Remote sensing, LIDAR, automated data capture and the VEPS project

There has been research into the 3D modelling of urban settings and landscapes since the early 1980s, initially, primarily for visual impact assessment, and more recently, for wider simulation and analysis. This paper discusses recent project work that has been examining how to minimise operator based digital 3D modelling of urban and rural environments, where remotely sensed data is available. The increasing availability of highly accurate LIDAR data offers these opportunities, but currently is not captured so often nor is yet a sufficiently extensive coverage that it can be relied on to keep VR analogues of real places up to date. This places increasing importance on developing an ´urban data fusion´ of different types including: LIDAR; digital elevation models derived from radar altimetry and similar data (SAR interferometry); real-time video photogrammetry; and thus on standards. 3D models of proposed changes then need to comply with these standards as they emerge.