Research and Practice in Three-Dimensional City Modeling

The way we interact with spatial data has been changed from 2D map to 3D Virtual Geographic Environment (VGE). Three-dimensional representations of geographic information on a computer are known as VGE, and in particular 3D city models provide an efficient way to integrate massive, heterogenous geospatial information and georeferenced information in urban areas. 3D city modeling (3DCM) is an active research and practice topic in distinct application areas. This paper introduces different modeling paradigms employed in 3D GIS, virtual environment, and AEC/FM. Up-to-date 3DCM technologies are evolving into a data integration and collaborative approach to represent the full spatial coverage of a city, to model both aboveground and underground, outdoor and indoor environments including man-made objects and natural features with 3D geometry, appearance, topology and semantics.