Virtual Kismayo, Somalia

www.metavr.com | [email protected] | US 617-739-2667 Part of the workflow to produce the Kismayo virtual terrain: MetaVR errainT Tools for Esri ArcGIS, commercial source imagery, publicly available photograph of the peninsula of the port area, and MetaVR VRSG rendering of 3D terrain of the port peninsula. Photo courtesy of AU/UN IST.

To meet a shifting focus of training and simulation needs by which already controlled large swathes of country, gained control the U.S. military and its allies to the Horn of Africa, MetaVR® of most of the city in 2006, and Kismayo became an economic has built a 3D virtual representation of the southern Somalia hub to the militants. The charcoal trade, a major part of the city’s port city of Kismayo. The terrain is populated with hundreds of economy, grew substantially under Al-Shabab and became the geographically specific culture models built from ground-level insurgent’s most lucrative source of income. The ongoing, illegal photographs taken on the streets of Kismayo. In addition to these charcoal trade has led to significant deforestation of Somalia. geolocated and photographically specific models of buildings and The charcoal is shipped to the Middle East by traders using small other structures, several hundred other buildings were modeled traditional dhow sailing vessels. Kismayo is still actively contested by matching the structural footprints visible in the imagery as by the Al-Shabab and is routinely patrolled by AMISOM forces. geographically typical models with culturally and architecturally accurate details.

The models are combined with 50 cm per-pixel Digital Globe (GeoEye-1) satellite imagery covering 1,017 sq km of the southern Somalia port city and are blended into 15-meter natural view imagery of all of Somalia with SRTM void filled elevation source data. This virtual terrain was built in MetaVR’s round- earth format for visualizing in the company’s Virtual Reality Scene Generator™ (VRSG™) and is available at no charge to customers with active software maintenance. The terrain database is an entirely self-financed venture by MetaVR.

Another comparison of a street-level photograph taken in Kismayo (left) with the corresponding modeled geospecific building rendered on the Comparison of a street-level photograph taken in Kismayo with the corre- terrain in VRSG (above). sponding modeled geospecific building rendered on the terrain in VRSG. See more comparisons to the right and on the last page.

Located in southwest Somalia in the Lower Jubba region, MetaVR chose to build the Kismayo 3D virtual environment be- Kismayo is situated 328 miles southwest of Mogadishu and 143 cause the city contains varied terrain representative of important miles south of Barawe, the stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-linked training environments, from a built-up port to dense urban streets Islamist group Al-Shabab, which was raided by U.S. Special to a sparsely populated outer region that includes a commercial Forces in October 2013. With a population of approximately airport. Because of the highly detailed geospecific nature of the 200,000 people, Kismayo is the third largest city of Somalia. The virtual Kismayo terrain, this database can be used for a variety African Union-United Nations Information Support Team, serving of training purposes: unmanned aerial system (UAS) operators with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) helped practicing target identification, joint teminal attack controllers capture the strategically and economically important port city of (JTACs) coordinating ground strikes, ground units participating in Kismayo from Al-Shabab in early October 2012. Al-Shabab, exercises of urban insurgent clashes, helicopter pilots practicing landing drills, amphibious operations, and littoral security mis- sions. Actual geolocated structures can be used as landmarks Image on the cover: Real-time VRSG scene overlooking a neighbor- rather than the typical use of maps. hood of MetaVR’s virtual terrain of Kismayo, Somalia. Overview of the urban density of Kismayo, and some unique architectural styles of the geospecific building models.

The terrain was built with MetaVR Terrain Tools for Esri® Several other sea vessels, ranging from skiffs, dhows, and fishing ArcGIS®. Culture models were built with Luxology Modo and vessels, to major transport ships are placed along the port; many Autodesk 3ds Max modeling tools. For placing persistent cultural more sea vessels are in the 3D model libraries delivered with the features on the terrain such as geotypical buildings, street ele- database Several sea vessels, ranging from skiffs, dhows, and ments, vegetation, and rubble, VRSG Scenario Editor was used fishing vessels, to major transport ships are placed along the as part of the terrain workflow. Users can expand the Kismayo port; many more new sea vessels are in the 3D model libraries terrain with additional 3D terrain built from imagery and elevation delivered with the database. The dhows are modeled with com- data of other areas of Somalia or elsewhere in Africa, and rapidly mercial goods or charcoal for transport. Other commercial vehicle build up culture with Scenario Editor’s drag-and-drop workflow, models built to use with this database include charcoal transpor- culture models delivered with the Kismayo terrain. tation trucks which are specific to Kismayo and created using ground-level photographs, and donkey carts and minivan cabs. The trucks are modeled with and without charcoal bags or sacks of World Food Program (WFP) relief food.

Scenes of the commercial district.

Kismayo terrain in Scenario Editor, in a scene featuring the travel path of Key areas of the virtual city such as the commercial district with charcoal transportation trucks. the green arch and monument include not only geospecific buildings, but photospecific signs and trees of species indigenous to A set of Somali civilian, AMISON soldier, and Al Shabaab char- the region (acacia, cassia and palm). Photographs were used as acter models are included with the database. The Al Shabaab the basis for unique building textures such that individual build- characters have authentic scarf patterns on their uniforms that ings are easily identifiable. Located within the urban setting are match actual photographs of the militants from Internet sources. dense geospecific displacement camps, which include realistic textures of various material types common to the area. Such ma- VRSG Scenario Editor was used to create multiple scenarios terials are used on the makeshift huts and shelters that include that are delivered with the terrain. One such scenario features open doorways and interiors. Every structure on the virtual port US Special Forces with UAVs and AMISOM troops who identify has modeled interiors, including stairways. Some 2,000 street- Al Shabaab militants coercing local civilians to engage in the level photographs of Kismayo with GPS coordinates are avail- illegal charcoal trade. The Al Shabaab forces are tracked to a able to MetaVR customers as additional source information. hut area on the outskirts of town that is reinforced with additional MetaVR is building models of all the major types of U.S. military insurgents and technical vehicles. In Scenario Editor a signifi- ships, in particular ships and ground vehicles to support amphibi- cant amount of vehicular and human activity was added to the ous operations. The ships contain a level of detail that supports scenario to create realistic patterns of life. first-person level realism on the ship exterior. Real-time VRSG scenes of the port area with commercial and U.S. Naval vessels and Somali dhows.

The following set of images compares the ground-level photographs taken on the streets of Kismayo with the corresponding modeled building or other structure rendered on the terrain in VRSG.

MetaVR’s virtual terrain of Kismayo, Somalia, is available free of charge in MetaVR’s round-earth Metadesic terrain format to MetaVR customers who are on active software maintenance and are US Government or NATO agencies or contractors (for official use only). The terrain requires a license of VRSG version 6.0 or higher.

For more information, visit www.metavr.com or contact [email protected].

MetaVR and the MetaVR logo are registered trademarks, and Virtual Reality Scene Generator, VRSG, Metadesic, and the phrase “geospecific simulation with game quality graphics” are trademarks of MetaVR, Inc. Metadesic is protected by US Patent 7,425,952. Esri and ArcGIS are registered trademarks of Esri. All other brand or product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2019 MetaVR, Inc.