|
Developing 3D Geoportal for Wilayah Persekutuan Iskandar Dionnald Beh BoonHeng and Alias Abdul Rahman Department of Geoinformatics, Faculty of Geoinformation Engineering and Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Email: beh.boonheng@gmail.com, alias@utm.my Abstract Portal development of disseminating geospatial information via web has a positive growth over the last few years in Malaysia and elsewhere. Related agencies, i.e. both government and private are in the process of disseminating spatial information to their respective users as could be seen in national geospatial data centre, national mapping agency, local authorities, and newly created business entities for such as Iskandar Region Development Authority (IRDA) in Johor. These agencies, in fact are considered as major implementers of such geospatial information systems, especially the local government authorities. Geospatial portal has proven its importance as communication medium among the government agencies, government to business and government to public. However, at present, most geoportals are based are meant for 2D spatial data and relatively very few geoportals were meant for 3D spatial information. This paper presents the development of 3D geoportal for Wilayah Persekutuan Iskandar (WPI). It discusses the visualization aspect of 2D and 3D geospatial information and functionalities and people in regional or city planners could benefit from such 2D and 3D systems. Development tools such as XML, GML, KML, and CityGML were utilized; issues and challenges related to the 3D geoportal will be discussed and highlighted. 1. Introduction Geospatial portal (geoportal) is a popular online communication medium for related agencies, i.e. both government and private in disseminating spatial and aspatial information to their respective users. At present, most local geoportals development are meant for 2D geospatial content and relatively very few geoportals were meant for 3D content. Nevertheless, a descriptive and sharable 3D geospatial visualization model, especially for city and landscape, is highly demanded in many fields, e.g. city-planning. Most of the users from these fields have already experienced with their existing geoportal for 2D geospatial information distribution. Therefore, 3D geoportal would serve more meaningful and usable virtual presentation of the geospatial content. This paper presents the development of 3D geoportal for Wilayah Persekutuan Iskandar (WPI), the Iskandar Region Development Authority (IRDA), a newly created business entities in Johor, Malaysia. It discusses the visualization aspect of 2D and 3D geospatial information and functionalities and people in region such as city planners could benefit from such 2D and 3D systems. Development tools such as XML, GML, KML, and CityGML were utilized; issues and challenges related to the 3D geoportal are discussed and highlighted. 2. Study Area - Wilayah Persekutuan Iskandar (WPI) This study has focused on the administrative area of WPI, namely the South Johor Economic Region (SJER). From a physical planning perspective, the SJER is defined as a geographic area in the southern part of Johor that will benefit from the economic opportunities that will be promoted within the region. It approximately covers more than 200,000 hectares combining the entire district of Johor Bahru, Jeram Batu sub-district, Sungai Karang sub-district, Serkat sub-district, Pulau Kukup sub-district and all within the district of Pontian, as shown in Figure 1.0  Figure 1.0: Study area. |