In their 2017 paper, Professor Havenith et al. These developing methods have actually come from a range of different areas, often geo-engineering or geotechnical fields, but their wider use is still hindered by the high cost and time investment needed. However, 3D models are still rare and it’s only in recent years that technology has advanced to the stage of being able to explore geosciences using state-of-the-art coupled modelling, finally allowing us to actually look inside the processes and phenomena under study. As a result, their potential for 3D visualisation is far greater than that of GIS or general numerical modelling tools. They also include some pre-processing to reduce the computational intensity of the model and allow 3D volumes to be calculated – a key aspect for visualising 3D space. They are designed to focus on ways of representing the data in a 3D space.
Geomodelling software and 3D visualisation tools work to combine the outputs of both GIS and numerical modelling. Such models require sophisticated – and expensive – computer facilities not readily available to the wider field. Numerical modelling tools can handle 3D geo-data and can produce almost continuous time-dependent output but this is both computationally intense and storage heavy. GIS data is generally restricted to 2D studies with limited temporal information. The power of GIS is immense, but it has its drawbacks in terms of looking beyond the surface and into the Earth. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are the mainstay of geoscience studies using digital mapping. Professor Havenith and his colleagues have been pushing even further into the realm of 3D visualisation. Users can simulate rainfall, watch how it interacts with and is affected by the topography and investigate slope stability under different conditions. The sandbox works by having the topography and contours projected onto the sand itself, adapting as the user shifts the sand.
A good example of shifting a map from 2D to 3D is the so-called augmented reality sandbox (), new favourite for the inner child in all of us, which allows users to manipulate sand and watch how changes in topography affect, for example, the flow of water within a catchment. Most people who think about visualising geological or geographical data will think of a map – two dimensional and generally non-interactive.
Rogun Geomodel: potentially unstable slopes near a new dam construction site in Tajikistan. Virtual reality provides a unique opportunity to step inside and take control of the spatial and temporal scales and visualise processes – all the way from the planetary scale down to the nano-scale and from multi-millennia to the millisecond. Professor Hans-Balder Havenith and his colleagues Philippe Cerfontaine and Anne-Sophie Mreyen at the Georisk and Environmental Research Unit at the University of Liège, aim to change this: they want to make immersive visualisation using virtual reality (VR) an accessible and widespread collaborative tool for both students and professionals in geosciences. They are cursed to always be out of sync with the scales of the features or processes they study, whether in space or time.
A geologist cannot dissect the Earth to watch the tectonic plates shift and slide across the mantle, they can’t peer inside a crystal as it forms and they can’t watch the full saga of climate change unfold within their lifetimes. Part of their research is focussed on the development of immersive visualisation methods for geoscience data, adapting virtual reality methods and generating models the user can step inside to gain new insights into the spatial, temporal and causative relationships and processes occurring within the Earth system.Īs a geologist, you are always faced with one fundamental problem: the scales under which geology operates do not generally match well with those of humans. Hans-Balder Havenith, Philippe Cerfontaine and Anne-Sophie Mreyen are members of the Georisk and Environmental Research Unit in the Department of Geology at Liege University, Belgium.