An object-oriented 3D integral data model for digital city and digital mine

Abstract

With the rapid development of urban, city space extended from surface to subsurface. As the important data source for the representation of city spatial information, 3D city spatial data have the characteristics of multi-object, heterogeneity and multi-structure. It could be classified referring to the geo-surface into three kinds: above-surface data, surface data and subsurface data. The current research on 3D city spatial information system is divided naturally into two different branch, 3D City GIS (3D CGIS) and 3D Geological Modeling (3DGM). The former emphasizes on the 3D visualization of buildings and the terrain of city, while the latter emphasizes on the visualization of geological bodies and structures. Although, it is extremely important for city planning and construction to integrate all the city spatial information including above-surface, surface and subsurface objects to conduct integral analysis and spatial manipulation. However, either 3D CGIS or 3DGM is currently difficult to realize the information integration, integral analysis and spatial manipulation. Considering 3D spatial modeling theory and methodologies, an object-oriented 3D integral spatial data model (OO3D-ISDM) is presented and software realized. The model integrates geographical objects, surface buildings and geological objects together seamlessly with TIN being its coupling interface. This paper introduced the conceptual model of OO3D-ISDM, which is comprised of 4 spatial elements, i.e. point, line, face and body, and 4 geometric primitives, i.e. vertex, segment, triangle and generalized tri-prism (GTP). The spatial model represents the geometry of surface buildings and geographical objects with triangles, and geological objects with GTP. Any of the represented objects, no mater surface buildings, terrain or subsurface objects, could be described with the basic geometry element, i.e. triangle. So the 3D spatial objects, surface buildings, terrain and geological objects can be integrated together with the TIN being its coupling interface. The software system, Geomo^3D, based on OO3D-ISDM and an application case in the central business district (CBD) of municipal Beijing are introduced. The case shows that the potential applications of OO3D-ISDM and Geomo^3D in the domains of digital city, digital geotechnical engineering and digital mine.