Volunteered geographic information (VGI) has received increased attention as a new paradigm for geographic information production, while light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data is widely applied to many fields. This study quantitatively compares LiDAR data and user-generated 3D building models created using Google Building Maker, and investigate the potential applications of the quantitative measures in support of rapid disaster damage assessment. User-generated 3D building models from Google Building Maker are compared with LiDAR-derived building models using 3D shape signatures. Eighteen 3D building models are created in Fremont, California using the Google Building Maker, and six shape functions (distance, angle, area, volume, slope, and aspect) are applied to the 18 LiDAR-derived building models and user-generated ones. A special case regarding the comparison between LiDAR data and building models with indented walls is also discussed. Based on the results, several conclusions are drawn, and limitations that require further study are also discussed.

This work deals with description and design of application for generating 3D building models from floor plans and their publication on the Internet. First chapter describes methods used for floor plans creation. Next part describes how are foor plans transformed into three-dimensional model. Following chapters describes implementation details concerning application used for creation of building floor plan and three-dimensional model generation. Work also covers implementation of web based application for viewing models in web browser. Final chapters sums up results and limitations of described solution. There are also discussed possible extensions of current project.

The thesis deals with the concept of level of detail and its use in 3D GIS. The aim of this work is to design a data structure that will allow continuous rendering of discrete 3D building models with different levels of geometric detail, which were created by generalization method based on mathematical morphology approach. The proposed solution creates links of corresponding geometric primitives of models at different level of detail at first and then reconstructs them using the extrusion method. The data structure created in this way is able to generate and render any model, including intermediate models, which are represented as slices through the data structure across the axis of geometric detail.