3D City GIS
All around the world, city governments are looking for ways to improve the sustainability of their infrastructure in order to deliver a better quality of life for their citizens. Sustainability embraces city layout, building design, transport services, noise reduction programs, and improvements in the quality of the utility infrastructure. This led initially to the establishment of 2D GIS initiatives but these are fast evolving into exciting 3D City GIS projects.
Bentley is at the heart of making 3D City GIS a practical endeavor. Bentley Map, which leverages the powerful 3D capabilities of MicroStation, lets you create and edit 3D objects with ease. Bentley Map’s native support of Oracle Spatial’s 3D objects and its integration with Bentley Geospatial Server mean that it is the perfect editing environment for 3D GIS practitioners looking for scalability and advanced workflow management. For those who want to explore how to create photo-realistic outputs, the Luxology engine provides cutting-edge rendering in Bentley Map. Bentley Descartes supports 3D workflows with its powerful image processing capabilities, including the ability to edit 3D rasters such as textures. Once you have created the 3D City model, you can publish it using KML over intranets and the web with Bentley Geo Web Publisher.
3D City GIS initiatives are not just about giving a city a "pretty face." 3D City GIS means providing an integrated above ground and below ground information model of a city, comprising not just the built environment but also the utility infrastructure which, like arteries, keep the city’s heart functioning. These 3D infrastructure information models are used in "call-before-you-dig" workflows as well as in infrastructure design and maintenance.
Practical applications of a 3D City GIS include advanced thematic mapping, line of sight studies, noise simulations, and flood simulations as well as urban planning and zoning workflows. To learn more about 3D City GIS projects, read Bentley’s recent white paper, 3D City GIS – A Major Step Towards Sustainable Infrastructure.
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