TOSCI | LOV-Ria

ALG-01-0145-FEDER-039589
Participatory and 3D Virtual Reality environments as a tool for Scientific Tourism in Ria Formosa

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The Ria Formosa lagoonal system is an important environment not only from a touristic point of view but also from a scientific one. In both cases the size and constant evolution of the system incapacitate the visitors or users to have a real overview of the landscape diversity and evolution at different time scales. The present project aims thus to develop an application that will allow the public to Virtually visit the Ria Formosa and to participate in data acquisition for scientific purposes. The application will be based on existing scientific data, such as digital elevation model, but also developed to incorporate new data based on photography captures taken by tourists from specific points in the Ria Formosa. The final product should allow to create an interactive 3D Virtual Environment capable to be used in platforms such as the Motion Sphere, but also mobile devices, and to process the captured images for scientific purposes focused on sedimentology, botanics and plastic pollution.

Project Main Goals:

The present project aims at studying the Ria Formosa environment regarding its sedimentation its vegetation coverage and litter distribution, engaging tourists through participatory science and promoting the use of new technologies from informatics and communication for knowledge acquisition through open science for society.