Using virtual reality as information tool in spatial planning

Abstract

Public participation is becoming an increasingly important issue when it concerns spatial planning.New spatial plans are expected to be available to citizens and open for discussion.The Internet has proved to be a very useful tool for sharing information with a large number of people, however a picture or map of an area will not be very useful for everyone trying to get a good idea about the future situation.It is quite difficult to get a good impression of the changes to an area by using a 2D image or map representation.Geo-visualisation is seen as a new way to present spatial issues to the public and improve the interaction and communication.Virtual environments are very useful to show the current and future situation on a very realistic level.The user can interact with the environment by navigating through the virtual world and see what impact the spatial plans have on the area.A three-dimensional representation of the plans will give a more realistic idea about the impact the changes will have on the present situation.But not only the internet is a new way of bringing information to the citizens.Display technology is also improving, like the development of the ICWall and the CAVE tm .The ICWall is a large screen capable of processing large data sets and on which therefore a 3D stereo projection can be achieved.Such a large display makes it possible to present the spatial plans in a large room to a large number of people at the same time without the loss of resolution.The visitors can view the spatial plans in 3D with the use of glasses and can respond to the plans at the same time to the responsible people like the project planners and landscape architects.These new techniques raises a lot of new research questions such as, do people respond differently when spatial plans are presented by using virtual reality?And do tools like the CAVE tm and the ICWall prove to be useful as a communication device?

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