Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/33025
or hill can determine the suitability of a location for construction. Looking at a 3-D model of a house with its surround- ings gives a completely different perspective than just looking at the model of a house by itself. This also can help provide clear solutions to problems, such as changing the elevation of a building’s base to make it stand better. Urban planning is one of the emerging applications of computer-generated simulation. Cities’ rapid growth places a strain on natural resources that sustain growth. Water management, in particular, becomes a critical issue. The East Valley Water Forum is a regional coopera- tive of water providers east of Phoenix, and it’s design- ing a water-management plan for the next 100 years. Water resources in this region come from the Colorado River, the Salt River Project, groundwater, and other local and regional water resources. These resources are affected directly and indirectly by local and global factors such as population, weather, topography, etc. To best understand the relationship among water resources and various factors, the Arizona Department of Water Resources analyzes hydrologic data in the region using U.S. Geological Survey MODFLOW soft- ware, which simulates the status of underground water resources in the region. For better decision making and effective water management, a comprehensive scientific understanding of the inputs, outputs and uncertainties is needed. These uncertainties include local factors such as drought and urban growth. Looking at numbers or 2-D graphs to understand the complex relationship between input, output and other factors is insufficient in most cases. Integrating geo- spatial visualizations with MODFLOW simulations, for example, creates visuals that accurately represent the model inputs and outputs in ways that haven’t been previously presented. For such visualizations, two water surfaces are posi- tioned side-by-side—coming from two different simula- tions—with contour lines drawn on top. In this early prototype, a simple solution—providing a geospatial plane that can be moved vertically—brings the data- set into a geospatial context. This plane includes a multi-resolution map with transparency. Because these water layers are drawn in geospatial coordinates, it matches exactly with the geospatial plane. This enables researchers to quickly see the water supplies of various locations. 2. Image and Video Analysis Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a program, Video and Image Retrieval and Analysis Tool (VIRAT), for understanding large video collections. The project’s core requirement is to add video-analysis capabilities that perform the following: • Filter and prioritize massive amounts of archived and streaming video based on events. • Present high-value intelligence content clearly and intuitively to video analysts. • Reduce analyst workload while increasing quality and accuracy of intelligence yield. Visualization is an integral component of the VIRAT system, which uses geospatial metadata and video descriptors to display results retrieved from a database. Analysts may want to look at retrieval result sets from a specific location or during a specific time range. The results are short clips containing the object of interest and its recent trajectory. By embedding these results in a larger spatiotemporal context, analysts can determine whether a retrieved result is important. 3. Scientific Visualization U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ research organi- lFigure 2. Videos from the same location are partially visible, resembling a stack of cards. Each video is outlined by the color representing the degree to which it matches the query. 28 GEO W ORLD / M AY 2O11 zation, the Engineer Research and Development Center, is working to extend the functionality of the Computational Model Builder (CMB) environ- ment in the area of simulation models for coastal systems, with an emphasis on the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. Industry Trends