Graduate student, Zhouqian Jiang, spent last summer working with Bentley to generate a geospatially accurate 3D reality mesh model of the University Park campus at Penn State, and integrate the facility asset data from Maximo database with the model. The integrated model provides a better spatial interpretation of maintenance tasks, and facilitates a more efficient maintenance personnel distribution. In addition, 3D viewing capability can benefit the maintenance decision-making by providing detailed views of building facades and roofs, and also provides a relationship with the surrounding area (i.e., trees and other buildings). A taxonomy for diverse use cases of virtual 3D city models has been further developed. The taxonomy presents a structure of how these models are applied and allows model users to understand the scope of applications that virtual 3D city models can offer. Further evaluation and validation of the taxonomy should be developed.

For more information on this research, please reach out to Zhouqian Jiang (zpj5026@psu.edu) and Dr. Messner (jmessner@engr.psu.edu) or visit his website here.