There are today many available datasets and methods that can be used to create 3D city models, which in turn can be used for numerous applications within the fields of visualization, communication and analysis. The purpose of this thesis is to perform a practical comparison between three methods for 3D city modeling using different combinations of datasets; one using LiDAR data combined with oriented aerial images, one using only oriented aerial images and one using non-oriented aerial images. In all three cases, geometry and textures are derived from the data and the models are imported into the game engine Unity. The three methods are evaluated in terms of the resulting model, the amount of manual work required and the time consumed as well as the cost of data and software licenses. An application example visualizing flooding scenarios in central Stockholm is featured in the thesis to give a simple demonstration of what can be done with 3D city models in a game engine environment. The result of the study shows that combining LiDAR data with oriented images and using a more manual process to create the model gives a higher potential for the result, both in terms of visual appearance and semantic depth. Using only oriented images and commercial software is the easiest and most reliable way to create a usable 3D city model. Non-oriented images and open-source software can be used for 3D reconstruction but is not suited for larger areas or geographic applications. Finding reliable automatic or semi-automatic methods to create semantically rich 3D city models from remote sensed data would be hugely beneficial, as more sophisticated applications could be programmed with the 3D city model as a base.

<p>3D city models have been widely used in different applications such as urban planning, traffic control, disaster management etc. Effective visualisation of 3D city models in various scales is one of the pivotal techniques to implement these applications. In this thesis, a framework is proposed to visualise the 3D city models both online and offline using City Geography Makeup Language (CityGML) and Extensible 3D (X3D) to represent and present the models. Then, generalisation methods are studied and tailored to create 3D city scenes in multi-scale dynamically. Finally, the quality of generalised 3D city models is evaluated by measuring the visual similarity from the original models.</p><p> </p><p>In the proposed visualisation framework, 3D city models are stored in CityGML format which supports both geometric and semantic information. These CityGML files are parsed to create 3D scenes and be visualised with existing 3D standard. Because the input and output in the framework are all standardised, it is possible to integrate city models from different sources and visualise them through the different viewers.</p><p> </p><p>Considering the complexity of the city objects, generalisation methods are studied to simplify the city models and increase the visualisation efficiency. In this thesis, the aggregation and typification methods are improved to simplify the 3D city models.</p><p> </p><p>Multiple representation data structures are required to store the generalisation information for dynamic visualisation. One of these is the CityTree, a novel structure to represent building group, which is tested for building aggregation. Meanwhile, Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is employed to detect the linear building group structures in the city models and they are typified with different strategies. According to the experiments results, by using the CityTree, the generalised 3D city model creation time is reduced by more than 50%.</p><p> </p><p>Different generalisation strategies lead to different outcomes. It is important to evaluate the quality of the generalised models. In this thesis a new evaluation method is proposed: visual features of the 3D city models are represented by Attributed Relation Graph (ARG) and their similarity distances are calculated with Nested Earth Mover’s Distance (NEMD) algorithm. The calculation results and user survey show that the ARG and NEMD methods can reflect the visual similarity between generalised city models and the original ones.</p> / QC 20100923 / ViSuCity Project

A great interest in 3-D modeling in Geographic Information Technologies (GIS) has emerged in recent years, because many GIS related implementations, ranging from urban area design to environmental analysis require 3-D models. Especially the need for 3-D models is quite urgent in urban areas. However, numerous applications in GIS only represent two-dimensional information. The GIS community has been struggling with solving complex problems dealing with 3-D objects using a 2-D approach. This research focused on finding most accurate method which is used for getting height information that is used in 3D modeling of man made structures in urban areas. The first method is estimating height information from floor numbers of the buildings data from municipal database systems. The second method is deriving heights of buildings from Digital Elevation Model (DEM) that is generated from stereo satellite images. The third method is measuring height values of the buildings from 3D view of stereo IKONOS satellite images by operators. The comparisons between these three methods are done with respect to height data collected from field study, and according to these comparisons, the amount of the error is determined. The error is classified according to floor numbers of buildings, so that, the quantified errors can be applied for similar works in future. Lastly, the third method is utilized by the assistance of 10 people who have different experience level about 3D viewing, in order to see the error amount changes according to different operators. Several results are presented with a discussion of evaluation of the methods applied. It is found that, if there is an updated floor number database, obtaining building height is the most accurate way from this database. The second most accurate method is found to be getting height information by using 3D view of stereo IKONOS images through experienced users.

