Beyond 2D: Why 3D GIS is the Backbone of Next-Gen Urban Planning in the Nordics?

I. Introduction

“You cannot fix what you cannot see” - You can’t truly solve a problem unless you dive deep to uncover its root; anything less is just a superficial fix, mere lipstick on a crack.

We have all experienced this scenario. You discover a Thai restaurant with excellent reviews and recommendations from friends, and you decide to check it out. After searching for the restaurant's location on Google Maps, you find that it's only a 10-minute bike ride away. Excited, you gather your essentials and ride to the destination.

However, when you arrive, Google Maps displays the message: “You are here!” But instead of standing at the entrance of the restaurant, you find yourself in the middle of a highway overpass, looking down at the restaurant's roof 50 feet below you.

Does this sound familiar? Your phone believes you've arrived because the coordinates match on a flat map. But in reality, you're on the wrong vertical layer.

This is just one illustration of precisely how inadequate 2D maps have become for modern cities: they reduce a complex, multi-layered reality to a simplistic, flat pancake.

For many years, urban planning was conducted as a geometric exercise on a flat piece of paper (or map). City planners and architects examined our cities primarily from a "bird’s eye view", which provided a top-down, two-dimensional perspective. This measure was totally sufficient for addressing the issues of the 20th century, such as defining property boundaries (representing an individual’s ownership of a land), charting road systems, or designating industrial zones. If you wanted to find out who owned a specific parcel of land or the width of a highway, a 2D map serves as a valuable and reliable reference.

But we do not live in a flat world. We live in a volumetric one.

As our cities grow vertically and our sustainability goals become more vital to developed societies, the limitations of the 2D map have become dangerous blind spots. A flat map will be able to tell you the square footage of a roof. Still, it will not be able to tell you whether or not a neighboring skyscraper will cast a shadow over that roof at 9:00 AM in December, rendering a million-dollar solar panel investment useless. It can show you the gap between two buildings, but it cannot foresee how wind accelerates through that gap to create a treacherous "wind tunnel" for pedestrians.

We don't inhabit a flat world, so why do we design our cities using flat maps? By relying on 2D tools in a vibrant 3D reality, we have been planning with one eye closed, missing the full potential of our environment.

Hence, if the root cause of these planning failures is a lack of dimensionality, then the solution must be volumetric. We need a framework that reflects the complexity of the real world- one that captures not only the location of a building, but also its height, volume, and environmental context. In the Nordic region, this necessity has driven the rapid adoption of 3D GIS, a technology that turns the city into a readable data model.

II. So…What exactly is “3D GIS”- The backbone?

In short, three-dimensional Geographic Information Systems (3D GIS) enhance traditional two-dimensional Geographic Information Systems (2D GIS) by incorporating a third dimension, specifically height or depth. This advancement allows for comprehensive analysis of various factors, including elevation, building heights, and subterranean features, in conjunction with location data. 

For this, you can close your eyes and imagine a robust tool that brings 3D models to life by seamlessly integrating them with geospatial data. This particular innovation enables ultra-realistic visualizations and simulations, making it ideal for tasks like analyzing terrain or planning urban infrastructure. 

It’s not just technology; it’s a game-changer for how we understand and shape our environments! 

Furthermore, 3D GIS functions as a semantic model, which enables it to store a substantial amount of data beyond mere geometric shapes. This capability allows for the integration of various types of information, enhancing the richness and utility of geographical data analysis.

It is this semantic richness that makes the 'Digital Twin' possible. By combining these intelligent 3D GIS models with real-time data, Smart Cities can move beyond simple spatial queries to complex predictive simulations - supporting everything from behavior prediction to operational optimization.

What is a Digital Twin?

A Digital Twin is defined as a virtual representation of reality, encompassing physical objects, processes, and relationships. 

Although these terms (3D GIS and Digital Twin) are often used interchangeably, a critical distinction exists between them. 3D GIS provides spatial context- addressing the 'where' and the 'what' of a given entity. In contrast, a Digital Twin builds upon that 3D model by integrating live data, thereby offering insights into the 'how' and the 'now.'

A more straightforward interpretation of 3D GIS and Digital Twin:

To illustrate this concept (3D GIS) more clearly, one might consider a city-building video game (like SimCity) when it is PAUSED. You can fly around the city. The map depicts exactly where the roads, buildings and bridges are. You as a user can inspect these infrastructure: view how tall they are, check the population statistics. The game when paused is a static database of the world. 

In addition, if the 3D GIS symbolizes a paused city-building video game, then the Digital Twin represents the game when you press PLAY. Suddenly, the cars start moving in different directions, the power usage in buildings spikes, day turns into night, and the weather changes regularly. The same static map is now alive, there’s a simulation of life happening inside it. 

III. The Power of the Vikings: The Nordic Edge in GIS

In the realm of 3D Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Nordic countries are at the forefront, with Sweden standing out as a prime example. These nations excel in their innovative approach by treating data as critical infrastructure, which allows for enhanced visualization, planning, and decision-making. This strategic focus on data management not only supports urban development and environmental sustainability but also fosters collaboration between various sectors, ensuring that the information remains accessible and valuable to all stakeholders involved.

1, The Skyfall and Virtual Gothenburg projects:

A notable example is the “Skyfall” project, conducted by Berge in collaboration with the City of Gothenburg Network and Water (Göteborgs Stad Kretslopp och Vatten). 

In recent years, climate change has led to increasingly severe “cloudburst” events in major cities across Sweden, including Gothenburg. In response, city planners and engineers have been using 2D flood maps to help predict the unpredictable paths of floodwaters throughout the city. These 2D maps function similarly to “bathtub models.” To illustrate, you can imagine a measuring model that assumes if the water level rises by one meter, everything below that one-meter line will be submerged, much like when you take a shower in a bathtub.

