A GIS-Based Approach to Real-Time Open Space Visualization

Visualizations have always been a technique for planners to communicate their ideas. Today’s computer-generated visualizations and models are increasingly involved in environmental and spatial planning processes. These methods are used to achieve an improved knowledge of spatial structures and phenomena. Moreover they are used to communicate projects to the public, stakeholders and decision makers. To support the creation of appealing and realistic visualizations used not only for computer graphics specialists, it is necessary to develop easily applicable tools. This presumes that visualization tools are adaptable to the typical workflow in planning processes. Therefore they have to support automated visualizations from CAD and GIS input data. Recent studies on 3D landscape and city visualization led to the development of software systems and methods for GIS based visualizations (e.g. APPLETON & LOVETT 2003, APPLETON ET AL. 2002, WERNER ET AL. 2005). At the same time, advances in computer graphics allowed for these visualizations to become real-time, interactive and very complex. Still many different difficulties have to be overcome. The department of Computer Graphics Systems of the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) developed LandXplorer, an interactive, real-time 3D geo visualization system supporting city model generation, large-terrain rendering and interactive editing. The objective of the study is to investigate the suitability of LandXplorer for open space visualization. Common GIS software, however, was used for data preparation, analysis, and visualization.