An increasing number of applications requires user interfaces that facilitate the handling of large geodata sets. Using virtual 3D city models, complex geospatial information can be communicated visually in an intuitive way. Therefore, real-time visualization of virtual 3D city models represents a key functionality for interactive exploration, presentation, analysis, and manipulation of geospatial data. This thesis concentrates on the development and implementation of concepts and techniques for real-time city model visualization. It discusses rendering algorithms as well as complementary modeling concepts and interaction techniques. Particularly, the work introduces a new real-time rendering technique to handle city models of high complexity concerning texture size and number of textures. Such models are difficult to handle by current technology, primarily due to two problems: - Limited texture memory: The amount of simultaneously usable texture data is limited by the memory of the graphics hardware. - Limited number of textures: Using several thousand different textures simultaneously causes significant performance problems due to texture switch operations during rendering. The multiresolution texture atlases approach, introduced in this thesis, overcomes both problems. During rendering, it permanently maintains a small set of textures that are sufficient for the current view and the screen resolution available. The efficiency of multiresolution texture atlases is evaluated in performance tests. To summarize, the results demonstrate that the following goals have been achieved: - Real-time rendering becomes possible for 3D scenes whose amount of texture data exceeds the main memory capacity. - Overhead due to texture switches is kept permanently low, so that the number of different textures has no significant effect on the rendering frame rate. Furthermore, this thesis introduces two new approaches for real-time city model visualization that use textures as core visualization elements: - An approach for visualization of thematic information. - An approach for illustrative visualization of 3D city models. Both techniques demonstrate that multiresolution texture atlases provide a basic functionality for the development of new applications and systems in the domain of city model visualization. / Eine zunehmende Anzahl von Anwendungen benötigt Benutzungsschnittstellen, um den Umgang mit großen Geodatenmengen zu ermöglichen. Virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle bieten eine Möglichkeit, komplexe raumbezogene Informationen auf intuitive Art und Weise visuell erfassbar zu machen. Echtzeit-Visualisierung virtueller Stadtmodelle bildet daher eine Grundlage für die interaktive Exploration, Präsentation, Analyse und Bearbeitung raumbezogener Daten. Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Entwicklung und Implementierung von Konzepten und Techniken für die Echtzeit-Visualisierung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle. Diese umfassen sowohl Rendering-Algorithmen als auch dazu komplementäre Modellierungskonzepte und Interaktionstechniken. Insbesondere wird in dieser Arbeit eine neue Echtzeit-Rendering-Technik für Stadtmodelle hoher Komplexität hinsichtlich Texturgröße und Texturanzahl vorgestellt. Solche Modelle sind durch die derzeit zur Verfügung stehende Technologie schwierig zu bewältigen, vor allem aus zwei Gründen: - Begrenzter Textur-Speicher: Die Menge an gleichzeitig nutzbaren Texturdaten ist beschränkt durch den Speicher der Grafik-Hardware. - Begrenzte Textur-Anzahl: Die gleichzeitige Verwendung mehrerer tausend Texturen verursacht erhebliche Performance-Probleme aufgrund von Textur-Umschaltungs-Operationen während des Renderings. Das in dieser Arbeit vorgestellte Verfahren, das Rendering mit Multiresolutions-Texturatlanten löst beide Probleme. Während der Darstellung wird dazu permanent eine kleine Textur-Menge verwaltet, die für die aktuelle Sichtperspektive und die zur Verfügung stehende Bildschirmauflösung hinreichend ist. Die Effizienz des Verfahrens wird in Performance-Tests untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die folgenden Ziele erreicht werden: - Echtzeit-Darstellung wird für Modelle möglich, deren Texturdaten-Menge die Kapazität des Hauptspeichers übersteigt. - Der Overhead durch Textur-Umschaltungs-Operationen wird permanent niedrig gehalten, so dass die Anzahl der unterschiedlichen Texturen keinen wesentlichen Einfluss auf die Bildrate der Darstellung hat. Die Arbeit stellt außerdem zwei neue Ansätze zur 3D-Stadtmodell-Visualisierung vor, in denen Texturen als zentrale Visualisierungselemente eingesetzt werden: - Ein Verfahren zur Visualisierung thematischer Informationen. - Ein Verfahren zur illustrativen Visualisierung von 3D-Stadtmodellen. Beide Ansätze zeigen, dass Rendering mit Multiresolutions-Texturatlanten eine Grundlage für die Entwicklung neuer Anwendungen und Systeme im Bereich der 3D-Stadtmodell-Visualisierung bietet.

