Interactive Gardens

The INTERACTIVE GARDENS project aims to develop a model of an interactive green space. The concept will enhance the health and well-being benefits of public parks and gardens and support the functionality and interaction skills of vulnerable people. For schools, green spaces can provide outdoor learning environments. The concept will consider regional specificities and local conditions. It will be developed in collaboration with land use authorities and decision makers, research institutes, associations, and users of the area.

The concept, which will result also in an interactive virtual reality (VR) garden, will be used by spatial planning authorities and decision makers. It will benefit educational and research institutions and users of green spaces such as NGOs, health service providers, residents, and special groups. The concept can guide regional, national, EU and Baltic Sea policies. VR garden prototype which serves as a digital twin sample plot of a real garden. The main task involves system design to provide garden management functionality which will allow to the creation of such digital twins for any garden in the future. Target audience includes society (restrictions of mobility), garden specialists, students and education, researchers, patients and therapy.

Provided functionality includes seasonal visualization of the garden including various weather conditions, plant age and size visualization - the user can change the timeline to see the garden in different periods, participant roles will be organized in two functional sets: the role of an editor will include more professional actions related to garden creation and preparation; common users will be provided with spectator features and interactive gamification elements. The project is co-funded by the European Union Interreg Fund for the Baltic Sea Region.

Project presenter: Assoc. Prof. Arnis Cirulis - Vidzeme University of Applied Science, Latvia