ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the current state of the art regarding geographic information systems (GIS)-based three-dimensional (3-D) visualization of rural environments. It begins by discussing the reasons for creating visualizations, followed by developments in the availability of data and necessary software tools. Subsequently, some of the practical issues involved are expanded upon in presentations of two examples of recent work. The fi rst of these involved the creation of photorealistic still images to represent a long-term vision for the creation of ecological corridors in part of the Norfolk Broads. In the second example, several different software tools are compared in terms of their ability to generate a real-time visualization showing a rural landscape with increased planting of a biomass crop for energy generation. The
chapter concludes with a discussion of issues associated with the use of landscape visualization techniques and identifi es some challenges for future research.
