Development of a 3D virtual environment for improving public participation: Case study - The Yuansantze Flood Diversion Works Project

The hydraulic design of the Yuansantze Flood Diversion Works (YFDW) project was considerably important for flood mitigation in Taiwan, and positive outcomes of the public hearings played a major role in the success of the project. In the beginning of the project, communication between decision makers, engineers and the public was tenuous due to excess engineering details and a lack of integrated presentations during the public hearings. An ideal solution was then proposed and developed whereby a 3D virtual environment was used to present. In this paper, experimental data obtained from the physical model of the YFDW under design flood conditions was used to validate a 3D flow numerical model. The verified 3D flow numerical model was applied to simulate water surface variation and flow velocity field. The simulated outcomes were used as input data to build an interactive 3D virtual environment, which required the integration of 3D modelling, virtual reality, and human computer interaction techniques. The 3D virtual environment possessed engineering accuracy and overcame challenges in flood flow visualization. An implementation in some public hearings resulted in increased interactivity between stakeholders and improved communication efficiency from public participation. Finally, the YFDW project was concluded smoothly, largely thanks to strong public support. Crown Copyright 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Challenges in current public participation A large-scale project, such as a flood mitigation project, usually influences sizeable areas of land and may significantly impact rivers, landscapes, and the normal lifestyle of the people living in these areas and surrounds. Ideally, public involvement facilitates the understanding and incorporation of community values into the plans and designs for new infrastructure. Therefore, communication with the various stakeholders, such as inhabitants, landowners and users of the project area, is becoming an important concern for ensuring the success of large-scale projects. Public participation in large-scale projects grew in the United States during the 1960s [1], after which public participation became popular in many countries. Since the late 1980s, as democratization has gradually transformed Taiwan’s political system, Taiwan’s government has encouraged more public participation [2] and thus hearings have become more prominent [3]. In recent years, public hearings 010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All r : +886 22739 0534. [email protected] (W.-Y. [email protected] (S.-C. Kang), have been used by many departments of Taiwan’s government, especially for planning and implementation of large-scale public construction projects. For successful implementation of such projects, the Government must overcome many challenges that may inconvenience stakeholders. In Taiwan, there are currently three major challenges for public hearings: (1) Lack of engagement: The plan of the project is usually presented using two-dimensional (2D) drawings. This form of presentation makes it very difficult to imagine being in the real environment. There is no way for participants to navigate freely inside the environment and view the scenes from their preferred perspectives. (2) Lack of interactivity: In a public hearing, most of the information is presented through paper-based documents; this does not necessarily require active participation by the audience. Participants may face many difficulties in understanding the plan and finding out the answers they really want due to excess engineering details and lack of integrated presentations. This usually leads to many misunderstandings between the concerned groups, such as presenters, participants, authorities and councils.