3D city models have been widely used in different applications such as urban planning, traffic control, disaster management etc. Effective visualisation of 3D city models in various scales is one of the pivotal techniques to implement these applications. In this thesis, a framework is proposed to visualise the 3D city models both online and offline using City Geography Makeup Language (CityGML) and Extensible 3D (X3D) to represent and present the models. Then, generalisation methods are studied and tailored to create 3D city scenes in multi-scale dynamically. Finally, the quality of generalised 3D city models is evaluated by measuring the visual similarity from the original models.   In the proposed visualisation framework, 3D city models are stored in CityGML format which supports both geometric and semantic information. These CityGML files are parsed to create 3D scenes and be visualised with existing 3D standard. Because the input and output in the framework are all standardised, it is possible to integrate city models from different sources and visualise them through the different viewers.   Considering the complexity of the city objects, generalisation methods are studied to simplify the city models and increase the visualisation efficiency. In this thesis, the aggregation and typification methods are improved to simplify the 3D city models.   Multiple representation data structures are required to store the generalisation information for dynamic visualisation. One of these is the CityTree, a novel structure to represent building group, which is tested for building aggregation. Meanwhile, Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is employed to detect the linear building group structures in the city models and they are typified with different strategies. According to the experiments results, by using the CityTree, the generalised 3D city model creation time is reduced by more than 50%.   Different generalisation strategies lead to different outcomes. It is important to evaluate the quality of the generalised models. In this thesis a new evaluation method is proposed: visual features of the 3D city models are represented by Attributed Relation Graph (ARG) and their similarity distances are calculated with Nested Earth Mover’s Distance (NEMD) algorithm. The calculation results and user survey show that the ARG and NEMD methods can reflect the visual similarity between generalised city models and the original ones. / QC 20100923 / ViSuCity Project

3D city models have been widely used in various applications such as urban planning, traffic control, disaster management etc. Efficient visualisation of 3D city models in different levels of detail (LODs) is one of the pivotal technologies to support these applications. In this thesis, a framework is proposed to visualise the 3D city models online. Then, generalisation methods are studied and tailored to create 3D city scenes in different scales dynamically. Multiple representation structures are designed to preserve the generalisation results on different level. Finally, the quality of the generalised 3D city models is evaluated by measuring the visual similarity with the original models.   In the proposed online visualisation framework, City Geography Makeup Language (CityGML) is used to represent city models, then 3D scenes in Extensible 3D (X3D) are generated from the CityGML data and dynamically updated to the user side for visualisation in the Web-based Graphics Library (WebGL) supported browsers with X3D Document Object Model (X3DOM) technique. The proposed framework can be implemented at the mainstream browsers without specific plugins, but it can only support online 3D city model visualisation in small area. For visualisation of large data volumes, generalisation methods and multiple representation structures are required.   To reduce the 3D data volume, various generalisation methods are investigated to increase the visualisation efficiency. On the city block level, the aggregation and typification methods are improved to simplify the 3D city models. On the street level, buildings are selected according to their visual importance and the results are stored in the indexes for dynamic visualisation. On the building level, a new LOD, shell model, is introduced. It is the exterior shell of LOD3 model, in which the objects such as windows, doors and smaller facilities are projected onto walls.  On the facade level, especially for textured 3D buildings, image processing and analysis methods are employed to compress the texture.   After the generalisation processes on different levels, multiple representation data structures are required to store the generalised models for dynamic visualisation. On the city block level the CityTree, a novel structure to represent group of buildings, is tested for building aggregation. According to the results, the generalised 3D city model creation time is reduced by more than 50% by using the CityTree. Meanwhile, a Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is employed to detect the linear building group structures in the city models and they are typified with different strategies. On the building level and the street level, the visible building index is created along the road to support building selection. On facade level the TextureTree, a structure to represent building facade texture, is created based on the texture segmentation.   