Three-dimensional Geographic Information System Research Articles

Elaborating and performing optimization approaches for web-based 3D spatial analysis of 3D city models

ABSTRACT Three-dimensional (3D) geographic information systems (GIS) are vital for urban planning and architectural design, enabling detailed visualization and analysis of urban landscapes. However, the growing size of 3D city data and the transition to web environments cause performance challenges for real-time applications. This study addresses the need for optimizing 3D spatial analyses for the web using Quadtree data structures and multiprocessing tools. Optimization scenarios based on data size and hardware configurations are evaluated, and the best hosting plans for GIS applications on cloud services are also considered.

Streamlining BIM models for GIS integration: an advanced approach to building envelope extraction

ABSTRACT Building Information Modelling (BIM) models are crucial for urban building modeling in three-dimensional (3D) Geographic Information Systems (GIS); however, their intricate nature requires lightweight design for seamless GIS integration. Envelope extraction is a primary method for achieving lightweight BIM; nevertheless, it encounters challenges related to robustness and simplification. To tackle this issue, this study proposes a more effective envelope extraction method. Initially, BIM elements are categorized into three types based on their semantics: space-occupying, portal, and other facility elements. Subsequently, for space-occupying elements, a 3D alpha wrapping algorithm is employed to obtain a tightly enveloped triangular mesh and then simplified into a lightweight polygonal mesh. Finally, portal elements are replaced with simplified proxies and embedded into a polygonal mesh through extrusion operations to refine the model. The refined model is combined with other facility elements to achieve the final simplification result. Experiments were conducted using publicly available datasets and manually created BIM models of various types and complexities. The experimental results demonstrate that our method significantly reduces the data volume of BIM models while maintaining their accuracy. Furthermore, this approach does not necessitate strict geometric requirements for BIM building elements and allows for gaps between them, thereby exhibiting higher robustness.

Web-based platform to collect, share and manage technical data of historical systemic architectures: the Telegraphic Towers along the Madrid-Valencia path

Considering the variety of architectural Cultural Heritage typologies, systemic architectures require specific attention in the recovery process. The dimensions of "extension" and "recurrence" at geographic and technological levels affect the complexity of their knowledge process; they require systematic ways for their categorisation and comprehension to guarantee correct diagnosis and suitable rehabilitation. Recent applications involving Internet of Things (IoT) for the built Cultural Heritage have demonstrated the potentialities of three-dimensional (3D) geographic information system (GIS) models and structured databases in supporting complex degrees of knowledge for technicians, as well as management for administrators. Starting from such experiences, the work presents the setting up of a web-based platform to support the knowledge and management of systemic architectures, considering the geographical distribution of fabrics, natural and anthropic boundary conditions, and technical and administrative details. The platform takes advantage of digital models, machine and deep learning procedures and relational databases, in a GIS-based environment, for the recognition and categorisation of prevalent physical and qualitative features of systemic architectures, the recognition and qualification of dominant and recurrent decays and the management of recovery activities in a semi-automatic way. Specifically, the main digital objects used for testing the applied techniques and setting up the platform are based on Red-Green-Blue (RGB) and mapped point clouds of the historical Telegraphic Towers located along the Madrid-Valencia path, resulting from the on-site investigations. Their choice is motivated by the high level of knowledge about the cases reached in the last years by the authors, allowing them to test rules within the decision support systems and innovative techniques for their decay mapping. As the experience has demonstrated, the systematisation of technical details and operative pipeline of methods and tools allow the normalisation and standardisation of the intervention selection process; this offers policymakers an innovative tool based on traditional procedures for conservation plans, coherent with a priority-based practice.

