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December 2001
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Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have, over the last three decades, revolutionised the way that spatial data is generated stored, analysed and disseminated. This information helps us to manage what we know, by making it easy to organise and store, access and retrieve, manipulate and synthesize and apply to the solution of problems (Longley et al 2001). However, this ‘technology’ is of little use if it is only available to those with the technical expertise or the relevant software. Access to GIS needs to be easy and widespread and this is becoming increasingly possible through Internet based technologies. This way, GIS is no longer only reserved for the technical experts or those with the relevant software. While the Internet does not change the fundamental nature of GIS (Harder, 1998), it does open the technology to an infinitely wider audience.
Fig. 1. The Virtual tour with the 3-dimensional model in the right hand side of the frame
To reach a wider audience a GIS needs to be integrated with other important ways of portraying information. ‘Out of the box’ do not always make it easy to develop a system that needs to be integrated with other means of portraying textural and visual communication over the web. With this in mind a system has been developed at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London to communicate the redevelopment of some 2500 housing units in Woodberry Down, London to its local residents. The estate archived fame by appearing in the film Shindlers List, originally designed as part of Herbert Morrisons’ vision for a better London. As part of a regeneration scheme the estate is being redeveloped, and setting it apart from other similar schemes, the local residents are able to visualise, comment and vote on the plans digitally over the web. There have been three sections to the development of the online visualisation. Firstly, the production of a user-friendly interface to communicate basic textual and visual communication in a standard HTML page. This was put into place over a six-week period, working with the local residents on the design and content. Secondly, was the method to portray the geographical information about the estate. At the beginning of the project ESRI’s ArcIMS was used to provide local information in a number of querieable layers. However, local residents found that even simplified version of this Internet GIS interface was too complex to use and they requested a simpler, more intuitive interface with minimal ‘tool buttons’. We looked at developing ‘metastream’ technology and using a plug-in developed by a company called Viewpoint.
The mapping section of the site now operates utilising XML linked to ‘zoomview’ developed by Viewpoint, a web based visualisation company operating out of New York. Zoomview has allowed the site to integrate a full resolution 25cm aerial photograph of the region into a system which works smoothly on a 56k modem. This has been supplemented with a range of vector layers providing increasing levels of information as the user zooms into the estate. The GIS is additionally linked with ‘step inside’ panoramas and 3D models which allow ‘what if’ scenarios of the estate to be visualised by the local residents. The full 3D section of the site launches in March 2002, but currently there is a sneak preview on-line showing how web based GIS can be moved to the third-dimension (Figure 1 and 2).
 
Fig. 2. A. Shows a section of the site as it currently is. B. Illustrates option A with the blocks of flats removed and the new buildings in place
Throughout the project the focus has been on photorealism, moving away from the traditional Computer Aided Design model of rendered colours and architectural representation. All the models have been developed using a simple-wire frame structure photo textured and optimised using the same algorithms that was used in the zoomview mapping. The use of XML has allowed the GIS and models to be closely integrated, it is planned to achieve dynamic multi-way linkages between the zoomable GIS and the 3D visualisation. Essentially this is aimed at moving GIS into the photorealistic third dimension over the web before even the main desktop packages are able to cope with such functionality. A final integration is made with a discussion forum, via an online bulletin board. The board allows users to vote and express their views on the developments, which are visualized through the GIS. It is a first step towards e-democracy in the planning and regeneration system, a technique, which has been developed over the last 5 years under the guise of ‘Online Planning’ at CASA. Central to the development of the site have been the innovative nature of the local council and the support of the Architecture Foundation in the United Kingdom as well as a local Building Exploratory. It is designed as a stepping stone for others to develop similar projects, indeed there are now plans to roll out the concept London wide as part of the Virtual London project at CASA. Virtual London will allow the use of the same technology to be used on a much larger scale, and therefore has the potential to cover a vast number of issues relating to our urban environment, not only issues relating to regeneration. In this sense, Woodberry Down is a pilot for a wider urban information system
The site, which launched in early November, has developed around a web based visualisation system, integrating basic principles of GIS. By taking a new approach to the publishing of geographical data on-line it has sidestepped in house desktop tools in favour of a more flexible, and indeed simplistic methodology, utilising leading edge web based visualisation. This approach has not however been with its difficulties the system has been hard coded to provide the level of functionality required. As it was not developed from the traditional GIS approach the normal tools were not available and new ones had to either be adopted or written behind the scenes to ensure the site is operational. The next step it to develop more 3-d interaction for the site in consultation with the local residents. Residents, who as part of the project are able to access the site from their own homes using computers with Internet access provided by the local council. Regeneration truly is becoming wired.
The website can be found at: www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/woodberry/
References
- Harder C, 1998, Serving Maps on the Internet : Geographic Information on the World Wide Web; ESRI Press
- Longley, P. A.; Goodchild, M. F; Maguire, D. J.; and Rhind, D. W.; 2001, Geographic Information Systems and Science; Wileyn
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