Photo: Belfast City Council

Belfast residents earn ‘civic dollars’ for a walk in the park

07 June 2021

by Sarah Wray

Belfast City Council is piloting an app that rewards residents for spending time in green spaces. They can also earn the “community currency” for reporting vandalism and other issues.

Civic Dollars can be exchanged for rewards such as a free gym session, public transport travel pass or tickets to visitor attractions.

The Civic Dollars app, developed by Moai Digital, uses geofencing technology and is based on a social cryptocurrency platform. It aims to encourage citizens to be more active and to improve park safety.

The Connswater Community Greenway is the first area to go live in the pilot, followed by other parks. In this initial location, a park user can earn one Civic Dollar per half hour, up to a maximum of five dollars per day. Different amounts for different locations can be set in the app. People can also earn one Civic Dollar per submitted and verified report of vandalism.

The council says it will use data from the app to better understand how people use green spaces in the city and improve park management.

Lord Mayor Councillor Kate Nicholl said: “Exercising outside and connecting with nature really can help our mental wellbeing. So it’s fantastic that, thanks to this pilot scheme, people can now earn Civic Dollars for the time they spend in our parks and open spaces.”

Social currency

App users have the option to donate their earned Civic Dollars to Belfast-based community groups that can use them for services such as business training, professional advice and activity centre sessions.

The rewards and incentives are provided by local companies, giving them a way to promote their business and support local community groups.

Stephen McPeake, CEO, Moai Digital Ltd, said: “Life these days is about so much more than just money – it’s about improving our communities, and our own health and wellbeing – Civic Dollars provides the perfect solution with a new social currency.”

A spokesperson for Belfast City Council told Cities Today: “The app, with its nudge behaviour approach, has the potential to have multiple different applications, not just park management and encouraging active lifestyles.” They said further use cases and potential business models are also being explored.

Smart places

The Amazing Spaces, Smart Places project, part of the council’s Smart Belfast programme, is jointly funded by Belfast City Council and the Department of Justice via the Department for the Economy’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), which helps the public sector find and trial new technologies created by local businesses.

Naomi Long, Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, said: “Effectively managing public open spaces is a key element in developing a safe community, where we respect the law and each other.

“The Civic Dollars pilot scheme holds the potential to deliver real benefits to local communities by using technology to improve the safe use of our parks and open spaces; something that is so important for both physical and mental health.

AI camera

A new camera system is also being trialled in Belfast’s parks as part of the second phase of the Amazing Spaces, Smart Places programme. SparroWatch’s SparroCam uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to determine what is happening in parks after they’re closed and sends real-time notifications.

The council spokesperson said: “Primarily, the camera will trigger different alerts based on a person or number of people in a park, for example, after hours when the park gates are locked. The camera can count the number of people and give an indication of whether the group of people is one or two, or 25. These insights can help the council better manage parks and their resources, and reduce anti-social behaviour.”

The battery-powered solution offers an alternative to a full CCTV system in places such as large parks which may not have access to power supply everywhere. The cameras, which support the council’s existing mobile CCTV cameras, can also be easily moved to different locations.

The pilots will run until August.

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