Generating 3D City Mesh Model Based on Aerial Imagery: A Case Study, College of Engineering Campus

Abstract

3D city modeling is considered one of the most prominent products in urban planning, simulation, and visualization. Although manually producing 3D models is considered to be very time-consuming and costly, this paper presents the pipeline for generating and sharing a 3D city model from aerial imagery based on the photogrammetric technique. For the 3D city mesh modeling, aerial images with a resolution of 10 cm have been used. Initially, aerial triangulation was achieved to obtain the exterior orientation parameters of the images using ground control points that were measured at the site. Later, the obtained exterior orientation parameters are used in SURE photogrammetric software to produce a dense point cloud and mesh model using the image-matching technique. The produced point cloud and mesh model have been shared using the Cesium website, which has been embedded into the website https://3d-erbil.weebly.com/ for easy access. The published model allows the user to better understand the buildings in the area, which is useful for urban planning. Furthermore, it is possible to make measurements from the shared model and obtain object coordinates for any point on the ground.

Keywords

• Virtual city model
• urban planning
• mesh model
• online sharing
• 3D city model