The 3dskyview extension: an urban geometry access tool in a geographical information system

Abstract

Implemented as a tool in a 3D Geographical Information System (GIS), the 3DSKYVIEW Extension introduced here calculates sky view factors values, while generating its graphical representation on both 2D and 3D scenes. The main issue here is the determination of sky view factors from a 2D representation, delineating the areas corresponding to visible sky and buildings. Using an algorithm developed to be applied in ArcView, the 3DSKYVIEW extension uses the tri-dimensional information of urban canyons to automatically visualize and calculate sky view factors from vector GIS files.