3d Urban Gis from Laser Altimeter and 2d Map Data

Virtual reality applications in the context of urban planning presume the acquisition of 3D urban models. Photo realism can only be achieved, if the geometry of buildings is represented by a detailed and accurate CAD model and if artificial texture or real world imagery is additionally mapped to the faces and roofs of the buildings. In the approach presented in this paper height data provided by airborne laser scanning and existing ground plans of buildings are combined in order to enable an automatic data capture by the integration of these different types of information. Afterwards virtual reality city models are generated by texture processing, i.e. by mapping of terrestrial images. Thus the rapid acquisition of 3D urban GIS is feasible.