Large-Scale 3D Data Integration: Challenges and Opportunities examines the fundamental aspects of 3D geo-information, focusing on the latest developments in 3D GIS (geographic information) and AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) systems. This book addresses policy makers, designers and engineers, and individuals that need to overcome obstacles in integrating modeling perspectives and data.

Organized into four major parts, the book begins by presenting a historical overview of the issues involved in integrating GIS and AEC. Part II then focuses on the data issue from several viewpoints: data collection; database structures and representation; database management; and visualization. Part III covers the areas of semantics, ontology, and standardization from a theoretical perspective and details many of the best examples of this approach in developing real-world applications. The book concludes with contributions that focus on recent advances in virtual geographic environments and alternative modeling schemes for the potential AEC/GIS interface.

Dr. Sisi Zlatanova is an assistant professor at the GIS Technology section, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. She graduated as a surveyor from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (UACG), Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1983 and obtained her Ph.D. in 3D GIS for urban modelling at the Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, in 2000. She worked as a software programmer at the Central Cadastre in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 1984 to 1989, as an assistant-professor at UACG, Sofia, Bulgaria, from 1989 to 1995, and as a researcher at the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands, from 1995 to 1999. Her research focus is on the third dimension: 3D object reconstruction, 3D data structures and geo-databases, 3D spatial relationships (topology) and 3D visualization (VR and AR). She is an international editor for Geo-Science Journal, reviewer for PE&RS, JGIS, and JC&G, and author and editor of lecture notes. She is a Chair of ISPRS Working Group IV/8 Spatial data integration for emergency services. She has been granted a number of fellowships and prizes. In the last several years she is actively involved in international and national activities, groups, and projects related to integration of 3D spatial information and providing spatial services for realtime applications. Dr. David Prosperi is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida Atlantic University, United States. Trained as a quantitative economic geographer at Indiana University, since 1980 he has taught in urban and regional planning programs at the University of Illinois, the University of Cincinnati, and since 1989 at FAU. He has specialized in quantitative and computer applications in urban and regional planning ranging from regional economic structures to micro-urban form. The author of over 200 publications and/or conference papers, several of which have received prizes, former editor of two international jou