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Web-service development for owners of small river transport in Saint Petersburg

The geographical location and tourist features of St. Petersburg require a specialized web service for owners and tenants of river transport, aggregating all the information necessary for them. Currently, such information is available in various news sources, web portals and groups in social networks. The work presents a prototype of a service for small river transport users. Information needs and functional and requirements for it were identified during in-depth interviews with stakeholders of the project. The web service database is implemented in the PostgreSQL DBMS with the PostGIS extension. The work presents the structure of the service, which includes 10 pages, describes its main sections, such as current regulatory documents, news, interactive maps, reference information, as well as technical information about ships and restrictions on their movement due to technical characteristics. During its development, an analysis of existing solutions related to each section was carried out. During the "Maps" section development, an analysis of existing web tools for displaying interactive maps and the selection of the best solutions was carried out. Using the Google Maps designer, interactive maps were created for the web service being developed. The first of them is a map of the city's water bodies, containing such layers as: floating gas stations, lighthouses, customs, checkpoint and Ministry of Emergencies, private yacht clubs and marinas, berths and quayes, bridges, etc. The interactive weather map allows the user to get acquainted with the weather conditions, as well as their 5-day forecast. One of the priority functional requirements of the web service, called stakeholders, was the determination of water barriers and bridges that were inappropriate in the size of the vessel. The "Your Ship" section of the developed prototype web service offers a solution to meet this requirement. The developed web service is one of the favorable incentives for the development of the water tourism sphere and the use of river transport in St. Petersburg. Read more...