STATBOX Concept for Simulation of Urban Phenomena

An urban environment is a dynamic system which is constantly changing in terms of space and time. There are two dimensions in any urban environment – the physical dimension and the functional dimension. All of the structures of an urban environment interact and people are the intermediaries in this process. The spatial structure of cities has been studied from various perspectives by architects, urban planners, environmental scientists, economists, geographers etc. Constant monitoring that is based on remote sensing, spatial statistics, simulation etc., is needed to make on going note of transformation in the various types of land use that exist, movement of people and business environment. Many authors stressed that using the GIS technology, the spatial features of geographic data can be introduced in the simulation and GIS, spatial analysis plays an important role in the development of geosimulation models. The integration of the virtual reality technology with a dynamic data model will gives a realistic representation and visualization of the real world. Such complex accessibility for the user with an excellent interaction and manipulation capabilities of the virtual environment will be used in different kind of projects connected with simulating urban phenomena or pedestrian/crowd movements. The presented system consists of the STATBOX units, comprising of video data storage. Data collected by STATBOX units is sent to the Main server, where the video data is processed to generate classified information. Based on the collected statistical data, as well as information on the location of the STATBOX units and GIS models of territory, the geosimulation model is automatically prepared. The model is adequate to the real world no deep knowledge on the simulation techniques is needed to use the proposed system. A prototype of Riga central park performance model is used as an example of STATBOX data collection and simulation process. GIS system with integrated ortofoto map, digital route map, digital plan of landuse, are used as the basis for the model development. The result is a geosimulation model adequate to the pedestrian movement and ready for further experiments. The created system can be used by different users, like businessmen/ investors, researchers, state and municipal institutions. However, the main target group is the SMEs, as they are more flexible and ready to take decision to change location than large companies. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the programme committee of the 2013 International Conference on Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education.