Development of a 3D Webgis System for Retrieving and Visualizing Citygml
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ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume IV-2/W1, 2016 11th 3D Geoinfo Conference, 20–21 October 2016, Athens, Greece DEVELOPMENT OF A 3D WEBGIS SYSTEM FOR RETRIEVING AND VISUALIZING CITYGML DATA BASED ON THEIR GEOMETRIC AND SEMANTIC CHARACTERISTICS BY USING FREE AND OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGY I. Pispidikis *, E. Dimopoulou School of Rural and Surveying Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechneiou str, 15780 Zografou, Greece ([email protected]; [email protected]) KEY WORDS: 3D WebGIS, CityGML, 3DcityDB, PostGIS, GeoServer, PHP, JQuery, AJAX, JavaScript, HTML5, WebGL, Ol3- Cesium ABSTRACT: CityGML is considered as an optimal standard for representing 3D city models. However, international experience has shown that visualization of the latter is quite difficult to be implemented on the web, due to the large size of data and the complexity of CityGML. As a result, in the context of this paper, a 3D WebGIS application is developed in order to successfully retrieve and visualize CityGML data in accordance with their respective geometric and semantic characteristics. Furthermore, the available web technologies and the architecture of WebGIS systems are investigated, as provided by international experience, in order to be utilized in the most appropriate way for the purposes of this paper. Specifically, a PostgreSQL/ PostGIS Database is used, in compliance with the 3DCityDB schema. At Server tier, Apache HTTP Server and GeoServer are utilized, while a Server Side programming language PHP is used. At Client tier, which implemented the interface of the application, the following technologies were used: JQuery, AJAX, JavaScript, HTML5, WebGL and Ol3-Cesium. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the application’s primary objectives are a user-friendly interface and a fully open source development. 1. INTRODUCTION PostGIS Database is used, in compliance with the 3DcityDB schema, which supports multiscale and rich semantic structure of CityGML (Kolbe, et al., 2013). Next, a connection between The rapid development of computer technology and the web have GeoServer and PostGIS Database was established so as the radically changed the data visualization techniques, hence portrayal of data is achieved through Open Geospatial leading to an increasing shift of improved 3D web visualization. Consortium (OGC) Web services, such as Web Map Service Certainly, the advantages of 3D visualization did not leave the (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS). Finally, a web based field of GIS unaffected, namely the implementation of 3D client was developed, in order to support 2D/3D visualization and applications on 3D city models. It should be noted that through data management by utilizing open source technologies. them, the spatial properties of urban objects can be understood in a more meaningful manner, facilitating the building of thinking, This paper is structured as follows. Section 2 briefly describes understanding and knowledge about the natural and human the available Web technologies. In section 3 related research environment in geographic measurement scales (MacEachren & projects are presented. Section 4 describes the methodology used Kraak, 2001). Worth noting the particular interest of the world in both Client and Server tier for the application to be community to the semantic and geometric modeling of 3D cities, implemented. Section 5 presents the abilities of WebGIS which led to the adoption of an international standard, CityGML application. Finally, Section 6 concludes the whole paper and (Groger, Kolbe, Nagel, & Hafele, 2012). Although it is discusses suggestions for future research work. considered as the most appropriate model for the representation of 3D city models, it is not efficient to present or visualize 3D city models directly on the web (Prandi, et al., 2015; Kanishk et 2. TECHNOLOGIES al., 2015). Nevertheless, taking into account the benefits that the development of 3D WebGIS applications can generate by utilizing this standard, has led to the realization of several 2.1 3D Web Technologies research investigations. In previous years, the visualization of 3D graphics on the web The objective of this paper is the development of a 3D WebGIS was implemented through Application Programming Interfaces application in order to successfully retrieve and visualize (API), which were supported only by specific web browsers or CityGML data in accordance with their respective geometric and by using the appropriate plug-ins. The overcoming of the said semantic characteristics in all Level of Details (LoDs). limitation brought about the development of WebGL and Hyper Text Markup Language 5 (HTML5) technologies. In particular, To this purpose, a suitable class utilizing the Server-Side the implementation of this approach enables 3D visualization in programming language PHP was initially developed. By this most popular web browsers, without the need of additional plug- class the data received from PostGIS is achieved, based on both ins to be installed (Iglesias, 2012). semantic characteristics and LoD of CityGML data. Hence, a * Corresponding author This contribution has been peer-reviewed. The double-blind peer-review was conducted on the basis of the full paper. doi:10.5194/isprs-annals-IV-2-W1-47-2016 47 ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume IV-2/W1, 2016 11th 3D Geoinfo Conference, 20–21 October 2016, Athens, Greece HTML5 is the fifth version of the HTML descriptive language. following 3D portrayal services: Web 3D Service (W3DS) Moreover, new elements were added such as semantic, graphic (Quadt & Kolbe 2005; Schilling & Kolbe 2010) and Web View and multimedia. In addition, the current version includes new Service (WVS) (Benjarmin, 2010). API such as HTML Geolocation, HTML Drag and Drop, HTML Local Storage, HTML Application Cache, HTML Web Workers and HTML SSE (W3C HTML Working Group, 2014). More 3. RELATED RESEARCH WORK specifically, Canvas and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) are utilized for visualization propose, providing developers with tools for image and vector processing. Furthermore, via HTML Considering the benefits that can be generated by the use of Geolocation the real time spatial searches are enabled utilizing CityGML standard, there have been several research projects on the user’s location. Additionally, through APIS HTML Web the visualization of 3D city models. Workers and HTML SET the performance of web applications is improved, reducing the waiting time (Taraldsvik, 2011). Mao (2011) developed a framework for the visualization of 3D city models. As data source the CityGML was used, which turned WebGL is a Canvas extension of HTML5 and is used to develop into an Extensible 3D (X3D) scene and finally it was visualized web applications that require 3D visualization. Noted that it is on the web utilizing the pronounced X-Freedom (X3DOM). API with regard to the 3D graphics, which was written in a low- Specifically, CityGML data were analyzed and converted to Java level language and is based on the OpenGL ES 2.0 (Martin, Classes, representing various city objects such as buildings, 2011). The advantages of the use of WebGL is that it provides streets, etc. The said conversion was implemented by the use of accelerated 3D functionality on the web, utilizing the Client Citygml4j API. Then, the respective scenes were generated in graphics card, leading to a significant performance improvement accordance with geometric or semantic information. (Taraldsvik, 2011). Extending to the above architecture is the framework developed HTML5 and WebGL technologies were widely used by by Prieto et al., (2012). This research incorporates the usage of researchers in order to solve complex problems. Regarding the 3D web services such as W3DS instead of Java classes. Hence, a implementation of 3D WebGIS systems with worldwide range, visualization of CityGML file was achieved without plugins. The many virtual globes were developed, based on the above output format was X3D and the integration into the web was technologies such as Cesium, WebGL and Open Web Globe. achieved through X3DOM. These virtual globes are used as a tool for 3D visualization and interaction with global geospatial data, providing access to In 2012, several experiments were presented by 3D Portrayal georeferenced satellite imagery (Kanishk, 2014). Additionally, Interoperability Experiment (3DPIE). These experiments were they allow users to interact and retrieve data worldwide in real carried out utilizing the 3D portrayal services W3DS and WVS, time (Elvidge & Tuttle, 2008). which are on the way to be standardized (Schilling, Hagedorn, & Coors , 2012) 2.2 Geospatial Web Services In the context of the above experiments, the LSIS (Laboratoire des sciences de l’ information et des systemes) laboratory In 1993, the Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center focused on the representation of CityGML buildings and carried (PARC) developed a Web-Based map viewer, making the origin out three tests. In the first test, the entire CityGML file was of WebGIS (Fu & Sun, 2010). However, the technologies in fetched from a WFS server onHTML thick client based on C++. which the WebGIS were implemented, have limitations both in In the second test, the CityGML file was first processed on a their internal architecture as well as their integration with other server using Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) parser. information systems. As a result, the WebGIS were