Automatic Generation of 3D Indoor Navigation Networks from Building Information Modeling Data Using Image Thinning

Navigation networks are a common form of indoor map that provide the basis for a wide range of indoor location-based services, intelligent tasks for indoor robots, and three-dimensional (3D) geographic information systems. The majority of current indoor navigation networks are manually modeled, resulting in a laborious and fallible process. Building Information Modeling (BIM) captures design information, allowing for the automated generation of indoor maps. Most existing BIM-based navigation systems for floor-level wayfinding rely on well-defined spatial semantics, and do not adapt well to buildings with irregular 3D shapes, which can make cross-floor path generation difficult. This research introduces an innovative approach to generating 3D indoor navigation networks automatically from BIM data using image thinning, which is referred to as GINIT. Firstly, GINIT extracts grid-based maps for floors from BIM data using only two types of semantics, i.e., slabs and doors. Secondly, GINIT captures cross-floor paths from building components by projecting 3D forms onto a 2D image, thinning the 2D image to capture the 2D projection path, and crossing over the 2D routes with 3D routes to restore the 3D path. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of GINIT, experiments were conducted on three real-world multi-floor buildings, evaluating its performance across eight types of cross-layer architectural component. GINIT overcomes the dependency of space definitions in current BIM-based navigation network generation schemes by introducing image thinning. Due to the adaptability of navigation image thinning to any binary image, GINIT is capable of generating navigation networks from building components with diverse 3D shapes. Moreover, the current studies on indoor navigation network extraction mainly use geometry theory, while this study is the first to generate 3D indoor navigation networks automatically using image thinning theory. The results of this study will offer a unique perspective and foster the exploration of imaging theory applications of BIM.

Integration of 3DGIS and BIM and its application in visual detection of concealed facilities

ABSTRACT The multi-level modeling technology of Building Information Modeling (BIM), combined with Three-dimensional Geographic Information System (3DGIS) macro-scene visualization technology and location information, can realize the transmission of decentralized information from various disciplines to multi-disciplinary collaborative information sharing services. It can be applied independently for the whole life cycle, which plays a positive role in reducing the cost and improving the efficiency of engineering planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance. In this paper, the data integration and function integration methods of 3DGIS and BIM are designed. In order to avoid the breaking problems caused by attribute information loss and excessive simplification in the process of BIM data integration, the attribute mapping between 3DGIS and BIM based on Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) and the data simplification method considering the geometric characteristics of BIM are designed. By setting the relevant preconditions and thresholds of patch merging, on the premise of maintaining the structural characteristics of BIM data surface, reduce the amount of model data to improve the efficiency of BIM data loading, rendering and display effect in 3D geospatial scene. Through the data and function integration of 3DGIS and BIM, we can effectively manage the data of large-scale model, and calculate and obtain the geospatial location and direction of key parts of buildings through the coordinate transformation of BIM, which can effectively assist the rapid and accurate positioning of BIM in virtual 3D scene and expand the visualization ability of 3DGIS. By effectively integrating 3DGIS and BIM, this paper gives full play to the spatial management advantages of 3DGIS and the component management advantages of BIM. The rationality and operability of the method are verified by its application in the operation and maintenance management project of concealed facilities in actual buildings.

Computer Aided 3D Information Geographical Modelling System and Simulation in Building Structure Optimization

This study takes the construction of the geospatial framework of the digital city as an example, and focuses on the application of the construction of a three-dimensional geographic information system in the optimization of building structures. We use the sketch master 3D modelling module to achieve 3D modelling of buildings, and use its interface with ArcGIS software to implant it in the 3D information geographic system to build a large-scale 3D digital application module for urban buildings. The system realizes 3D browsing and application.

Construction of 3D Scene of Transmission Line Corridor Based on GIM and 3D GIS

Transmission lines have the characteristics of strip distribution, wide coverage, and close connection with the actual geographical environment. The traditional transmission line modeling method has the defects of insufficient spatial positioning ability and weak information expression ability. Therefore, in this paper, three-dimensional geographic information system (3D GIS) and grid information model (GIM) are coordinated to make the two complementary advantages and construct the three-dimensional scene of transmission line corridor. First, The visible light images and high-precision laser point cloud data of transmission line corridor are collected by helicopter, and extract power lines and towers from the laser point cloud data. Then, the oblique photogrammetric model of large-scale scene is made from visible light images and modified. Finally, according to the point cloud of power line and tower, the improved template matching method is used to realize the rapid modeling of transmission line GIM model, and the transmission line model is obtained. A complete 3D digital twin scene model of transmission line corridor is formed by fusing scene model and transmission line model. The research results show that the 3D scene construction method of transmission line corridor based on 3D GIS and GIM not only improves the efficiency of transmission line modeling, but also has a good visual effect. The abundant line information is helpful for the visual operation and maintenance management of existing transmission lines from macro to micro, which provides data support for the construction of digital power grid.

