The Balearic Government is to install sensors on 150 beaches that will measure occupancy in real time. To be rolled out over the next three years, there is investment of four million euros.
Under development by the government's IB Digital agency, the director Miquel Cardona says: "We want the land to tell us what it's doing, to give us data." Pilot tests were carried out at three beaches over the summer - Es Trenc was one of them, the others were in Ibiza and Menorca.
There are three types of sensor, with work now under way to design the optimal installation for each beach depending on its characteristics. The system involves the monitoring of beach access points and tracks interactions between mobile devices and a wifi network.
The information provided by these sources allows for a real-time approximation of the beach's load. To further refine this, it will be cross-referenced with a mobile phone database.
There is though an issue with communications. "A sensor collects data, but it needs to be able to transmit it," says Cardona. "In cities it’s easy, but in natural environments it’s not the same." Non-urban, 'rustic' beaches pose a particular challenge.
The information will be publicly available through a website and app. Users, whether residents or tourists, will be able to check beach occupancy levels. This should help to regulate visitor flow, if people try to avoid the most crowded beaches.