reserve is home to a myriad of species of all sizes, from sea lions and seahorses to foxes and geckos. Seabirds are common; many are residents and many more are migrants. Wildlife thrives in the intertidal zone — the zone where the Pacific Ocean meets the shoreline — but it’s a different story on land. The extremely dry landscape makes this habitat nearly impossible to occupy. “Paracas” means “sand rain” in Quechua, the Andean native language, and when it “rains,” it pours. During the sandstorm season, sustained winds of up to 62 mph (100 kph) unroll a thick curtain of sand. This extreme environment is unwelcoming to humans, but it’s an oasis for the Peruvian tern.

How has the tern thrived in this harsh environment? By being invisible. Although we are still learning about this species (there are just four studies on Peruvian populations), we know one thing: they are masters of matching their environment. When the wind blows, terns crouch close to the ground to disappear. They build nests that are nearly impossible for outsiders to spot and adorn them with tiny stones, shells and bones. These visual cues help the birds locate their nests in the homogeneous landscape. Masters of disguise, even their eggs and chicks are the same color pattern as the ground. It’s like the terns wear invisibility cloaks.

Peruvian terns are masters of disguise. Their chicks’ color pattern matches their surroundings. It’s like the terns wear invisibility cloaks. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

To find them, we would need help. So, our team at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute partnered with a private company, Terminal Portuario Paracas (TPP). TPP is leading the expansion of General San Martin Port Terminal, a port in Peru for the import and export of goods. The road to the port is also the only road that leads to an area where the Peruvian tern has historically nested. The paved and busy road was built in the 1950s before Paracas National Reserve existed.

Thus, the terns still live in the area, and we don’t know if the increased activity from the port will affect them. In October 2019, with the sandstorm season officially over, we established our base camp in El Chaco, the last urban area before the desert landscapes of the Reserve. Our goal was to cover 1,851 acres in just four months before the end of the reproductive season. We would study tern flight patterns and comb the area for nests.

At 6 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2019, at the onset of the Austral summer, we headed into the already hot desert. One hour later, we were in the middle of nowhere feeling more on the moon than on Earth. The terrain changed abruptly from hollows to hills, with bizarre sculptures that resembled giant puff pastries.

The terrain in the park changed abruptly from hollows to hills, with bizarre sculptures that resembled giant puff pastries. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

Between the dunes and hills of the northern side of the park is Cequion Bay — the largest flat terrain in the Reserve. It took us six hours to find the first active nest. Trained eyes and determination helped us detect the subtle circular depression in the ground. Inside were two tiny eggs, each with spotted coloration that matched the ground.

Our next challenge was to set up sound recorders and camera traps. We deployed our recorders along the road, at increasing distances from the road, and near active nests. The lifespan of each recorder was about 12 days. They were set to record one minute of sound every 10 minutes until their batteries ran out. Our camera traps were camouflaged under sand and gravel. We placed them about 9 feet from nests located near the road, to capture both the adult terns and the road traffic. The cameras were set to take a picture every 5 seconds until the batteries ran out.

It might be difficult to imagine the full scope of our work, so let’s compare it to something most people are familiar with: football (soccer).

Between December 2019 and March 2020, we inspected the equivalent of 1,050 soccer fields in search of nests.

We analyzed 40,000 1-minute sound recordings, the equivalent of 444 soccer games.

We analyzed 500,000 images from camera traps, which is about the number of photos a professional photographer would capture during 143 of the most amazing soccer games.

Between the dunes and hills of the northern side of Paracas National Reserve is Cequion Bay — the largest flat terrain in the part of the Reserve. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

This enormous effort was well worth it. We suspect that, after 70 years, Peruvian terns have learned to manage the road that disrupted and likely fragmented their habitat. We identified 20 active nests and 26 past activities, including two new nesting areas adjacent to the road that were previously unreported. Noise can have a major impact on bird populations, so the fact that some terns are still nesting near the road is encouraging for their long-term conservation. It tells us that they are both resilient and adaptable.

The sound recorders and cameras told similar stories. Images showed adult terns undaunted by road traffic. Sounds near the road were loud and covered a large sound spectrum, but about 656 feet (200 meters) away, the road noise was nearly undetectable. Most of the nests we found were located far from the road, where our sound recorders detected only the birds’ morning calls.

When we started our study, we wondered what could threaten this tiny bird that looks like an avian Batman with its “mask” of black feathers and has evolved to survive desert predators and sandstorms alike. Surveying such a big area gave us unexpected information that portrays a complex scenario for their conservation. Inside the park, we found lots of garbage, dogs tracks and illegal roads. The garbage pollutes the terns’ nesting habitat, but dog tracks and illegal roads are another story. Domestic animals are predators of wildlife and could pose a threat to the terns.

A Peruvian tern nest containing two tiny eggs, each with spotted coloration that matches the ground. (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute)

Illegal roads were the most unexpected and worrying discovery. Their existence is subtle, but this landscape has memory (and a particularly good one for tracks made by cars). No matter how strongly winds blow, the roads are still visible. We mapped each one and saw a tangle of existing illegal roads traversing the terns’ nesting area, and two new roads appeared during our study. With few paved roads, it’s tempting for park visitors to take old short-cuts or make new ones. The terns cannot avoid the destructive effects of visitors searching for hidden beaches or exclusive sunset views, or local fishermen looking for the daily catch.

At the beginning of September 2020, after wrapping up months of data analyses, we stood in front of the Peruvian environmental authorities to tell the evidence-based story of Peruvian terns, share our findings, and make recommendations for their long-term conservation. Our research made the Peruvian tern visible. Peru and Chile are now joining forces to recover the tern’s depleted populations. With our data and lessons learned, we are developing an ambitious, integrated monitoring program to stop the Peruvian tern from taking a one-way detour to extinction. As we work on this rescue plan, I am reminded of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s mission: We save species. We do. And for this work, we must try to be just like the Peruvian tern, invincible.

#Nature

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[urbansoccerparksblog]

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Mini-pitches are outdoor hard surfaces, the size of a tennis court, where small-sided matches foster technical skill and creativity — not unlike pickup basketball in parks and schools around the country. We think that the same soccer culture exists here in this country. It's just creating access and opportunity. The smallest acceptable FIFA regulations size soccer field is 50 by 100 yards, which translates to about 5000 square yards of playing area.

 As administrators, you juggle a lot when it comes to making decisions for your school. Identifying programs that will best serve your students is not an easy task—not only are budgets a constant concern, but you also want to invest in projects that will get the highest level of utilization, spawn new revenue opportunities, and be something the whole community can get behind.

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