Modern approach for intelligent database to support urban city accessibility tools for the pedestrian

Abstract

Travelling through cities is one of the things which people with mobility impairment always have to deal with. A designed dynamic database of Maps for Easy Paths (MEP) project for storing and retrieving accessibility information about a particular path by using PostGIS may enable the public to enjoy the privilege of the technology that alleviates the problem of city accessibility through the Web, or more recently, through smartphones/tablet applications. An application of methods and techniques for designing a dynamic database to store and retrieve accessibility information by using a relational PostGIS is described. The conceptual data model is designed for a database (PostGIS) which provides an optimal description of the user requirements. Users will be able to actively participate in the process of taking pictures of obstacles, uploading them to the MEP server and giving some comments on the attributes of the picture of the barrier. The resulting data will help others to locate and evaluate paths. This paper presents the conceptual data model design as well as a review of features of the data of the existing systems. The paper demonstrates that our data-driven approach can be used to facilitate the planning, design, and implementation of an appropriate application to achieve the MEP goal. Therefore, the novelty of this approach lies in developing the dynamic database for the enrichment of geographical maps with information about the accessibility of urban pedestrian areas for people with mobility problems.