ABSTRACT
The development of software for urban planning purposes is evolving under the influence of both multimedia and hypermedia concepts. Raper reports the progress towards spatial multimedia and mentions several examples where hypermedia are used in connection with urban planning. The work of Shiffer and his colleagues at MIT shows that hypermedia consist of more than just clickable maps and that it is possible to design planning support systems which handle the human-computer interaction in a more intuitive way. The development of spatial multimedia/hypermedia solutions will become very important over the next 3-5 years, and the great focus on specific hardware and software for GIS in planning offices will eventually become less important. The ability to work in more than two dimensions will eventually move urban planning away from the flatlands again. The different types of model can, for each type, be described as a specific level of abstraction.
