Each year in the lead up to 9 August, Singapore bustles with activities to mark the day the country gained independence. Of these, the National Day Parade (NDP) is undoubtedly the most significant celebration, where spectators donning red and white are treated to performances and fireworks displays.
Smooth ground operations are key for ensuring pleasant spectator experience and to minimise traffic congestion for the National Day Parade. Esri Singapore has been the Official Smart Mapping Partner of NDP for the third consecutive year.
The partnership started in 2017, when the organising committee first tapped on Esri Singapore’s geospatial analytic solutions to coordinate activities and manage incidents for the mega celebrations. Use of the platform extends beyond the actual day parade, as it includes both the previews and National Education shows for schools.
By integrating data from social media, weather, live traffic camera feeds and mobile applications for monitoring bus movements and spectator crowd flow as well as incident management, the robust location-based analytics platform supports NDP operations in a new and significant way.
What was previously achieved via walkie talkies and mobile phones, through physical tracking at the command centre, is now neatly replaced by a dashboard accessible to over 280 users via their mobile phones at the same time.
Apart from obvious convenience, clarity and speed, the dashboard also shows stakeholders ‘the bigger picture’ and facilitates co-operation with other groups such as public safety, emergency and medical services, enabling the Command and Control Group to respond more efficiently to any incidents happening on the ground.
Specifically, for the National Education shows, Esri Singapore worked with the Ministry of Education to set up a separate School Bus Management system to enable tracking, safety assurance and smoother coordination of over 60 buses departing from schools across the island for each show. In total over 200 schools and some 45,000 students and teachers will attend the three National Education shows.
In the greater scheme of things, this new system will also benefit the general public outside of the venue, since the likelihood of unplanned road closures and traffic congestions in the vicinity will be significantly reduced by improved crowd management ability.
Esri Singapore CEO Thomas Pramotedham said, “We are glad to extend the same technology that has played a crucial part in Singapore’s growth over the past decades to support an event that has shaped our pride as a nation.”
We’re excited to celebrate this year’s bicentennial National day and we look forward to working with the committee to ensure a great experience for all spectators.
Esri’s location-based analytics platform has been used in prominent large-scale events internationally including the Boston Marathon, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the 28th SEA Games and the 2018 Asian Games.
Learn more about how Esri’s solutions have supported and enhanced NDP, as well as other similar projects.