Barcelona has been the home of the new Knowledge and Innovation Community since the end of 2018. This community, which is part of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), is responsible for designing innovations in urban mobility within the EU. As part of this initiative, and through the creation of a partnership with the cities of Amsterdam and Milan, it is developing the City Flows project over the course of 2021, financed by the EIT. This project aims to improve the liveability of highly crowded areas via the study and simulation of pedestrian flows through the development of a system to assist with decision making (CM-DSS).

Barcelona is participating through a Living Lab in Park Güell as a tourist space, which is analysing how park visitors move through it within a framework of extending the regulated space, determining which areas are most visited, differentiating between cultural and recreational visitors and determining visit durations and rest zones. Within these parameters, the managers for this area, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, can streamline the influx of visitors, guaranteeing proper entry to the site, less stress to the environment and good experiences for visitors.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been used to obtain data from the Park Güell Living Lab. Eight aerials in strategic locations across the park pick up passive RFID signals which are distributed among visitors and residents at the entrances to the park. Over 1000 users participated in the project during the pilot carried out in October 2021.

The data collected will help in designing a pedestrian simulation covering a wide range of scenarios (such as low demand, evacuation, etc). These simulations sustain the controller based on CM-DSS scenarios, which use a combination of sensor data and simulation data to predict the movements of the majority of pedestrians within the next 15 minutes. City Flows wishes to demonstrate how the use of technology can help in the responsible management of highly popular spaces while respecting the confidentiality of personal data.