Different generalisation strategies lead to different outcomes. It is critical to evaluate the quality of the generalised models. Visually salient features of the textured building models such as size, colour, height, etc. are employed to calculate the visual difference between the original and the generalised models. Visual similarity is the criterion in the street view level building selection. In this thesis, the visual similarity is evaluated locally and globally. On the local level, the projection area and the colour difference between the original and the generalised models are considered. On the global level, the visual features of the 3D city models are represented by Attributed Relation Graphs (ARG) and their similarity distances are calculated with the Nested Earth Mover’s Distance (NEMD) algorithm.   The overall contribution of this thesis is that 3D city models are generalised in different scales (block, street, building and facade) and the results are stored in multiple representation structures for efficient dynamic visualisation, especially for online visualisation. / QC 20111116 / ViSuCity

In the workflow of computational fluid dynamics, geometry preparation is commonly the most time-consuming step. For a fast CFD simulation, automatic surface reconstruction to obtain 3D city models for a chosen area is essential. To address this need, a literature study was conducted to map available data suitable for 3D city models. The properties investigated included geographical coverage, resolution, accuracy and licensing. A surface reconstruction using different topographical data was conducted using the 3D finite element mesh generator Gmsh and various GIS analysis tools. The findings of the literature study found no global data enabling a fully automatic solution with sufficient results. However, the open geographic database OpenStreetMap has potential for future work. Today, the method developed in this project is restricted to country-by-country applications and uses a terrain model, LiDAR data and building footprints as input data. The generated 3D city model has a level of detail 1.2, consisting of valid geometries without self-intersection, overlapping or gaps. The method is a semi-automatic workflow with a time consumption of less than one hour, from the extraction of data to a simulation-ready 3D city model. The model shows satisfactory agreement with the reference material but needs improvements regarding the detail of height setting, for more accurate airflow simulations. The method contributes to the field of automatic 3D city model reconstruction. Future work includes improvement regarding level of detail and automation of data attainment.

Virtual 3D city and landscape models are the main subject investigated in this thesis. They digitally represent urban space and have many applications in different domains, e.g., simulation, cadastral management, and city planning. Visualization is an elementary component of these applications. Photo-realistic visualization with an increasingly high degree of detail leads to fundamental problems for comprehensible visualization. A large number of highly detailed and textured objects within a virtual 3D city model may create visual noise and overload the users with information. Objects are subject to perspective foreshortening and may be occluded or not displayed in a meaningful way, as they are too small. In this thesis we present abstraction techniques that automatically process virtual 3D city and landscape models to derive abstracted representations. These have a reduced degree of detail, while essential characteristics are preserved. After introducing definitions for model, scale, and multi-scale representations, we discuss the fundamentals of map generalization as well as techniques for 3D generalization. The first presented technique is a cell-based generalization of virtual 3D city models. It creates abstract representations that have a highly reduced level of detail while maintaining essential structures, e.g., the infrastructure network, landmark buildings, and free spaces. The technique automatically partitions the input virtual 3D city model into cells based on the infrastructure network. The single building models contained in each cell are aggregated to abstracted cell blocks. Using weighted infrastructure elements, cell blocks can be computed on different hierarchical levels, storing the hierarchy relation between the cell blocks. Furthermore, we identify initial landmark buildings within a cell by comparing the properties of individual buildings with the aggregated properties of the cell. For each block, the identified landmark building models are subtracted using Boolean operations and integrated in a photo-realistic way. Finally, for the interactive 3D visualization we discuss the creation of the virtual 3D geometry and their appearance styling through colors, labeling, and transparency. We demonstrate the technique with example data