Intelligent Agents in National Parks


Dino Zanon Parks Victoria

Friday, 22th March 2002
0930 - 1100

RMIT University Function Room (near Kaleide Theatre)
Building 8, level 2, RMIT
Swanston Street, Melbourne.

Abstract:

Monitoring of visitor use in recreation and protected areas is particularly important in decisions relating to protecting whilst sustaining use of a park. This presentation describes a real case study of how a visitor computer simulation can be used effectively and the implications for planning infrastructure involving the investment of several million dollars at the Twelve Apostles visitor site at Port Campbell National Park. In 1997 the Department of Industry, Science and Tourism awarded Parks Victoria a grant to develop a Visitor Management Planning Model for Port Campbell National Park (PCNP). The model aimed to achieve three goals: 1. Explore the possible consequences of future management actions relating to conservation, tourism and visitor services. 2. Be a prototype for use at other Australian Parks. 3. Be technologically innovative

To achieve these aims Parks Victoria contracted eFirst, in association with Geo Dimensions, to develop an intelligent agent based Recreational Behaviour Simulator (RBSim computer program) that simulates visitor behaviour in the geographical environment at Port Campbell National Park. The computer simulator is able to predict how visitors (both pedestrians and vehicles) will react to changes in infrastructure, visitor numbers and visitor controls. Simulation results are examined to answer a set of four management questions of key interest to the rangers of Port Campbell National Park. These include: 1. How well will the new facilities at 12 Apostles cope with growing visitor loads?
2. How crowded will the site get in the future?
3. How will the new facilities and growing visitor numbers visitor affect satisfaction?
4. How is length of stay affected by the new configuration of the 12 Apostles site?

By using the computer simulation Parks Victoria was able to identify points of overcrowding, bottle necks in circulation systems, and conflicts between different user groups at the Twelve Apostles. Output data from the RBSim was then used to determine how and when these problems had to be addressed. Including when new facilities need to be constructed, the new facility capacities and ranger controls over visitor use at peak periods

The presentation describes RBSim and its application to simulating, analysing and managing expected park visitor use at Port Campbell National Park and how the simulation answered management questions.

Biosketch:

Dino Zanon graduated from RMIT with a Assoc Dip of Aeronautical Engineering in 1972 and for the first 20 years of his career he worked aeronautical engineer involved in the design and manufacture of aircraft. During that time he used his data handling and mathematical skills in modeling the performance of aircraft and their manufacture. Whilst working full time during that period he completed a Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in Psychology. He also won a one year scholarship at the Boeing Aircraft Company in the USA to study new technology in aircaraft production and management. Dino has spent a great part of his career in project management and strategic business planning where his high aptitude in the mathematic and statistical modeling has been used to form the basis of business and project developments. Since the down turn in defence and commercial air traffic in the early nineties, Dino\222s career took a turn into the parks business. His commercial and operational experience and his ability in analysing numeric data has resulted in some ground breaking work into what are the drivers of visitor demand in urban parks. This had lead to several applied park research areas such as satisfaction stategies optimize outputs as well as the implementation of mathematical models for the equitable distribution of urban parks in the community of Melbourne and a park simulation to model visitor flows and infrastructure needs.