This talk will present an overview of UrbanVision, an open source software system for visualizing alternative land use and transportation scenarios at scales ranging from large metropolitan areas to individual neighborhoods. The motivation behind this system to fill the gap between the outputs of existing land use and transportation models and the automatic generation of 3D urban models and visualizations. The project significantly extends the UrbanSim system developed by Prof. Waddell and his collaborators and the research work of the Purdue CGVLAB.

UrbanVision is a server-client system that interactively provides simulation and visualization outputs. The simulation outputs are the focus of the Berkeley team while the automated 3D urban model creation and several visualization outputs are the emphasis of the Purdue team. The visualization outputs include compelling interactive views of 3D urban models created automatically from the simulation outputs. The system supports fly-through and walk-through interfaces to allow non-technical stakeholders to more directly interpret the nature of the land use and the outcomes from the simulation models. In particular, we provide several geometrical processing capabilities for the input GIS style data, procedurally generated building models, an adaptive vegetation model, and a dynamic simulation of plausible vehicle and pedestrian behavior based on the travel-model simulation outputs.

Altogether, the system’s capabilities provide valuable assistance in the difficult task of engaging the public and key local stakeholders in evaluating alternative approaches to attaining more sustainable communities, achieving consensus on the policies and plans to implement. The initial system is deployed to the San Francisco Bay Area CA, spanning over 7 million people and 1.5 million parcels of land. However, we anticipate deployment to other national and international cities in the future.

All the information: http://urbanvision.weebly.com/