DEEP LEARNING BASED ROOF TYPE CLASSIFICATION USING VERY HIGH RESOLUTION AERIAL IMAGERY

Abstract. Automatic detection, segmentation and reconstruction of buildings in urban areas from Earth Observation (EO) data are still challenging for many researchers. Roof is one of the most important element in a building model. The three-dimensional geographical information system (3D GIS) applications generally require the roof type and roof geometry for performing various analyses on the models, such as energy efficiency. The conventional segmentation and classification methods are often based on features like corners, edges and line segments. In parallel to the developments in computer hardware and artificial intelligence (AI) methods including deep learning (DL), image features can be extracted automatically. As a DL technique, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can also be used for image classification tasks, but require large amount of high quality training data for obtaining accurate results. The main aim of this study was to generate a roof type dataset from very high-resolution (10 cm) orthophotos of Cesme, Turkey, and to classify the roof types using a shallow CNN architecture. The training dataset consists 10,000 roof images and their labels. Six roof type classes such as flat, hip, half-hip, gable, pyramid and complex roofs were used for the classification in the study area. The prediction performance of the shallow CNN model used here was compared with the results obtained from the fine-tuning of three well-known pre-trained networks, i.e. VGG-16, EfficientNetB4, ResNet-50. The results show that although our CNN has slightly lower performance expressed with the overall accuracy, it is still acceptable for many applications using sparse data.

Analysis of Visualization Technology of 3D Spatial Geographic Information System

Traditional urban planning is generally expressed in a two-dimensional geographic information system, but its performance is limited to the plane direction. It cannot give people more natural feelings and visionary experiences. The rapid development of three-dimensional geographic information systems brings people geographic information. The three-dimensional intuitive experience, but the traditional three-dimensional geographic information system has the disadvantages that the spatial properties are incompatible, the image rendering speed is slow, and the visualization effect is poor. In this paper, the traditional domain-oriented processing method is improved in spatial data processing and modeling. An optimized object-oriented optimization algorithm is proposed. The three-dimensional geographic information is optimized based on a dynamic multiresolution model and multilevel detail processing technology. The rendering of the system enhances the visualization. Based on the optimization algorithm of data processing and visualization technology proposed in this paper, the spatial data processing platform GISdata of 3D GIS is designed in this paper. At the same time, the 3D GIS is visualized based on OpenGL visualization software. It is shown that the optimization algorithm proposed in this paper has excellent preexperimental effects.

Integrated Network Design and Demand Forecast for On-Demand Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging concept proposed in recent years that uses electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs). UAM is expected to offer an alternative way of transporting passengers and goods in urban areas with significantly improved mobility by making use of low-altitude airspace. In addition to other essential elements, ground infrastructure of vertiports is needed to transition UAM from concept to operation. This study examines the network design of UAM on-demand service, with a particular focus on the use of integer programming and a solution algorithm to determine the optimal locations of vertiports, user allocation to vertiports, and vertiport access- and egress-mode choices while considering the interactions between vertiport locations and potential UAM travel demand. A case study based on simulated disaggregate travel demand data of the Tampa Bay area in Florida, USA was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Candidate vertiport locations were obtained by analyzing a three-dimensional (3D) geographic information system (GIS) map developed from lidar data of Florida and physical and regulation constraints of eVTOL operations at vertiports. Optimal locations of vertiports were determined to achieve the minimal total generalized cost; however, the modeling structure allows each user to select a better mode between ground transportation and UAM in terms of generalized cost. The outcomes of the case study reveal that although the percentage of trips that switched from ground mode to multimodal UAM was small, users choosing the UAM service benefited from significant time saving. In addition, the impact of different parameter settings on the demand for UAM service was explored from the supply side, and different pricing strategies were tested that might influence potential demand and revenue generation for UAM operators. The combined effects of the number of vertiports and pricing strategies were also analyzed. The findings from this study offer in-depth planning and managerial insights for municipal decision-makers and UAM operators. The conclusion of this paper discusses caveats to the study, ongoing efforts by the authors, and future directions in UAM research.

