During the last decade developments in 3D Geoinformation have made substantial progress. We are about to have a more complete spatial model and understanding of our planet in different scales. Hence, various communities and cities offer 3D landscape and city models as valuable source and instrument for sustainable management of rural and urban resources. Also municipal utilities, real estate companies etc. benefit from recent developments related to 3D applications. To meet the challenges due to the newest changes academics and practitioners met at the 5th International Workshop on 3D Geoinformation in order to present recent developments and to discuss future trends. This book comprises a selection of evaluated, high quality papers that were presented at this workshop in November 2010. The topics focus explicitly on the last achievements (methods, algorithms, models, systems) with respect to 3D geo-information requirements. The book is aimed at decision makers and experts as well at students interested in the 3D component of geographical information science including GI engineers, computer scientists, photogrammetrists, land surveyors, urban planners, and mapping specialists.

The book presents a collection of accepted papers from the 3DGeoinfo 2015 international conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from October 28 – 30, 2015. All papers underwent double-blind review by experts from around the globe. The conference brought together pioneering international researchers and practitioners to facilitate the dialogue on emerging topics in the field of 3D geo-information. The focus areas include: - Data Collection and Modeling: advanced approaches for 3D data collection, reconstruction and methods for representation- Data Management: topological, geometrical and network models for maintenance of 3D geoinformation- Data Analysis and Visualization: frameworks for representing 3D spatial relationships, 3D spatial analysis and algorithms for navigation, interpolation, advanced VR, AR and MR visualisation, as well as 3D visualization on mobile devices- 3D Applications: city models, Cadastre, LBS, etc.

The book covers the international state-of-the-art research in the field of 3D geo-information modeling. It focuses on comparing several types of 3D models. Due to the rapid developments in sensor techniques more and more 3D data becomes available. Effective algorithms for (semi) automatic object reconstruction are required. 3D analysis and 3D simulation techniques explore and extend the possibilities in spatial applications.

3D GeoInfo aims to bring together international state-of-the-art research and facilitate the dialogue on emerging topics in the field of 3D geo-information. The conference offers an interdisciplinary forum in the fields of 3D data collection and modeling; reconstruction and methods for 3D representation; data management for maintenance of 3D geo-information or 3D data analysis and visualization. The book covers the best papers from 3D GeoInfo held in Istanbul in November 2013.

Realistically representing our three-dimensional world has been the subject of many (philosophical) discussions since ancient times. While the recognition of the globular shape of the Earth goes back to Pythagoras’ statements of the sixth century B. C. , the two-dimensional, circular depiction of the Earth’s surface has remained prevailing and also dominated the art of painting until the late Middle Ages. Given the immature technological means, objects on the Earth’s surface were often represented in academic and technical disciplines by two-dimensional cross-sections oriented along combinations of three mutually perpendicular directions. As soon as computer science evolved, scientists have steadily been improving the three-dimensional representation of the Earth and developed techniques to analyze the many natural processes and phenomena taking part on its surface. Both computer aided design (CAD) and geographical information systems (GIS) have been developed in parallel during the last three decades. While the former concentrates more on the detailed design of geometric models of object shapes, the latter emphasizes the topological relationships between geographical objects and analysis of spatial patterns. Nonetheless, this distinction has become increasingly blurred and both approaches have been integrated into commercial software packages. In recent years, an active line of inquiry has emerged along the junctures of CAD and GIS, viz. 3D geoinformation science. Studies along this line have recently made significant inroads in terms of 3D modeling and data acquisition.

The integration of the 3rd dimension in the production of spatial representation is largely recognized as a valuable approach to comprehend our reality, that is 3D. During the last decade developments in 3D Geoinformation (GI) system have made substantial progress. We are about to have a more complete spatial model and understanding of our planet in different scales. Hence, various communities and cities offer 3D landscape and 3D city models as valuable source and instrument for sustainable management of rural and urban resources. Also municipal utilities, real estate companies benefit from recent developments related to 3D applications. In order to present recent developments and to discuss future trends, academics and practitioners met at the 7th International Workshop on 3D Geoinformation. This book comprises a selection of evaluated, high quality papers that were presented at this workshop in May 2012. The topics focus explicitly on the last achievements (methods, algorithms, models, systems) with respect to 3D GeoInformation requirements. The book is aimed at decision makers and experts as well at students interested in the 3D component of geographical information science including GI engineers, computer scientists, photogrammetrists, land surveyors, urban planners, and mapping specialists.

In recent years 3D geo-information has become an important research area due to the increased complexity of tasks in many geo-scientific applications, such as sustainable urban planning and development, civil engineering, risk and disaster management and environmental monitoring. Moreover, a paradigm of cross-application merging and integrating of 3D data is observed. The problems and challenges facing today’s 3D software, generally application-oriented, focus almost exclusively on 3D data transportability issues – the ability to use data originally developed in one modelling/visualisation system in other and vice versa. Tools for elaborated 3D analysis, simulation and prediction are either missing or, when available, dedicated to specific tasks. In order to respond to this increased demand, a new type of system has to be developed. A fully developed 3D geo-information system should be able to manage 3D geometry and topology, to integrate 3D geometry and thematic information, to analyze both spatial and topological relationships, and to present the data in a suitable form. In addition to the simple geometry types like point line and polygon, a large variety of parametric representations, freeform curves and surfaces or sweep shapes have to be supported. Approaches for seamless conversion between 3D raster and 3D vector representations should be available, they should allow analysis of a representation most suitable for a specific application.

Nowadays 3D Geoinformation is needed for many planning and analysis tasks. For example, 3D city and infrastructure models are paving the way for complex environmental and noise analyzes. 3D geological sub-surface models are needed for reservoir exploration in the oil-, gas-, and geothermal industry. Thus 3D Geoinformation brings together researchers and practitioners from different fields such as the geo-sciences, civil engineering, 3D city modeling, 3D geological and geophysical modeling, and, last but not least, computer science. The diverse challenges of 3D Geoinformation Science concern new approaches and the development of standards for above- and under-ground 3D modeling, efficient 3D data management, visualization and analysis. Finally, the integration of different 3D approaches and data models is seen as one of the most important challenges to be solved.

Since its inception in Savannah, Georgia (USA) in 2000, the highly successful GIScience conferenceseries (www.giscience.org)has regularlyattractedover250 researchers from all over the world whose common interest lies in advancing the research frontiers of fundamental aspects of the production, dissemination, and use of geographic information. The conference is bi-annual and brings together leading researchers from all cognate disciplines re?ecting the interdisciplinary breadth of GIScience, including (but not limited to) geography, cognitive s- ence, computer science, engineering, information science, mathematics, philo- phy, psychology, social science, and (geo)statistics. Following the, literally breathtaking,conference in Park City, Utah (USA) at 2103m, the sixth GIScience 2010 conference returned to Europe for the second time. The 2010 conference was held in Zurich, Switzerland, a place nominated repeatedly as the world’s most livable (if not cheapest!) city. Zurich is also a GIScience landmark, as in 1990 one of the founders of the GIScience conference series, Dr. Michael Goodchild, delivered a memorable talk setting out how f- damental research on GISystems could turn into GIScience at the very same conference location during the Spatial Data Handling Symposium.

Geographic Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a collection of knowledge on the latest advancements and research of geographic information systems. This book aims to be useful for academics and practitioners involved in geographical data.