Baiae: using linked-data to choose a beach

Building on the success of the Bathing Water Quality project, we wanted to explore what it could look like to make water quality information available to users who don't have a water-quality-science background. Water quality data allows consumers to ask "I want to go to a beach with clean bathing water". The question we wanted to ask was: how could we take that question, and add other data sources to allow related factors:

  • I prefer sand to shingle or rock
  • I need disabled access to the beach
  • I'd prefer a beach with public toilets
  • I want to be able to take my dog with me to the beach
  • etc

The illustrative prototype we developed is Baiae†.

Users first select an area of the country on which to focus their search:

Beach area selector

Having selected North Devon, we find a list of the beach sites for which we have data, including a brief description of the site from the Environment Agency's beach profile dataset:

List of known beaches with bathing water data

Users can select from a range of available preferences, and arrange them in order (highest to lowest) to express a preference for features that they value. These preferences are used to arrange the known beaches into a ranked list, shown as numbered icons on the map and in the list on the right hand side:

Ranked list of beaches based on user preferences

Finally, the user can see a quick summary of a given beach – how it stacks up against their preferences:

Match between beach preferences and beach data

In this project, we wanted to explore simple ways to support users in making multi-factor decisions by supporting the narrowing of choices through available data. The core data, bathing water quality and beach profile, comes from the Environment Agency. This central dataset gives us a vocabulary against which to align data from other sources (for example, local councils in the vicinity) to fill-in additional attributes such as parking, dog restriction orders and disabled access. For this prototype, we had to simulate the availability of linked-data from these providers, by curating our own dataset using data derived from publicly published sources. However, we hope that illustrating one use of such data will motivate data owners to provide essential information in future as linked-data, whether that's through an API or a query interface.

For more information on Baiae, or to discuss other end-user apps based on linked data, please contact Ian Dickinson

† Baiae (pron. "bay-aye") was one of the earliest seaside resorts, enjoyed by wealthy Roman citizens.