A critical review of virtual reality and geographical information systems for management of the built environment

In the field of urban planning, virtual reality systems are currently used as a consultation tool providing the ability to demonstrate the impact of a proposal on the environment. VR simulation models can be driven in real time by the client and adapted by the designer in response to the feedback from architects, planners and also the general public. Within the planning process, GIS systems are often used to analyse geographic data and real time VR has been used as a medium to view the results of data calculations. However, previous initiatives that have integrated VR and GIS to assist in urban planning have focused primarily on the aesthetics of development locations. This paper proposes the development framework of a novel system that allows users to interact with 3D visual data and more traditional GIS data to perform complex 'what if' scenarios in real time. The results of the queries will then be visualised not as text or 2D information, but in real time 3D.