Dynamic 3D visualization of floods: Case of the Netherlands

Abstract

In this paper, we review state of the art 3D visualization technologies for floods and we focus on the Netherlands since it has a long history of dealing with floods and developing information technology solutions to prevent and predict them. We discuss the most recent advances in using 3D city models for modelling floods and discuss future directions. We argue that 3D city models provide a more realistic interpretation and assessment of floods e.g. information about the height of the water level and the number of floors that will be flooded. We present our framework to dynamically visualize floods in 3D using the Cesium 3D webglobe. An open platform using 3D city models for interactive visualization of different flood simulations can serve as a hub to involve all relevant parties such as water experts, policy developers, decision makers, and general public. We created a 3D terrain model with buildings of a study area in the Netherlands in CityJSON format. We implemented a software prototypes for converting 3D city models from CityJSON to Cesium specific glTF format for rendering over Cesium. We propose using CZML (Cesium Language) to represent time dynamic properties, water levels in our case. The developed framework which uses only open data and open-source software can be supportive in real applications such as planning for a city or municipal corporation, or for decision making.