3D CITY MODELLING OF ISTANBUL BASED ON LIDAR DATA AND PANORAMIC IMAGES – ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract. This paper describes the generation of 3D city modelling of LoD2 and LoD3 buildings based on 3D point clouds data and other auxiliary data for Istanbul city, Turkey. The project is being undertaken by Istanbul Greater Municipality (IBB) since October 2012. The aim is to provide 3D information to the relevant city planning departments within IBB. The development of the 3D city model utilized several data acquisition techniques, software and computing tools as part of the methodology. The tools include from Riegl, TerraSolid, TerraScan, FME Workbench, MicroStation, and other visualization tools. The generated 3D city models illustrate how the high-resolution point clouds and 3D modelling play major role in such development. This paper also highlights several issues and challenges of the development, i.e. from data acquisition, processing of point clouds and the 3D modelling of buildings.