Landscape Visualization on Google Earth

Three-dimensional landscape information can be easily transferred through the Internet with Google Earth. In this study, we developed a landscape visualization system that enables simulation of planned landscape on Google Earth and the applicability of the system to the landscape design was shown. The visualization system generates KML (Keyhole Markup Language) and KML file is visualized on Google Earth. To make the data small, a tree was expressed by using textured planes instead of thousands of polygons. Trees were placed automatically on a terrain based on the measured data by the system developed in this study. With the system, we made models of real gardens based on measured data and walk-through simulations were tested. The system showed good performance and it also indicated the potential of the systems.