sets. Additionally, we discuss applications of generalization lenses and transitions between abstract representations. The second technique is a real-time-rendering technique for geometric enhancement of landmark objects within a virtual 3D city model. Depending on the virtual camera distance, landmark objects are scaled to ensure their visibility within a specific distance interval while deforming their environment. First, in a preprocessing step a landmark hierarchy is computed, this is then used to derive distance intervals for the interactive rendering. At runtime, using the virtual camera distance, a scaling factor is computed and applied to each landmark. The scaling factor is interpolated smoothly at the interval boundaries using cubic Bézier splines. Non-landmark geometry that is near landmark objects is deformed with respect to a limited number of landmarks. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to a highly detailed virtual 3D city model and a generalized 3D city model. In addition we discuss an adaptation of the technique for non-linear projections and mobile devices. The third technique is a real-time rendering technique to create abstract 3D isocontour visualization of virtual 3D terrain models. The virtual 3D terrain model is visualized as a layered or stepped relief. The technique works without preprocessing and, as it is implemented using programmable graphics hardware, can be integrated with minimal changes into common terrain rendering techniques. Consequently, the computation is done in the rendering pipeline for each vertex, primitive, i.e., triangle, and fragment. For each vertex, the height is quantized to the nearest isovalue. For each triangle, the vertex configuration with respect to their isovalues is determined first. Using the configuration, the triangle is then subdivided. The subdivision forms a partial step geometry aligned with the triangle. For each fragment, the surface appearance is determined, e.g., depending on the surface texture, shading, and height-color-mapping. Flexible usage of the technique is demonstrated with applications from focus+context visualization, out-of-core terrain rendering, and information visualization. This thesis presents components for the creation of abstract representations of virtual 3D city and landscape models. Re-using visual language from cartography, the techniques enable users to build on their experience with maps when interpreting these representations. Simultaneously, characteristics of 3D geovirtual environments are taken into account by addressing and discussing, e.g., continuous scale, interaction, and perspective. / Gegenstand der Arbeit sind virtuelle 3D-Stadt- und Landschaftsmodelle, die den städtischen Raum in digitalen Repräsentationen abbilden. Sie werden in vielfältigen Anwendungen und zu unterschiedlichen Zwecken eingesetzt. Dabei ist die Visualisierung ein elementarer Bestandteil dieser Anwendungen. Durch realitätsnahe Darstellung und hohen Detailgrad entstehen jedoch zunehmend fundamentale Probleme für eine verständliche Visualisierung. So führt beispielsweise die hohe Anzahl von detailliert ausmodellierten und texturierten Objekten eines virtuellen 3D-Stadtmodells zu Informationsüberflutung beim Betrachter. In dieser Arbeit werden Abstraktionsverfahren vorgestellt, die diese Probleme behandeln. Ziel der Verfahren ist die automatische Transformation virtueller 3D-Stadt- und Landschaftsmodelle in abstrakte Repräsentationen, die bei reduziertem Detailgrad wichtige Charakteristika erhalten. Nach der Einführung von Grundbegriffen zu Modell, Maßstab und Mehrfachrepräsentationen werden theoretische Grundlagen zur Generalisierung von Karten sowie Verfahren zur 3D-Generalisierung betrachtet. Das erste vorgestellte Verfahren beschreibt die zellbasierte Generalisierung von virtuellen 3DStadtmodellen. Es erzeugt abstrakte Repräsentationen, die drastisch im Detailgrad reduziert sind, erhält dabei jedoch die wichtigsten Strukturen, z.B. das Infrastrukturnetz, Landmarkengebäude und Freiflächen. Dazu wird in einem vollautomatischen Verfahren das Eingabestadtmodell mithilfe des Infrastrukturnetzes in Zellen zerlegt. Pro Zelle wird abstrakte Gebäudegeometrie erzeugt, indem die enthaltenen Einzelgebäude mit ihren Eigenschaften aggregiert werden. Durch Berücksichtigung gewichteter Elemente des Infrastrukturnetzes können Zellblöcke auf verschiedenen Hierarchieebenen berechnet werden. Weiterhin werden Landmarken gesondert berücksichtigt: Anhand statistischer Abweichungen der Eigenschaften der Einzelgebäudes von den aggregierten Eigenschaften der Zelle werden Gebäude gegebenenfalls als initiale Landmarken identifiziert. Schließlich werden die Landmarkengebäude aus den generalisierten Blöcken mit Booleschen Operationen ausgeschnitten und realitätsnah dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse des Verfahrens lassen sich in interaktiver 3D-Darstellung einsetzen. Das Verfahren wird beispielhaft an verschiedenen Datensätzen demonstriert und bezüglich der Erweiterbarkeit diskutiert. Das zweite vorgestellte Verfahren ist ein Echtzeit-Rendering-Verfahren für geometrische Hervorhebung von Landmarken innerhalb eines virtuellen 3D-Stadtmodells: