January 1991
·
72 Reads
·
36 Citations
This chapter introduces and profiles three-dimensional (3-D) GIS which are differentiated from computer-aided design systems by the ability to represent complex geoscientific objects and apply volumetric spatial functions. Such 3-D GIS have grown rapidly to suit the needs of earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences, and are capable of using 2-D and 3-D spatially referenced data in a heterogeneous representation scheme. New forms of representation have emerged, based on 3-D vector and raster data structures, which can index spatial form and process, and support complex 3-D queries. In the future, the success of this new form of modelling depends on the quality of the model on which it is based, and the availability of 3-D data. -Authors