Historical streetscape simulation system that reflects changes in weather, time, and seasons

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In this study, we developed a historical streetscape simulation system for local areas. In recent years, the loss or replacement of regional history and culture has become a pertinent issue in Japan owing to urbanization, depopulation, declining birthrate, and aging population. Based on the cultural property law, measures are being taken to conserve and use cultural properties depending on characteristics such as tangible cultural property, intangible cultural property, folk cultural property, monument, cultural landscape, and traditional building group. However, with changes in social environments, the historical culture of an area that was previously cultivated and conveyed through the long history of local residents has now become difficult to inherit. In particular, things that have not been designated as cultural properties get buried or lost in society. To mitigate this problem, this study focuses on the historical cultural landscape of local areas and develops a landscape simulation system for communicating and inheriting the same in an easy-to-understand manner. Attempts have previously been made to reproduce historical landscapes by real-time rendering with 3D computer graphics (CG) and virtual reality technology [Fukuda et al. 2015; Boeykens. 2011]. However, owing mainly to hardware limitations for drawing, these systems focused on single buildings; they did not reproduce city-level dynamics. Meanwhile, studies were conducted to achieve urban-scale reproductions [Dylla et al. 2008; Jacobson. 2005]. Because such large-scale developments are costly, only famous places are typically selected as target areas. In a previous study, we have already developed a historical landscape simulation system for the streetscape of the late Edo period. This system was installed as a permanent exhibition at regional museums, where it has been running stably. In the present study, we aim to extend the scale of this system in response to user requests and feedback.