Applications of 3D City Models: State of the Art Review

TLDR

3D city models have evolved from primarily visualization tools to being increasingly employed across diverse domains beyond visualization. The paper aims to systematically document the state of the art in 3D city model utilization and to develop a hierarchical terminology for categorizing their diverse uses. This is achieved through a comprehensive literature review, the creation of a hierarchical taxonomy of spatial operations, use cases, and applications, and the compilation of a detailed list of identified use cases and their applications. The study identifies at least 29 use cases spanning more than 100 applications, providing a reference inventory useful for researchers and industry stakeholders.

Abstract

In the last decades, 3D city models appear to have been predominantly used for visualisation; however, today they are being increasingly employed in a number of domains and for a large range of tasks beyond visualisation. In this paper, we seek to understand and document the state of the art regarding the utilisation of 3D city models across multiple domains based on a comprehensive literature study including hundreds of research papers, technical reports and online resources. A challenge in a study such as ours is that the ways in which 3D city models are used cannot be readily listed due to fuzziness, terminological ambiguity, unclear added-value of 3D geoinformation in some instances, and absence of technical information. To address this challenge, we delineate a hierarchical terminology (spatial operations, use cases, applications), and develop a theoretical reasoning to segment and categorise the diverse uses of 3D city models. Following this framework, we provide a list of identified use cases of 3D city models (with a description of each), and their applications. Our study demonstrates that 3D city models are employed in at least 29 use cases that are a part of more than 100 applications. The classified inventory could be useful for scientists as well as stakeholders in the geospatial industry, such as companies and national mapping agencies, as it may serve as a reference document to better position their operations, design product portfolios, and to better understand the market.