Customer: Naturpark Karwendel
CiMo Partner: Fablab Tirol
Challenge
The Karwendel Nature Park covers almost the entire Karwendel massif and the Arnspitze nature reserve. With an area of 739 km², the park is not only the largest Tyrolean protected area, but also the largest nature park in Austria. Due to its topography, the nature park has an above-average proportion of natural habitats such as primeval forests and wild rivers. Similarly, the park is home to a high number of animal and plant species that are important throughout Europe, such as golden eagles, white-backed woodpeckers and lady’s slippers.
The Karwendel Nature Park is well known for being active in the areas of “Nature Conservation”, “Recreation & Tourism”, “Environmental Education”, “Knowledge & Research” and “Regional Development”. What’s more, the park has received the prestigious “Nature Park of the Year 2020” award from the Association of Austrian Nature Parks.
Digitalisation often offers many advantages; however, it can also bring new challenges. In the case of Karwendel Nature Park, a viral video can quickly become a problem, attracting many hiking enthusiasts to new trails they have discovered on a tour portal. Because of the rapid spread of “insider tips” on the Internet, dangerous terrain or quiet areas for rare animal and plant species are increasingly visited by numerous people. In the Karwendel Nature Park, visitor guidance is therefore becoming increasingly digital – away from information boards and trail markings, it is also important to be more active on the Internet. As such, the nature park aims to develop a comprehensive digitalisation programme.
As part of its initiative, the park aims to address a key challenge in all Tyrolean nature parks, regulating visitors’ numbers. Thousands of locals and guests relax in Tyrolean nature and must be guided accordingly so that the interests of nature conservation, tourism and leisure remain in harmony.
Methods
Step 1: March 2023 – Fablab.Tirol EDIH Service “Design Sprint”
In order to define the specifications of a “digital tool” that could improve the rangers work, increase efficiency and redirect resources to critical tasks, the EDIH decided to organise a Design Sprint. The aim was to form the basis for a funding application (technology funding from the state of Tyrol), which could enable implementation. Therefore, together with members of the Karwendel Nature Park-team, the following challenge statement for the 4-day design sprint was defined:
“How can we improve the efficiency of field work in the Karwendel Nature Park (visitor guidance, monitoring, maintenance, biotope maintenance) for rangers and the protected area management, the regional actors (e.g. municipalities), and the interest groups (visitors, etc.), by developing a digital solution with a focus on the content requirements (within the team and together with experts), to not only improve communication and workflows, but also create added value for the most important stakeholders (rangers, nature, regional actors and visitors) – which meets the increased need for recreation and nature conservation.”
Consequently, in order to develop the required solution, the EDIH established a series of services and projects. The process consisted of the following steps:
Exploration & Mapping
- Formulation of the specific challenge
- Setting the goals
- Description of the status quo and stakeholders
- Understanding the building blocks of the customer journey
Solution Sketching
- Benchmark-Research
- Development of initial proposals for solutions
- Weighted selection and initial detailing
Decision & Storyboarding
- Input from expert partners
- Development of a test storyboarding
- Briefing for prototyping
- Refinement of the solution approach
Prototyping
- Development of the prototype
- Detailing the storyboard
- Preparation Test
Validation & Next Steps
- Prototype test (App-Simulation tool used)
- Validation and Comment Collection (App-Simulation tool used)
- Learning and Next Steps
Result
The joint EDIH-Design Sprint has led to the development of the Digital Ranger Assistant app. Through this opportunity the development of a Digital Ranger Assistant app has established itself as a valuable solution for increasing the efficiency of field work in the nature park. The app offers different characteristics and features:
- Easy handling, menu navigation and categories according to the ranger’s activity, predefined drop-down menus & text suggestions, photo uploads, etc.
- On- & offline capabilities, automatic synchronization/uploads
- Learning tool, interfaces to widely used tools (GIS overlays, maps, etc.), common nomenclature is important
What’s more, the collaboration between the two organisations will continue going forward, concerning feedback and discussions with the NPK Team, searching for funding opportunities and a programming company briefing; involving prototypes, UI progress and test feedback.
Step 2: June 2023 – Based on the knowledge and the specifications acquired in the Design Sprint, the Karwendel Nature Park formulates its application for technology funding from the state of Tyrol (Done after the EDIH service)
Step 3: January 2024 – Karwendel Nature Park receives technology funding from the state of Tyrol (Euro 200,000) – (link 1) (link 2).
Step 4: Start programming the RANGER APP – Implementation of the Ranger App: This is intended to make work in the Karwendel Nature Park more efficient. The app is intended to facilitate internal workflows and enable biodiversity monitoring, visitor management, the survey of problem areas and internal communication digitally.
Step 5: July 2025 – Completion of the RANGER APP KIRIS