UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:___________________ I, _________________________________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in: It is entitled: This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Geographical Knowledge Management System Application in Virtual Earth Environment Developing a managed, comprehensive and rich geographical information model in 3D Virtual world A thesis submitted to University of Cincinnati In fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of Geography, Mc-Micken Arts & Science College 2008 By Manoj Dhanotiya Committee: Dr. Lin Liu (Advisor) Dr. Robert Frohn Dr. Raj Bhatnagar June 12 th 2008 Abstract Geography as a discipline had been revolutionized with the advent of modern technologies and especially in the field of GIS. We aim to use high end modern technologies and programming language to create an interoperable Geographical Information Management Model in a Virtual Earth Environment where we can record history in an innovative and exploratory way. The first year graduate students at the Department of Geography at the University of Cincinnati have been taking a walking tour to Downtown Cincinnati from the campus since the 1980s. These tours have witnessed the continuing change of the city along the route, and these changes have only been documented in the essays written by students. This research aims to develop an online application in virtual environment that can show the current, historical, and future observations along the route. With the rapid development of online tools such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth, it is now possible to create a geo-referenced archive of urban changes in a virtual geographic environment. In this study, Microsoft Virtual Earth SDK (Software Development Kit) and KML (Key Hole Markup Language) are used to develop a GIS application which will facilitate the development of content overlays featuring a detailed virtual tour of Cincinnati Down-Town Area plus any other area in whole world subject to the availability of satellite imagery. Satellite Imagery from Navteq is used to show the historical monuments and places of geographic importance. Geo-tagged videos of professors and student discussions on the “place-marked” locations are added in the content overlay for real time experience. A virtual geographic environment like this has the potential of being an effective teaching tool and perhaps attracting more high school students to the discipline of geography. i ii Acknowledgements I am grateful to my academic advisor, Dr. Lin Liu .His guidance, instruction, and encouragement during the course of my research was enormous and I am deeply thankful to him. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Robert Frohn and Dr. Raj Bhatnagar for serving on my committee and reviewing this thesis. Thanks to my fellow students in the Department of Geography and Department of Computer Science for making this research such excellent experiences by contributing their thoughts for improving my research work. iii INDEX 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2. Background & Literature Review - ............................................................................... 6 3. Motivation .................................................................................................................. 18 3.1 Innovations in Geographical History .................................................................... 18 4. Research Goal .......................................................................................................... 20 5. Methodology .............................................................................................................. 21 5.1 System Components & Architecture .................................................................... 21 5.1.1 GML - Geographical Markup Language ........................................................ 21 5.1.2 KML – Key Hole Markup Language .............................................................. 24 5.1.3 SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol ....................................................... 24 5.2 AJAX Model for Real Time Virtual Earth Browsing .............................................. 27 5.3 Application Components ...................................................................................... 31 5.3.1 Component 1 - Mapping ................................................................................ 33 5.3.2 Component 2 ................................................................................................. 37 5.3.3 Ajax Implementation for Real Time User Experience .................................... 40 5.3.4 Final Integrated Model Application ................................................................ 42 6. Results - Small Demo Virtual Tour ............................................................................ 60 7. Conclusion and Future Research .............................................................................. 75 8. References ................................................................................................................ 78 iv List of Figures: Figure 1: Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands ................ 4 Figure 2: Map making Process through GML ( Zhong-Ren Peng (2004) ) .................... 23 Figure 3: SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol (Source Wikipedia) ......................... 25 Figure 4: ASP.Net 2.0 Client Server Architecture .......................................................... 26 Figure 5: Ajax Model ..................................................................................................... 29 Figure 6: Component 1 .................................................................................................. 33 Figure 7: Component 2 .................................................................................................. 37 Figure 8: Data flow Diagram .......................................................................................... 38 Figure 9: Final Integrated Model Application ................................................................. 42 Figure 10: Web Flow - User Interface............................................................................ 44 Figure 11: Student Login ............................................................................................... 45 Figure 12: Main Interface .............................................................................................. 47 Figure 13: Time Line Recorder ...................................................................................... 49 Figure 14: Virtual Classroom ......................................................................................... 51 Figure 15: Tour Organizer ............................................................................................. 53 Figure 16: Admin Section .............................................................................................. 55 Figure 17: Admin Interface ............................................................................................ 56 Figure 18: Tour Categories ........................................................................................... 57 Figure 19: Adding Places .............................................................................................. 58 Figure 20: Application Security Model ........................................................................... 59 Figure 21: UC- Aerial View ............................................................................................ 60 Figure 22: Bird’s Eye View ............................................................................................ 61 v Figure 23: Museum ....................................................................................................... 62 Figure 24: Newport Levee ............................................................................................. 63 Figure 25: Carew Tower ................................................................................................ 64 Figure 26: Carew Tower with Geo-referenced Picture .................................................. 65 Figure 27: Carew Tower ................................................................................................ 65 Figure 28: Carew Tower ................................................................................................ 66 Figure 29: Ohio River .................................................................................................... 67 Figure 30: Zoomed In .................................................................................................... 68 Figure 31: Cincinnati Zoo .............................................................................................. 69 Figure 32: Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden ........................................................... 70 Figure 33: Eden Park .................................................................................................... 71 Figure 34: Downtown .................................................................................................... 72 Figure 35: Big Mac .......................................................................................................