Landmarkenmodelle werden abhängig von der virtuellen Kameradistanz vergrößert, so dass sie innerhalb eines spezifischen Entfernungsintervalls sichtbar bleiben; dabei wird ihre Umgebung deformiert. In einem Vorverarbeitungsschritt wird eine Landmarkenhierarchie bestimmt, aus der die Entfernungsintervalle für die interaktive Darstellung abgeleitet werden. Zur Laufzeit wird anhand der virtuellen Kameraentfernung je Landmarke ein dynamischer Skalierungsfaktor bestimmt, der das Landmarkenmodell auf eine sichtbare Größe skaliert. Dabei wird der Skalierungsfaktor an den Intervallgrenzen durch kubisch interpoliert. Für Nicht-Landmarkengeometrie in der Umgebung wird die Deformation bezüglich einer begrenzten Menge von Landmarken berechnet. Die Eignung des Verfahrens wird beispielhaft anhand verschiedener Datensätze demonstriert und bezüglich der Erweiterbarkeit diskutiert. Das dritte vorgestellte Verfahren ist ein Echtzeit-Rendering-Verfahren, das eine abstrakte 3D-Isokonturen-Darstellung von virtuellen 3D-Geländemodellen erzeugt. Für das Geländemodell wird eine Stufenreliefdarstellung für eine Menge von nutzergewählten Höhenwerten erzeugt. Das Verfahren arbeitet ohne Vorverarbeitung auf Basis programmierbarer Grafikkarten-Hardware. Entsprechend erfolgt die Verarbeitung in der Prozesskette pro Geometrieknoten, pro Dreieck, und pro Bildfragment. Pro Geometrieknoten wird zunächst die Höhe auf den nächstliegenden Isowert quantisiert. Pro Dreieck wird dann die Konfiguration bezüglich der Isowerte der drei Geometrieknoten bestimmt. Anhand der Konfiguration wird eine geometrische Unterteilung vorgenommen, so dass ein Stufenausschnitt entsteht, der dem aktuellen Dreieck entspricht. Pro Bildfragment wird schließlich die finale Erscheinung definiert, z.B. anhand von Oberflächentextur, durch Schattierung und Höheneinfärbung. Die vielfältigen Einsatzmöglichkeiten werden mit verschiedenen Anwendungen demonstriert. Die Arbeit stellt Bausteine für die Erzeugung abstrakter Darstellungen von virtuellen 3D-Stadt und Landschaftsmodellen vor. Durch die Orientierung an kartographischer Bildsprache können die Nutzer auf bestehende Erfahrungen bei der Interpretation zurückgreifen. Dabei werden die charakteristischen Eigenschaften 3D geovirtueller Umgebungen berücksichtigt, indem z.B. kontinuierlicher Maßstab, Interaktion und Perspektive behandelt und diskutiert werden.

This thesis presents methods, techniques and tools for developing three-dimensional representations of tactical intelligence assessments. Techniques from GIScience are combined with crime mapping methods. The range of methods applied in this study provides spatio-temporal GIS analysis as well as 3D geovisualisation and GIS programming. The work presents methods to enhance digital three-dimensional city models with application specific thematic information. This information facilitates further geovisual analysis, for instance, estimations of urban risks exposure. Specific methods and workflows are developed to facilitate the integration of spatio-temporal crime scene analysis results into 3D tactical intelligence assessments. Analysis comprises hotspot identification with kernel-density-estimation techniques (KDE), LISA-based verification of KDE hotspots as well as geospatial hotspot area characterisation and repeat victimisation analysis. To visualise the findings of such extensive geospatial analysis, three-dimensional geovirtual environments are created. Workflows are developed to integrate analysis results into these environments and to combine them with additional geospatial data. The resulting 3D visualisations allow for an efficient communication of complex findings of geospatial crime scene analysis. / Diese Arbeit präsentiert Methoden, Techniken und Werkzeuge für die Entwicklung dreidi-mensionaler Lagebilder. Zu diesem Zweck werden Verfahren der Geoinformatik mit solchen der raumbezogenen Straftatenanalyse kombiniert. Das Spektrum der angewandten Methoden und Techniken umfasst raumzeitliche GIS-Analysen ebenso wie 3D Geovisualisierungen und GIS-Anwendungsprogrammierung. Um komplexe geovisuelle Analysen auf Basis virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle zu ermöglichen, werden Datenbanken digitaler Stadtmodelle um anwendungsspezifische Fachinformationen ergänzt. Dies ermöglicht weiterführende Analysen, zum Beispiel zur räumlichen Verteilung urbaner Risiken. Weiterhin präsentiert die Arbeit Methoden und Verfahren zur Integration der Ergebnisse komplexer raumzeitlicher Straftatenanalysen in dreidimensionale Lagebilder. Die durchgeführten Analysen umfassen die Identifikation von Brennpunkten spezifischer Delikte mittels Techniken der Kerndichteschätzung, die Verifikation dieser Hotspots durch LISA-Statistiken, GIS-basierte räumliche Charakterisierungen von Brennpunkten sowie Analysen zur wiederholten Viktimisierung. Zur Visualisierung der Ergebnisse komplexer raumzeitlicher Analysen werden dreidimensionale geovirtuelle Umgebungen erzeugt. Um weitere raumbezogene Daten ergänzt, werden sämtliche Analyseergebnisse in diese Umgebungen integriert. Die resultierenden 3D-Visualisierungen erlauben eine effiziente Kommunikation der Ergebnisse komplexer raumbezogener Straftatenanalysen.

Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit stehen virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle, die Objekte, Phänomene und Prozesse in urbanen Räumen in digitaler Form repräsentieren. Sie haben sich zu einem Kernthema von Geoinformationssystemen entwickelt und bilden einen zentralen Bestandteil geovirtueller 3D-Welten. Virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle finden nicht nur Verwendung als Mittel für Experten in Bereichen wie Stadtplanung, Funknetzplanung, oder Lärmanalyse, sondern auch für allgemeine Nutzer, die realitätsnah dargestellte virtuelle Städte in Bereichen wie Bürgerbeteiligung, Tourismus oder Unterhaltung nutzen und z. B. in Anwendungen wie GoogleEarth eine räumliche Umgebung intuitiv erkunden und durch eigene 3D-Modelle oder zusätzliche Informationen erweitern. Die Erzeugung und Darstellung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle besteht aus einer Vielzahl von Prozessschritten, von denen in der vorliegenden Arbeit zwei näher betrachtet werden: Texturierung und Visualisierung. Im Bereich der Texturierung werden Konzepte und Verfahren zur automatischen Ableitung von Fototexturen aus georeferenzierten Schrägluftbildern sowie zur Speicherung oberflächengebundener Daten in virtuellen 3D-Stadtmodellen entwickelt. Im Bereich der Visualisierung werden Konzepte und Verfahren für die multiperspektivische Darstellung sowie für die hochqualitative Darstellung nichtlinearer Projektionen virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle in interaktiven Systemen vorgestellt. Die automatische Ableitung von Fototexturen aus georeferenzierten Schrägluftbildern ermöglicht die Veredelung vorliegender virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle. Schrägluftbilder bieten sich zur Texturierung an, da sie einen Großteil der Oberflächen einer Stadt, insbesondere Gebäudefassaden, mit hoher Redundanz erfassen. Das Verfahren extrahiert aus dem verfügbaren Bildmaterial alle Ansichten einer Oberfläche und fügt diese pixelpräzise zu einer Textur zusammen. Durch Anwendung auf alle Oberflächen wird das virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodell flächendeckend texturiert. Der beschriebene Ansatz wurde am Beispiel des offiziellen Berliner 3D-Stadtmodells sowie der in GoogleEarth integrierten Innenstadt von München erprobt. Die Speicherung oberflächengebundener Daten, zu denen auch Texturen zählen, wurde im Kontext von CityGML, einem international standardisierten Datenmodell und Austauschformat für virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle, untersucht. Es wird ein Datenmodell auf Basis computergrafischer Konzepte entworfen und in den CityGML-Standard integriert. Dieses Datenmodell richtet sich dabei an praktischen Anwendungsfällen aus und lässt sich domänenübergreifend verwenden. Die interaktive multiperspektivische Darstellung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle ergänzt die gewohnte perspektivische Darstellung nahtlos um eine zweite Perspektive mit dem Ziel, den Informationsgehalt der Darstellung zu erhöhen. Diese Art der Darstellung ist durch die Panoramakarten von H. C. Berann inspiriert; Hauptproblem ist die Übertragung des multiperspektivischen Prinzips auf ein interaktives System. Die Arbeit stellt eine technische Umsetzung dieser Darstellung für 3D-Grafikhardware vor und demonstriert die Erweiterung von Vogel- und Fußgängerperspektive. Die hochqualitative Darstellung nichtlinearer Projektionen beschreibt deren Umsetzung auf 3D-Grafikhardware, wobei neben der Bildwiederholrate die Bildqualität das wesentliche Entwicklungskriterium ist. Insbesondere erlauben die beiden vorgestellten Verfahren, dynamische Geometrieverfeinerung und stückweise perspektivische Projektionen, die uneingeschränkte Nutzung aller hardwareseitig verfügbaren, qualitätssteigernden Funktionen wie z.~B. Bildraumgradienten oder anisotroper Texturfilterung. Beide Verfahren sind generisch und unterstützen verschiedene Projektionstypen. Sie ermöglichen die anpassungsfreie Verwendung gängiger computergrafischer Effekte wie Stilisierungsverfahren oder prozeduraler Texturen für nichtlineare Projektionen bei optimaler Bildqualität. