Objectives of the project and challenges
Europe cities and their hinterlands are major foci for business, heritage, culture and development. Many haveEurope cities and their hinterlands are major foci for business, heritage, culture and development. Many have geological issues which inhibit economic and sustainable development. Moreover, underneath today's city streets exists a labyrinth of caves, quarries and lifelines (sewer, gas, electric and telecommunication lines). The knowledge about the location of these buried infrastructures represents crucial information for a continuous utility management, including quick response to emergencies, efficient repair working and planned extensions of existing networks. Regarding such issues, little research has been conducted on the best way to share knowledge between scientists, stakeholders and citizens. There is therefore a need for developping an innovative framework integrating scientists, citizens and stakeholders participation in decision making with respect to ground related issues. It will thereby encouraging a more cohesive approach towards sustainability and improving the quality of urban life.
With the advent of GIS and CAD, today's information technology systems now provide the necessary graphical and information handling technology to record and display information on city models in a user-friendly, three-dimensional visualisation. In the same way, the 3D visualisation of all buried utilities as well as geoscientific information is technically feasible. However, an application integrating and visualising the subsoil components into a city model (i.e. buried networks and geoscientific information like geological models, drill-holes,hydrogeological models …) does not yet exist. Such tools may prove to be very useful in the management of underground related issues (e.g. maintenance of networks, underground water levels, mechanical properties of soils, presence of cavities, etc), which is at the moment less intuitive due to the lack of underground information in City Models.
DeepCity3D project intends to develop application-adaptive 3D visualisation tools that integrate for the first time underground data and City models (provided in standardised formats) with advanced functionalities to support decision making in Urban Planning, Construction Companies, Insurance Companies, Architects, Environmental Protection.
Several issues are tackled by the project:
- Integration of 3D City Models with geoscientific information
- Visualisation techniques for suitable visualisation of the different types of data
- Orientation tools to explore underground objects
- Integration of generic kinds of simulations or simulation results to be considered
- To apply geoprocessing like intersecting, generating cross-sections on 3D bodies.
Creation of long-term strategic French-German alliances
BRGM and FhG-IGD have both a strong strategic interest in developing further their expertise and technological solutions on 3D visualization for geospatial decision making support. They combine in a unique way their specialized knowledge to develop new technologies and scientific approaches in city information systems.
Expected results and market opportunities
The main final product of the DeepCity3D project will be a set of software components which will allow integrated management and visualization, called the DeepCity3D Suite.
This 3D suite for underground data and city models with enhanced decision support functionalities is of high interest in a number of application areas, including urban planning, environmental management, utility management, and disaster management.
Potential customers include construction companies, architects, city administration and private sector utility.
