GIS-Based Landscape Visualization: The State of the Art
Continued developments in computer performance, software integration and data availability have transformed the capacity to generate 3D landscape visualizations from GIS databases during the past decade. Applications of such geovisualization techniques have occurred in both urban and rural environments, with a particular focus on the communication of information and facilitating stakeholder engagement in decision making. These technical developments have coincided with increasing recognition of the importance of a landscape scale perspective in tackling environmental management and planning problems. In the UK, for example, there is currently much debate regarding future land use and these deliberations reflect a range of factors including economic difficulties in the agricultural sector, the production of biofuels, implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, concerns regarding habitat loss, urban expansion, and the possible impacts of climate change. Similar problems and discussions are occurring in many developed economies and a common response has been to call for more integrated or ‘whole landscape’ approaches. Representing the appearance of alternative future landscapes is an effective way of conveying integrated policy options, reflecting the benefits that visualizations can provide in terms of increasing the accessibility of complex spatial and environmental information to non-expert users. Such activities can also be seen as part of wider initiatives to enhance public participation in planning processes. This chapter seeks to review and illustrate the current state of the art regarding GIS-based 3D visualization of rural environments. To this end, the following section examines developments in the availability of data and software tools for the creation of visualizations. Subsequently, some of the practical issues involved are expanded upon in presentations of two examples of recent work at the University of East Anglia (UEA). The final section discusses several issues associated with the use of these landscape visualization techniques and identifies some challenges for future research.
In: Representing, Modelling and Visualizing the Natural Environment: Innovations in GIS 13, CRC Press, Florida, pp In press