LIVE WEBCAMS CHECK BEACH STATUS

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The Municipality of Roquetas de Mar is a pioneer in the province of Almeria as it launches a website allowing users to view the different beaches along the coastline using live webcams.

It allows bathers to check the state of the beach and sea before heading down including the possibility of checking the flag that is flying a -either a green flag suitable for swimming; yellow, which means swimming is permitted but with caution or a red flag, that is, forbidden to enter the water. Apparently a similar initiative exists only in the municipality of Vera, with the difference that it does not reflect the colour flags for swimmers, or at least, it was not working on its homepage last week when checked.

Besides the installation from Roquetas de Mar Town Hall, the website also allows users to know if there is a high concentration of jellyfish, making it the first in the province that offers both performance webcam, information about the colour of the flags the level of jellyfish, if any.

According to Councillor Citizens, New Technologies of Information and Communication ICT, Statistics and Documentation, Francisco Gutierrez, “We are maximising the information on the town on the internet so that anywhere in the world anyone can check the status of the Roqueteras beaches. We found that tourists seek this information to choose their holiday destinations and from the council we want to facilitate the user allowing them full access to this data so that they are more likely to decide to come to Roquetas.”

To avoid any problems in meeting the legislation on protection of personal data, as there has been concern on privacy in some municipalities that have installed street surveillance cameras to increase public safety and combat crime, the council has delayed the installation of web cameras to verify that the images do not allow any personal identification because of the distance to which they take and the image resolution. “The Data Protection Act says that is allowed to use webcams with landscaped grounds where there is no identifiable trait that makes the person identifiable. This is because we want to comply scrupulously with the subject sharp and that there is no problem. This is panoramas of the municipality in which it is impossible to identify anyone,” The Councillor maintains.

The information provided is comprehensive because it also discloses comprehensive weather data including the state of wind, wave, water temperature and the level of ultraviolet rays. All three cameras are located in the urbanisation and at the the beach of La Romanilla and Aguadulce. The images are not recorded or filed and also cannot move or zoom.