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Requirements for Web-Based 4D Visualisation of Integrated 3D City Models and Sensor Data in Urban Digital Twins

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Recent Advances in 3D Geoinformation Science (3DGeoInfo 2023)

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Abstract

Urban Digital Twins (UDTs) have emerged as essential tools for managing city operations, forming the basis of smart city solutions. They offer a digital representation of the physical urban environment, which supports various city applications such as monitoring mobility, air quality, and modelling simulations. To accurately represent the physical world, UDTs need to be updated continuously to reflect the changes in the urban environment on time. The Internet of Things (IoT) enables real-time data collection to capture these changes. Combined with 3D city models, IoT allows the interactive visualisation of patterns and trends in UDTs. In this study, we conduct investigations on the requirements for the web visualisation of semantic 3D city models enriched with time-dependent properties from IoT and simulation data. We explore the 3D models and IoT data integration requirements, 4D web visualisation design considerations, and the technical implementation requirements for rendering dynamic properties for UDTs applications. The paper also presents a workflow and a web viewer prototype for the 4D visualisation of integrated 3D models and dynamic data.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://deck.gl/.

  2. 2.

    https://www.mdm-portal.de/.

  3. 3.

    https://www.datex2.eu/.

  4. 4.

    https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/api.

  5. 5.

    https://nodered.org/.

  6. 6.

    https://react.dev/.

  7. 7.

    https://resium.reearth.io/.

  8. 8.

    https://github.com/mqttjs/mqtt.js.

  9. 9.

    https://react-redux.js.org/.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the City of Munich for the cooperation in the Connected Urban Twins (CUT) project funded by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building of Germany. We also thank the city's Geodata Service and Mobility departments for providing datasets used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Geoinformatics, Technical University of Munich, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Joseph Gitahi & Thomas H. Kolbe

Authors
  1. Joseph Gitahi
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  2. Thomas H. Kolbe
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Correspondence to Joseph Gitahi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Geoinformatics, Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Thomas H. Kolbe

  2. Chair of Geoinformatics, Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Andreas Donaubauer

  3. Chair of Geoinformatics, Department of Aerospace and Geodesy, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Christof Beil

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Gitahi, J., Kolbe, T.H. (2024). Requirements for Web-Based 4D Visualisation of Integrated 3D City Models and Sensor Data in Urban Digital Twins. In: Kolbe, T.H., Donaubauer, A., Beil, C. (eds) Recent Advances in 3D Geoinformation Science. 3DGeoInfo 2023. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43699-4_43

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