Electronic 3D model of the city of Moscow

The electronic 3D model of the city of Moscow will allow to integrate in one information space and to visually provide any information on the city. It can be also integrated with other projects on informatization of the city.

Using a system inhabitants and city visitors will have an opportunity to be guided easier in city infrastructure. And authorities and city services will be able quicker to solve problems of management of development of the territory:

• plan placement and upgrade of constructions and infrastructure;
• hold security events for preserving and protection of objects of cultural heritage;
• plan development of city infrastructure for persons with limited opportunities;
• ensure safety of citizens and objects.

Problem:

Today for city planning the master plan of the territory which main part is the image received by method of graphic imposing of the drawing of a designed project on the topographical, engineering and topographical or photographic plan of the territory is used. And also the general plan includes a number of schemes: objects electro-, warm, gas - and water supply of the population; highways, bridges and other transport engineering constructions; borders of territories of objects of cultural heritage; and so on.

Problems of use of the two-dimensional master plan of the territory:

• visually them to provide schematical representation of objects, impossibility;
• impossibility to analyze objects of different type in interrelation with each other;
• object search, switching from one object to another is complicated;
• there is no opportunity to manage scale, to change a point of view, to move quickly from one point to another;
• creation of several alternative options of planning of the territory - very labor-intensive process

Therefore:

• For public authorities: decision making process on a design, building, reconstruction of city objects takes a lot of time.
• For ordinary users: though master plans of many cities are often available on the Internet, but in them it is pretty difficult to be guided and they do not give an idea of appearance of buildings.

Solution:

It is offered to create the electronic 3D model of the city of Moscow. Main pluses:

• development planning of the territory in the context of the existing environment (taking into account objects of different type);
• evident representation of infrastructure facilities;
• possibility of easy and fast formation of several options of arrangement of objects;
• access on the Internet, the easy web interface in mastering for each user who is in any point of the country;
• possibility of fast virtual movement on the 3D model of extensive territories (existence of the computer with the minimum system parameters is enough);
• obtaining information on objects;
• connectivity of other visual opportunities – spherical panoramas of objects, photos and so on.

Result:

The electronic volume general plan will help to solve different applied problems of users, for example:

• make a virtual trip across Moscow: walk on streets, learn about capital sights;
• find the house, shop, the fitness center, hospital, school and other objects;
• lay a tourist route;
• compare several versions of three-dimensional Moscow: for example, model of the city what it was 200 years ago, Moscow today's and future;
• look at the capital at different times day – and in the night from festive with illumination, and in the afternoon – and even to estimate as the shadow from buildings will fall;

Different city services and authorities can find a set of applications of this solution, for example:

• development of concepts of building (for example, Novaya Gazeta of Moscow);
• presentations of territories and infrastructure to potential investors;
• calculation of investments into development of territories;
• impact assessment of the buildings planned to construction on appearance of historical building;
• modeling of actions of intelligence agencies and escape routes at emergencies; creation of the corresponding 3D exercise machines;

In general:

• Orientation in city infrastructure for ordinary users is facilitated;
• Decision making process on a design, building, reconstruction of city objects in authorities accelerates.

The description of the applied technology:

One of versions of the software tool for implementation of similar models was offered by Autodesk company. It is the Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler software product. Similar software provides fast and effective creation and filling with data of three-dimensional models of large territories, easy manipulation of their display.

Features of Infrastructure Modeler:

• Use of client-server approach that will allow users to work with three-dimensional model of the territory via the Internet, using normal web browsers;
• Support of work with large territories for the minimum technical requirements to the user's computer;
• Integration of different data types – such as 2D CAD, GIS, system of information modeling (BIM), raster data – in uniform three-dimensional model (for example, the roads, a relief created in AutoCAD Civil 3D, buildings with high detailing and an interior – in Revit);
• Fast creation of sketches of three-dimensional model of the territory and study of the concept of the project, their further comparison and choice of the best;
• Evident demonstration of the project to investors using instruments of creation of qualitative images and videos.

Examples of scopes of Infrastructure Modeler:

• Planning of territories and architectural and construction design;
• Management of town-planning activity, solving of tasks of the master plan of development of the city;
• Creation of virtual exercise machines for personnel training, for example, intelligence agencies;
• Situational modeling;
• Use of three-dimensional models of territories when developing games;
• And so on.

The NEOLANT company performed expert evaluation of translation of the Infrastructure Modeler program. Now the program is available also in Russian.