Application of Lidar Data and 3D-City Models in Visual Impact Simulations of Tall Buildings

Abstract. The paper examines possibilities and limitations of application of Lidar data and digital 3D-city models to provide specialist urban analyses of tall buildings. The location and height of tall buildings is a subject of discussions, conflicts and controversies in many cities. The most important aspect is the visual influence of tall buildings to the city landscape, significant panoramas and other strategic city views. It is an actual issue in contemporary town planning worldwide. Over 50% of high-rise buildings on Earth were built in last 15 years. Tall buildings may be a threat especially for historically developed cities – typical for Europe. Contemporary Earth observation, more and more available Lidar scanning and 3D city models are a new tool for more accurate urban analysis of the tall buildings impact. The article presents appropriate simulation techniques, general assumption of geometric and computational algorithms – available methodologies and individual methods develop by author. The goal is to develop the geometric computation methods for GIS representation of the visual impact of a selected tall building to the structure of large city. In reference to this, the article introduce a Visual Impact Size method (VIS). Presented analyses were developed by application of airborne Lidar / DSM model and more processed models (like CityGML), containing the geometry and it’s semantics. Included simulations were carried out on an example of the agglomeration of Berlin.