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Abstract
Towards Immersive Virtual Environments for GIS-Based Flood Modeling and Visualization
Track: Modeling
Author(s): Hardeep Bajwa, Udoyara Tim
Geographic information systems have become increasingly valuable tools in flood modeling and play an integral role in decision making processes for flood prediction and mitigation. A distinct activity has been the development of GISdriven visualization including realistic visual simulations. Typically, these sciences have been undertaken on discrete, noninteractive problem solving domains. The increasing availability of high-performance visualization tools offers new opportunities to combine interactive hydrologic/environmental simulation models with emerging immersive visualization and decision support environments. This paper describes the development of such a system, with particular emphasis on exploring the role of virtual reality in enhancing hydrologic and ecologic modeling. A component of the study was to develop tools to access and display geographic data and spatially explicit outputs of overland flow predicted by the hydrologic model (HEC-HMS) in a microcomputer-based three-dimensional virtual environment using the head-mounted display, hence increasing perception and realism. The combination of the analytical approach with more subjective visual assessment offers the advantages of both worlds in terms of information transfer and decision reliability.
Hardeep Bajwa
1000 Pine Avenue
#297
Redlands , CA 92373
USA
E-mail: bajwa@iastate.edu
Udoyara Tim
Iowa State University
Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering
215, Davidson Hall, Iowa State University
Ames , IA 50011
USA
Phone: 515-294-4246
E-mail: tim@iastate.edu