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt wesentliche Technologien für die Verarbeitung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle: Zum einen lassen sich mit den Ergebnissen der Arbeit Texturen für virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle automatisiert herstellen und als eigenständige Attribute in das virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodell einfügen. Somit trägt diese Arbeit dazu bei, die Herstellung und Fortführung texturierter virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle zu verbessern. Zum anderen zeigt die Arbeit Varianten und technische Lösungen für neuartige Projektionstypen für virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle in interaktiven Visualisierungen. Solche nichtlinearen Projektionen stellen Schlüsselbausteine dar, um neuartige Benutzungsschnittstellen für und Interaktionsformen mit virtuellen 3D-Stadtmodellen zu ermöglichen, insbesondere für mobile Geräte und immersive Umgebungen. / This thesis concentrates on virtual 3D city models that digitally encode objects, phenomena, and processes in urban environments. Such models have become core elements of geographic information systems and constitute a major component of geovirtual 3D worlds. Expert users make use of virtual 3D city models in various application domains, such as urban planning, radio-network planning, and noise immision simulation. Regular users utilize virtual 3D city models in domains, such as tourism, and entertainment. They intuitively explore photorealistic virtual 3D city models through mainstream applications such as GoogleEarth, which additionally enable users to extend virtual 3D city models by custom 3D models and supplemental information. Creation and rendering of virtual 3D city models comprise a large number of processes, from which texturing and visualization are in the focus of this thesis. In the area of texturing, this thesis presents concepts and techniques for automatic derivation of photo textures from georeferenced oblique aerial imagery and a concept for the integration of surface-bound data into virtual 3D city model datasets. In the area of visualization, this thesis presents concepts and techniques for multiperspective views and for high-quality rendering of nonlinearly projected virtual 3D city models in interactive systems. The automatic derivation of photo textures from georeferenced oblique aerial imagery is a refinement process for a given virtual 3D city model. Our approach uses oblique aerial imagery, since it provides a citywide highly redundant coverage of surfaces, particularly building facades. From this imagery, our approach extracts all views of a given surface and creates a photo texture by selecting the best view on a pixel level. By processing all surfaces, the virtual 3D city model becomes completely textured. This approach has been tested for the official 3D city model of Berlin and the model of the inner city of Munich accessible in GoogleEarth. The integration of surface-bound data, which include textures, into virtual 3D city model datasets has been performed in the context of CityGML, an international standard for the exchange and storage of virtual 3D city models. We derive a data model from a set of use cases and integrate it into the CityGML standard. The data model uses well-known concepts from computer graphics for data representation. Interactive multiperspective views of virtual 3D city models seamlessly supplement a regular perspective view with a second perspective. Such a construction is inspired by panorama maps by H. C. Berann and aims at increasing the amount of information in the image. Key aspect is the construction's use in an interactive system. This thesis presents an approach to create multiperspective views on 3D graphics hardware and exemplifies the extension of bird's eye and pedestrian views. High-quality rendering of nonlinearly projected virtual 3D city models focuses on the implementation of nonlinear projections on 3D graphics hardware. The developed concepts and techniques focus on high image quality. This thesis presents two such concepts, namely dynamic mesh refinement and piecewise perspective projections, which both enable the use of all graphics hardware features, such as screen space gradients and anisotropic texture filtering under nonlinear projections. Both concepts are generic and customizable towards specific projections. They enable the use of common computer graphics effects, such as stylization effects or procedural textures, for nonlinear projections at optimal image quality and interactive frame rates. This thesis comprises essential techniques for virtual 3D city model processing. First, the results of this thesis enable automated creation of textures for and their integration as individual attributes into virtual 3D city models. Hence, this thesis contributes to an improved creation and continuation of textured virtual 3D city models. Furthermore, the results provide novel approaches to and technical solutions for projecting virtual 3D city models in interactive visualizations. Such nonlinear projections are key components of novel user interfaces and interaction techniques for virtual 3D city models, particularly on mobile devices and in immersive environments.