Three-Dimensional Visualization Algorithm Simulation of Construction Management Based on GIS and VR Technology

With the development and application of information technology, the digitization of information management and the virtualization of physical models have become very important technical application fields in the world. The establishment of the 3D landscape model and the realization of the 3D geographic information system (GIS) are based on this, and there is not only a wide range of development prospects in many aspects such as urban planning and management, planning and design, local government construction, housing industry development, land monitoring and management, and environmental monitoring and evaluation. There are not only research studies and formulations but also a practical significance in other analysis, evaluation, decision making, and other departments. In recent years, the research of 3D city modeling has been developed rapidly, and most of the existing 2D-GIS can be transformed into 3D visual landscape. Based on the three-dimensional geographic information system and desktop drawing software AutoCAD, this paper takes the two-dimensional line drawing (DLG) of a residential district as the base map, expounds the design process of the three-dimensional simulation model of the urban community from the aspects of map preprocessing, building simulation model construction, texture mapping, and virtual visualization, and discusses the problems encountered in it. The main contributions of this paper are that this technology puts forward a new solution for the integrated corridor operation and maintenance management, greatly improves the intelligent management level of the integrated corridor operation and maintenance work, and simplifies the complex integrated corridor operation and maintenance management. It is helpful to improve the work efficiency of operation and maintenance, reduce the dependence of personnel, and respond to the long-term construction needs of the smart city at the same time.

Spatial multi-criteria evaluation in 3D context: suitability analysis of urban vertical development

ABSTRACT Urban densification is often seen as a process that aims to limit the negative environmental impacts of urban sprawl in rapidly growing cities by prioritizing planning policies stimulating vertical growth (or high-rise development) over expansion along the urban fringe. Densification of major Canadian urban areas has led to the proliferation of high-rises with an increasing proportion of residents occupying these buildings rather than traditional individual housing. Thus, there is a need for analytical methods that can evaluate the suitability of different residential units in vertical urban developments based on unique criteria for different stakeholders such as prospective residents, developers, or municipal planners. Multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) analysis with weighted linear combination (WLC) is frequently implemented in geographic information systems (GIS) to identify the appropriate solution(s) for a decision problem. However, there are currently no available MCE methods for spatial analysis that can provide evaluation in a three-dimensional (3D) GIS environment, such as for urban vertical development. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to propose a 3D WLC-MCE suitability analysis method for suitability of high-rise residential units in a dense urban area. Five preference scenarios were developed and applied to data from City of Vancouver, Canada. The results indicate that south-facing units and units on higher floors generally exhibit higher levels of suitability as they are less affected by the noise and pollution of the urban road network and receive more sunlight and ocean views. The proposed 3D MCE approach can be used for urban planning and property tax assessment.

WITHDRAWN: Research on 3D data modeling of virtual city environment based on GIS

Abstract Analyze the critical technology of the virtual city of 3D data modeling and GIS-based environment. Three-dimensional geographic information system, the recommendations of the three-dimensional geographic information system of the virtual urban environment, built-in three-dimensional geographic information systems, and 3D modeling data part demo support, the actual project. Conventional methods of computer-assisted equipment management system have been used in many fields, such as repair of such power facilities. However, most of these systems, they are the data management structure that has been dealing with only two-dimensional space, it has. Users to search for an interactive three-dimensional space can see the spatial view of the 3D environment. The three-dimensional graphics system would be beneficial for facility management. The describe the three-dimensional virtual city environment geographic information system that has been generated by the computer. Even if the virtual city is extensive, a prototype system and provide for interaction with a user, the system, and three-dimensional space information, not only the information of the geographic information system, can be processed. In this system, the user can get a perfect virtual environment for the geographic information system. Can derive the views needed to suit a particular purpose, called the geographic data, and stores the data from there. Spatial data and non-spatial data (attribute data); there are two types of geographic information data. Non-spatial data contains information about the function.

