An object-oriented approach for integrating 3D visualization systems and GIS

Visualization has become an integral part in many applications of GIS. Due to the rapid development of computer graphics, visualization and animation techniques, general-purpose GIS can no longer satisfy the multitude of visualization demands. Therefore, GIS have to utilize independent visualization toolkits. This article examines how visualization systems can be used with and integrated into GIS. We analyze several key characteristics visualization toolkits should satisfy in order to be used efficiently by GIS. We show how GIS can provide visualization and animation features for geo objects by embedding the visualization system using object-oriented techniques. The concepts are described along with a new visualization and animation toolkit which provides extensible object-oriented technology for the development of visualization components for 2D, 3D and time-varying data. The design of this visualization toolkit concentrates on a seamless integration of application-specific gee-data into visualization components, an open interface for different rendering techniques and an advanced management of data dynamics. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.