Smooth, Interactive Rendering Techniques on Large-Scale, Geospatial Data in Flood Visualizations

Smooth, Interactive Rendering Techniques on Large-Scale, Geospatial Data in Flood Visualizations

Kehl, C.
Tutenel, T.
Eisemann, E.

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Intelligent Systems

2013-11-27

Visualising large-scale geospatial data is a demanding challenge that finds applications in many fields, including climatology and hydrology. Due to the enormous data size, it is currently not possible to render full datasets interactively without significantly compromising quality (especially not when information changes over time). In this paper, we present new approaches to render and interact with detail-varying Light Detection and Range (LiDAR) point sets. Furthermore, our approach allows the attachment of large-scale geospatial meta information and the modification of point attributes on the fly. The core of our algorithm is a dynamic GPU-based hierarchical tree data structure that is used in conjunction with an out-of-core, Levelof-Detail (LoD)-Point-based Rendering (PBR) algorithm to modify data on the fly. This combination makes it possible to augment the original data with dynamic context information that can be used to highlight features (e.g.,routes, marked areas) or to reshape the entire data set in real-time. We showcase the usefulness of our algorithm in the context of disaster management and illustrate how decision makers can discuss a flood scenario covering a large area (spanning 300 km2) and discuss hazards, as well as related protection measures, interactively. One of our presented reference point sets includes parts of the AHN2 data set (14 TB of LiDAR data in total). Previous rendering algorithms relied on a long offline preprocessing (several hours) to ensure a quick data display. This step made any changes to the data impossible. With our new approach, we can modify point sets without requiring a new preprocessing run.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ae8f0a53-7db3-4dcb-b2b3-261680decdb1

978-90-73461-84-0

ICT OPEN 2013, Eindhoven (The Netherlands) 27-28 Nov., 2013

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c)2013 The Authors