GISUtrac has not been going long but we are already developing a portfolio of projects. Follow the links to find outmore:
Site under construction! More project detail will be added in due course.
It was decided that the RGU Campus maps should be brought up to date with an interactive version being made available on-line. To this end GISUtrac has made use of an Open Source Java application that interfaces with ArcVie shapefiles. The application is called GeoTools and the Department of Geography at Leeds University is leading its development. The Internet version of the Campus maps was produced by digitizing the original version and converting it into layered ArcView Shapefiles. A Java applet was then written to access and display the shapefiles through an appropriate web page set-up. The Java applet was written by GiSUtrac but calls the GeoTools objects in the GeoTools and Sun class collections.
To see the Campus maps, click here. Viewing the maps requires a Java JDK 1.1 (or better) enabled browser. Netscape 4.07 or Internet Explorer 5 are recomended for optimum performance.
For more information on GeoTools, click on the link below:
This project is a collaboration between GISUtrac at The Robert Gordon University and the Macaulay Land USe Research Institute. It represents the first of what is intended to be a series of training modules not only to help professionals gain more confidence in their GIS abilities but also to provide first hand experience of team working across the internet. The project is nearing completion and is currently undergoing testing with 9 'students'. After this, the materials will be revised to ensure maximum quality before inviting participation from a wider audience.
Click here for a simulated fly through of the study area (this is a large .avi file and may take some time to download on slower connections).
Click here for more details on the background of the development of the project.
This is an on-going project to build a visual database of Garthdee in three dimensions. It is aimed at student participation and will build over a number of years to produce an interactive resource. The material here represents some early results in modelling the RGU Garthdee Campus and its surroundings, using ArcView GIS. The 3D visulaisations were then exported as VRML 2.0 files. To view these files you need a VRML browser or plugin. These are best viewed using Cosmo Player but other VRML browsers work. If you do not have a VRML plug for your browser you can download one from the "Web 3D Repository".
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3D visualisation of the RGU Garthdee Campus including some of the surrounding residential area. The VRML reaches across the Dee valley to include the scenic South Deeside Road area. |
3D model of rain water surface run-off patterns in the area surrounding Grey's School of Art and The Scott Sutherland Building (which houses the School of Construction, Property & Surveying - home of GISUtrac). |
NOTE: VRML files can be large and consequently slow to load. Also, VRML is undergoing rapid development and so different VRML viewers interpret the world files slightly differently and this can lead to inconsistencies. For best results use Netscape 4.7 or better with the Cosmo Player plugin.
Interesting developments in the field of 3D visulaisation on the web includes the adoption of GML (geography modelling language) by the Ordnance Survey in the UK. GML is based on XML schema and is an attempt to overcome the shortfalls of VRML, which was not originally intended for modelling geographic entities. The Open GIS Consortium anounced the release of GML 2.0 in March this year.
The home page for the GreenSpaces project can be found at:
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/subj/search/research/SustainableHousing/Greenspace/descrip.htm