A GIS based virtual urban simulation environment

This paper presents the development of a virtual reality urban planning tool based on GIS and Virtual Environments to facilitate scenario generation and collaborative urban design. Our system provides an open structure for users to support various visualisation and simulation modules, for the prototyping of urban designs. An Urban Scene Generation module is used within this urban planning system for generating the urban layout, on which the various collaborative planning tasks are carried out. A 3D urban model is generated from a GIS database by extracting features such as landscape, roads, and buildings. The system allows the users to place CAD models within the virtual environment. Various statistical data related to population, crime, and employment are also visualised in this virtual environment. A VR based user interface is provided to handle urban simulation data, query information and discuss urban simulation scenarios.