GEEWHEZ — Increasing reliability and efficiency in animal theme parks and zoos

Abstract

GEEWHEZ is a new multipurpose platform specifically designed for SMEs that have visitors and the exhibition of animals as main business. The GEEWHEZ platform aims to deal with basic aspects of resource management tools (e.g. global finances) and a number of new applications of interest for the management of theme and animal (zoos and aquaria) parks. Among other applications, GEEWHEZ is designed to control: the quality of physic-chemical parameters of water in exhibition pools (like for example marine mammals), a surveillance system to gather information about the behaviour of animals and also visitors during their stay and finally a leisure system to provide new services to increase visitors' interest during their visit GEEWHEZ is organized as a Consortium where a number of RTDPs (Research Technology Developer Partners), specialized on software development, provide technical solutions to the platform taking into account park requirements according to their diary activity. The consortium is formed by the following RTDPs: • FAICO — it will develop the GEEWHEZ solution related to the surveillance of the park • Technovation and Prominent — they will work on the water monitoring system • UC3M — it will develop the ERP solution, the middleware and the leisure system • T-CON — it will develop the middleware and the leisure system and by the following SMEPs (Small Medium Enterprise Proposers): • Zoomarine — it is an aquatic park settled in Italy • Tiergarten Nuremberg — it is a zoo settled in Germany • Zoobotanico Jerez — it is a zoo and a botanic park settled in Spain • Matematici — it is a software company settled in Italy • Gamma Solution — it is a software company settled in Spain • Pentos AG — it is a software company settled in Germany The huge heterogeneity of the partners forming the Consortium is a guarantee that the platform will be useful for many different Theme Parks and Zoos.