3d Gis

Introduction Since early ’90 GIS has become a sophisticated system for maintaining and analysing spatial and semantic information on spatial objects. The need for 3D information is rapidly increasing. 2D GIS analysis have shown its limitations in some situations, e.g. noise prediction models (noise spreads out in three dimensions) (Kluijver and Stoter, 2003), water flood models, air pollution models, geological models (Van Wees et al., 2002). Other disciplines that have met the need for 3D geo-information are: 3D urban planning, environmental monitoring, telecommunications, public rescue operations, landscape planning, real-estate market (Stoter and Ploeger, 2003). The breakthrough of 3D GIS seems not to come off. The developments in the area of 3D GIS are pushed by a growing need for 3D information from one side and new technologies on the other side. In (Zlatanova et al., 2002) the side of new technologies were addressed by discussing the current status of 3D GIS considering developments reported by vendors and researchers. This paper continues on that discussion and gives an extended overview on the status of 3D GIS in both research and practise. We start with a description of technology developments in 3D GIS. Then we address the main complexities of 3D GIS: 3D object reconstruction, visualisation and navigation in 3D environments and the organisation of 3D data. We end with a discussion on where to go for a serious breakthrough of 3D GIS.