A fast fusion method for multi-videos with three-dimensional GIS scenes

Techniques for the fusion of real-world videos with virtual scenes are key to the augmentation of three-dimensional (3-D) virtual geographic scenes, which greatly enhances the immersive visual experience. When a 3-D scene is updated dynamically, the existing video projection-based method for real-virtual fusion is generally slow and inefficient, as all rendered objects must be traversed in the new scene to identify the objects to be fused in the user’s new field of view (FOV). To address this issue, a fast, topology-accounting method for multi-video fusion with 3-D geographic information system (GIS) scenes is proposed. First, the topological models for video object and rendered object are constructed, respectively. Second, by using the topological models, a method that considering topological relationships is proposed to realize rapid identification of rendered objects during the dynamic update of 3-D scenes. Finally, real video and 3-D scene data in Tengzhou City were used to validate the method proposed in this paper. The experiments demonstrated that the method is fast and efficient in the fusion of videos with 3-D GIS scenes, and the computational cost of the proposed method is significantly lower than that of the current method. The proposed method is highly viable and robust, facilitating the fusion of videos with virtual environments.

Information Fusion for Cultural Heritage Three-Dimensional Modeling of Malay Cities

Malaysia’s heritage structures are facing challenges due to rapid local development and societal challenges that threaten their cultural and artistic values. Improving conservation approaches in this context is an urgent and crucial task. The application of geo-information technologies in laser scanning, photogrammetry, and geographic information systems (GISs) has significantly improved these conservation approaches. In this study, we fused drone images and range data from a laser scanner to construct a high-resolution three-dimensional GIS city model for one traditional Malay settlement located in Malaysia. The results showed that fusing photogrammetry and laser scanning can effectively capture the architectural uniqueness of Malay buildings, including specific façade geometries on walls, roofs, and motifs. The findings show that the development of various geoinformation approaches can assist with the conservation of Malay city heritage in this region.

Modelling and Visualizing Holographic 3D Geographical Scenes with Timely Data Based on the HoloLens

Commonly, a three-dimensional (3D) geographic information system (GIS) is based on a two-dimensional (2D) visualization platform, hindering the understanding and expression of the real world in 3D space that further limits user cognition and understanding of 3D geographic information. Mixed reality (MR) adopts 3D display technology, which enables users to recognize and understand a computer-generated world from the perspective of 3D glasses and solves the problem that users are restricted to the perspective of a 2D screen, with a broad application foreground. However, there is a gap, especially dynamically, in modelling and visualizing a holographic 3D geographical Scene with GIS data/information under the development mechanism of a mixed reality system (e.g., the Microsoft HoloLens). This paper attempts to propose a design architecture (HoloDym3DGeoSce) to model and visualize holographic 3D geographical scenes with timely data based on mixed reality technology and the Microsoft HoloLens. The HoloDym3DGeoSce includes two modules, 3D geographic scene modelling with timely data and HoloDym3DGeoSce interactive design. 3D geographic scene modelling with timely data dynamically creates 3D geographic scenes based on Web services, providing materials and content for the HoloDym3DGeoSce system. The HoloDym3DGeoSce interaction module includes two methods: Human–computer physical interaction and human–computer virtual–real interaction. The human–computer physical interaction method provides an interface for users to interact with virtual geographic scenes. The human–computer virtual–real interaction method maps virtual geographic scenes to physical space to achieve virtual and real fusion. According to the proposed architecture design scheme, OpenStreetMap data and the BingMap Server are used as experimental data to realize the application of mixed reality technology to the modelling, rendering, and interacting of 3D geographic scenes, providing users with a stronger and more realistic 3D geographic information experience, and more natural human–computer GIS interactions. The experimental results show that the feasibility and practicability of the scheme have good prospects for further development.

Application of geographical information system for the 3d modelling of close-range photogrammetry for documentation and landscape development of historical monuments

Historical monuments, in the form of immovable objects such as temple buildings are part of our lives, they represent our history. Historic buildings must be preserved for future generations, by documenting buildings in 3D. Three-dimensional (3D) Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used for landscape development planning around the building. 3D-GIS with GIS analysis function to provide information related to geographical location and 3D visualization. 3D GIS models can be interpreted as digital representations of terrain and objects contained in around. In this study, the method used is a close range photogrammetry method for 3D modeling using a non-metric digital camera. For the stages of research implementation, the stages of camera calibration, object shooting, processing of 3D models are divided. For the calibration process, 80% is obtained, fulfilling the calibration requirements. The building modeling phase consists of Automated Projects, the process of calculating and creating 3D models, 3D coordinate transformations, 3D model visualization and statistical analysis. Documentation of Gedong Songo Temple in Semarang Regency. This study 3D model results testing is done by calculating the difference in the distance of the model with measurements in the field (terrestrial) with the Electronic Total Station (ETS) and the distance measuring Tape. The results of the distance comparison analysis obtained a maximum distance shift value of 4.00 centimeters and an RMS value of 4.69 centimeters. The values obtained are relatively small.