Nonetheless, rain doesn’t behave like bathwater. It flows freely, rushing down steep streets, pooling in low spots, cascading down stairwells, and causing basements to flood. A basic 2D map doesn’t have the capability to capture how a new luxury apartment complex has unintentionally formed a concrete barrier, directing water straight into a subway station.

Thus, when the City Planning Authority of Gothenburg discerned this conundrum in the early stages, they decided to undertake a project called “Virtual Gothenburg” - to generate a digital twin, a virtual 3D model of the whole municipality of Gothenburg, Sweden. 

With this 3D framework established, Gothenburg's engineers launched the Skyfall pilot. This innovation allowed them to deploy a “virtual firehose” across the city at the click of a mouse, streamlining the process significantly.

City planners will now have the capability to simulate the impact of proposed building designs on water flow. This innovative approach allows planners to conduct assessments, posing critical questions such as, “If we construct this building at this specific location, will it increase the flood risk for the neighboring hospital?”

2, The 3CIM project

However, when Gothenburg began developing sophisticated simulations like Skyfall, they encountered a barrier. To effectively conduct a flood simulation, it's essential to have comprehensive data from various sources. This includes information from the water department regarding pipes, as well as data on roads from the transport department, among others. It was time-consuming, and the dataset was in disarray because each department relied on different software and file formats.

When Gothenburg identified this pressing issue, it sparked a collaborative effort with Lund University and two major cities, Stockholm and Malmö. Together, they launched the innovative 3CIM (City Information Model) initiative. This partnership wasn’t just about combining expertise and resources; it was also about creating solutions that could be seamlessly adopted by other municipalities across Sweden.

This groundbreaking project aims to break down the barriers of isolated city planning. For instance, when a tech company develops a "Flood Simulation Tool" for Gothenburg, known as Skyfall, it becomes a powerful resource for Stockholm and Malmö too, thanks to their shared "Backbone." This collaboration ensures that all cities can benefit from the same cutting-edge technology, fostering a more interconnected and resilient urban environment.

3, The significance of 3D GIS for the Nordics:

The projects mentioned demonstrate the leadership of the Nordic countries in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and highlight how 3D GIS has allowed them to unlock the hidden potential of urban planning. By utilizing this technology, they can prevent severe disasters, save money on cleanups and repairs, promote sustainability, address climate change, and ultimately make cities more resilient and enjoyable to live in. By viewing the city as a dynamic simulation rather than a static drawing, they have transformed urban planning into a proactive science.

IV. Alternative Cases for Other Nordic Nations

1, Finland, with the “Helsinki 3D+” and “Energy and Climate Atlas” projects:

When it comes to 3D GIS, Finland shines brightly alongside Sweden, standing out among the Nordic nations. While Sweden sets a stellar example for Standardization and Flood Simulation, Finland takes the lead globally when it comes to Open Data and Decarbonization. Their innovative approaches not only inspire but also pave the way for a more sustainable future! 

According to the City of Helsinki; Helsinki, Finland, established an ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and a zero-carbon target by 2040. However, more than half of Helsinki's carbon dioxide emissions result from heating buildings during the notoriously harsh Finnish winters, as the Mayor of Helsinki noted in a World Economic Forum piece. As the capital and most populous city of Finland, Helsinki is home to tens of thousands of buildings, some dating back to the 19th century. Consequently, without manually inspecting each building, city planners have no way of identifying which structures are losing heat and which are not.

In this situation, a 2D virtual map could solely inform them of the exact destination of each building, not detailed technical information such as how much sun hits the roof of a building and at what time of day it hits to create shadow.

Following this, the project "Helsinki 3D+" was launched, resulting in a realistic 3D Digital Twin of the entire city of Helsinki. The data was made completely open-source, allowing the public- ranging from software companies to researchers- to download and start developing their own tools. 

With this 3D model established, the city created the Energy and Climate Atlas, which was also made accessible to the public. This innovative tool is capable of performing extensive calculations using the 3D geometry of the buildings. With it, the city can now simulate how wind interacts with building facades, enabling them to pinpoint the structures most susceptible to heat loss based on their shapes and materials.

2, Norway, with its high-quality, detailed vector data:

According to GIM International, Norway is strategically positioned to lead in the creation of detailed 3D city models, leveraging its high-quality 2.5D vector data from the national FKB (Felles KartdataBase) dataset. This serves as Norway's main advantage in the GIS domain. 

Felles KartdataBase is a comprehensive national mapping database recognized globally for its outstanding detail, consistency, and semantic depth. It offers exact 2.5D vector data, which encompasses the intricate roof structures of buildings, allowing for realistic 3D city models via standards like CityGML.

While Norway's detailed FKB data still requires enhancements in consistency and system integration, it provides a solid foundation for creating accurate 3D models.

V. Conclusion: 

In the Nordics, 3D GIS has moved from a mere curiosity to an implicit necessity.

Since 2012, according to Kirstine Lund Christiansen and Inge-Merete Hougaard, authors of “Net zero: Copenhagen’s failure to meet its 2025 target casts doubt on other major climate plans”; when Copenhagen disclosed its plan to become the first carbon-neutral city in the world by 2025, it has received the utmost advocacy from other nations. Yet, the city council has failed to obtain this goal by 2025, leading Copenhagen to refocus on a 2030 climate neutrality action plan.

With strict Net Zero deadlines looming as early as 2030, cities like Helsinki and Copenhagen have zero margin for error. 3D models and digital twins let cities simulate floods, model city emissions, and monitor buildings’ energy consumption in ways the ‘Flat Maps’ cannot. By building Digital Twins today, the Nordics aren't just planning for the future; they are insuring themselves against it.

The future of urban planning isn't about drawing better lines; it's about simulating better lives.