Newcastle council will investigate establishing a live webcam network to boost tourism and for other uses.
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The council endorsed a motion this week which proposed investigating the technology and pursuing funding from the NSW government.
It was moved by Cr Carol Duncan (ALP), who said online traffic to websites featuring live location-based webcams had ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I became aware of some research ... into the potential economic benefits for cities that are establishing high-quality webcam networks that are then showing an increase in visitation rates," she said at Tuesday's meeting.
"Around 70 per cent of people who view livestream webcam of a location are more likely to visit it."
She said the webcams had the potential to grow Newcastle's visitor economy, which "supports 5000 local jobs with an economic output of $945 million".
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Asked on Thursday for examples of potential camera locations, she nominated Newcastle's beaches, working harbour, civic spaces and Stockton/Dyke Point looking back towards the city centre.
The "visual data" from the cameras could be used to inform future council policy and strategy on parking and traffic levels, pedestrian movements, citizen safety, weather events and other incidents, the motion said.
Is also noted the potential to explore how artificial intelligence might be used to provide augmented experiences or information.
Councillors were recently briefed by CSIRO officials about how artificial intelligence could be integrated into council strategies and projects.
Cr Brad Luke (LIB) asked for the motion to specify that the cameras wouldn't be used for "identification of individuals".
"We need to make it clear to people we're talking about looking at our beautiful city and whether traffic is backing up, and is not being used in any way to identify individuals," he said.
Cr Duncan agreed and the motion passed. The state government's Smart Places Program, which will co-invest up to $45M over the next three years, is considered a potential source of funding.
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