3D Pilot: 3D is here to stay

Also check short demo's of use cases

In the 3D Pilot NL (run between March 2010 and June 2011) more than 65 private, public and scientific organisations collaborated to analyse and push 3D developments in the Netherlands. The Dutch Kadaster, Geonovum, the Netherlands Geodetic Commission (NCG) and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment initiated this pilot to advance the use of 3D in the Netherlands. An absolute necessity to realise such a push was to establish a 3D standard NL based on contributions from many different 3D experts and stakeholders. For this purpose use cases were defined and executed on a 3D test bed. In addition large amounts of test data were made freely available for all participants in the pilot. Finally the established Dutch 2D standardisation framework was studied for extension into 3D while aligning to the international OGC CityGML standard, driven by experiences of the use cases and the test bed.

On June 16, 2011 the 3D Pilot NL closed with a national symposium on 3D at which the acquired knowledge of the pilot was presented to a wide public. Host of this closing meeting was the City of Rotterdam who launched its 3D model at this specific occasion. About 350 people attended the meeting where project leader Jantien Stoter (working at the Dutch Kadaster, Geonovum and Delft University of Technology) together with the project team presented the main findings of the pilot.

The added value of 3D

The pilot has showed the added value of 3D geo-information compared to 2D geo-information. In addition, the pilot showed that 3D geo-information is feasible. Examples where 3D has added value over a 2D approach is integrated planning and management of under- and above ground spaces, and flood simulation models in rural and urban areas. Also, (3D) information automatically generated from laser point data can serve many application domains. Examples of such information are tree heights and sizes, new buildings, roofs, etc. The findings of the pilot have shown that it is no longer the question if, but how 3D in the Netherlands should be organised and implemented .

3D information is practice!

The presentations of Joris Goos of the City of Rotterdam and Thomas Kolbe, University of Berlin at the symposium, underlined that 3D is both required for many applications  and feasible. Joris Goos explained why Rotterdam invested in 3D geo-information and concluded that it is not a matter of how much a 3D approach costs, but how much you can save with it. Also, Joris announced that as of June 16th the 3D data set of Rotterdam is open data, which provoked a loud applause from the audience.
Thomas Kolbe elaborated on CityGML. An important result of the pilot is a CityGML implementation profile for large scale geo-information in the Netherlands. Thomas Kolbe explained that CityGML is rich in semantics and therefore attractive for various applications. Inspiring was the live demo Thomas Kolbe gave on the solar atlas of Berlin (www.3dcitydb.net). Both the presentation of Joris Goos and of Thomas showed the importance of performing analysis on the 3D data. That is, 3D geo-information makes it easier to answer questions like: what are the best locations to generate solar and wind energy in the city? What is the effect of a new building on the environment? And how green is the city?

Many examples

Important activity of the pilot was the definition and executing of use cases. George Vosselman of the University of Twente (and representative of NCG) presented those use cases on the basis of movies made by 3D pilot participants. Examples are automated change detection, integration of voxel and 3D vector data, generation of tree models, 3D City GIS, 3D Cadastre, 3D in spatial planning and interactive airstream simulations. The demo’s (available on Youtube) gave a good overview of where 3D has added value and how present techniques can already make use of this value.

Contest

At lunchtime, there was ample opportunity to visit the 25 booths where several companies that have participated in the pilot presented their contributions. The nominees of the contest that Rotterdam had launched to enrich the 3D data of Rotterdam were represented as well. After the break, the winners were announced which was a printer for representing every (concept) building in Rotterdam in chocolate. The public’s prize went to The Nexxt Step. This application represents the station area of Rotterdam in different times. The encouraging prize went to Wolle Peeves Green & co. This group of citizens made their own 3D model to thoroughly understand the plans for the neighborhood in all its facets.

What next for 3D?

Ruud van Rossem of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and Marcel Reuvers of Geonovum closed the conference with a view ahead. One of the results of the pilot is the 3D CityGML implementation profile for large scale topography (called CityGML-IMGeo). This information model will soon enter the phase of public consultation. 3D is not a compulsory part of this profile, but the integration with CityGML makes the national standard well prepared for 3D. This is a very good result of the pilot and assures that the 3D standard will become really operational the coming years.

To achieve this, a next phase is being started to gain experiences with the new standard. In addition tools will be developed to support implementation. There will also be more attention for further coordination with other disciplines such as BIM (Building Information Models). Finally, the 3D IMGeo experiences will be used to extend the other domain information models in 3D if appropriate. For this sequel phase a new group is being set up, for which already more than 60 persons have expressed their interests.