3D GIS and ‘The Royaltie Of Sight’: Recreating ‘Prospects’ and ‘Perspectives’ within an English designed landscape c. 1550–1660

AbstractExperience through sight has been recognized as a contributing factor in the shaping of historic landscapes, where humans could express themselves in response to their aesthetic and intellectual qualities. What was experienced, however, was not only dependent on the ‘prospect’, or landscape view, but also on the individual ‘perspective’ of the spectator. Three-dimensional Geographical Information Systems (3D GIS) has enabled investigations into landscape visibility within digitized historic environments and can therefore assist the analysis and understanding of this phenomenon. This article applies 3D GIS to a currently under-researched area of landscape history, English designed landscapes of the 16th and 17th centuries. From country houses and gardens to parks and working estates, these landscapes were manipulated in response to the landowners’ ‘perspectives’ towards the landscape, which subsequently determined the visibility or invisibility of features within certain ‘prospects’. This concept was dubbed ‘The Royaltie of Sight’ by Henry Wotton in 1624. By using 3D GIS to recreate a designed landscape that poses challenges which have previously hindered its analysis, the characteristics of ‘prospects’ can be ascertained using viewshed analysis and the individual ‘perspective’ of the landowner interpreted using phenomenology and reception theory. The results presented in this article demonstrate how 3D GIS has benefited studies into English designed landscapes and improved knowledge of how perception influenced landscape change.

A 3d platform for energy data visualization of building assets

With an exemplary role, the improvement of energy efficiency in public buildings is in the forefront of the European policies for smart and sustainable growth. However, very often the sector is characterized by large and old constructions that may also be marked by historical and cultural value and whose energy consumption is hard to be reduced, due to specific constraints. In order to operate in this field, the definition of a solid knowledge framework on the built environment appears to be the only viable starting point. Therefore, the analysis of the delicate balance between conservation and transformation should be investigated with a multi-scalar approach able to move from the city to the building elements. For this reason, it is extremely important to provide tools for monitoring and analysing the energy behaviour of the public building stocks to those actors that are involved in their management. The research here presented proposes a workflow to implement a web platform based on a three-dimensional GIS (Geographic Information System) interoperable with BIM (Building Information Modeling) and able to store, handle and display information on building assets and their energy consumption. With the aim of defining a repeatable model, the process starts from easily retrievable data on the built environment and uses standard data models and classification systems. The three-dimensional model is built in a semi-automated way from the combination of the two-dimensional GIS cartography of the municipality and from the point cloud resulting from a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) national survey campaign. The set of thermal properties and energy data can be retrieved from the energy performance certificate of the buildings. In order to test and validate the process, an application on the building stock owned by the University of Pavia (Italy) is presented. Nine complexes distribute inside the historical centre of the city and heterogeneously dated from the X to the XX century are considered. After the definition of the model and its representation inside the web environment, an example of use is displayed with reference to a comparative energy analysis of different buildings.

Localization Applications of 3D-GIS Artificial Weather Modification Operational Command System in Fuxin, China

Based on the command and management requirements of weather modification operations in Fuxin City, China, a new generation of three-dimensional operation command system platform for new artificial weather modification was developed and developed using modern communication network technology. The system uses integrated three-dimensional geographic information system (3D-GIS), global positioning system (GPS) positioning and virtual reality technology to calculate, analyze and process the new basic geographic information and weather modification information vector data, generate real-time weather modification operations and guide products in Fuxin area, and realize the impact on labor. The three-dimensional, comprehensive and effective management of basic weather information, early warning and forecast information, disaster prevention and mitigation information and other decision support information provides technical support for scientifically and effectively managing and directing weather modification operations.