Critically review the role of three-dimensional photorealistic simulations in the public engagement exercise throughout the urban design process and suggest improvement measures

1. Critically review the role of three-dimensional photorealistic
simulations in the public engagement exercise throughout the
urban design process and suggest improvement measures
Name: Fan Man Lok, Darren
Student ID: 09227211D
Introduction
For urban design, shaping the environment similar to the reality is the key factor. The
presentation should be combined with visual and descriptive information to show
the changes after the implementation of the design. There are lots of ways for
presentations, including two-dimensional plans, maps, perspective sketches,
three-dimensional drawings and also three-dimensional models. Such presentations
should be an effective way to deliver the visual information to the participants.
However, the participants, especially for the public with no education background,
often face difficulties in understanding the spatial relationship of the design due to
the limitations of the mentioned communication media. These may lead to
miscommunication and mistrust between the urban designers and the participants.
To minimize the information gaps among the stakeholders and provide a
collaborative urban design communication medium, there is a need for an effective
information delivery tool. Thus, three-dimensional photorealistic simulations have
been proposed on urban design process. This paper would address the roles of
three-dimensional photorealistic simulations in the public engagement exercise
throughout the urban design process and suggest improvement measures of this
technology for urban planning and urban design.
Public Engagement
In Hong Kong, urban planning used a top-down approach traditionally as the design
of land use was decided by public office and planners only. Although there would be
public consultation for every planning proposal, this method is still not
comprehensive enough. The view and disagreement from the public cannot be
effectively absorbed as the consultation part usually conducts at the later stage of
planning process. The planning decisions are nearly finalized and only important

2. issues would be allowed to alter. Thus, the public engagement exercise was proposed
on planning issues in the past few years.
As stated in Wikipedia (2011), public engagement is a term to describe the
involvement of specialists developing their understanding based on the interaction
with non-specialists. It emphasizes the communication between the stakeholders.
Participation of different parties allows exchange of views and opinions, thus to
achieve a final decision based on consensus rather than coercion of power.
According to Ng, F. and Kwok, A. (2007), public engagement exercise usually consists
of five parts. The first part is brainstorming session. Usually local communities,
concern groups, professional institutes, business sectors and academics would be
invited to generate some creative design ideas, views and visions. The second part is
the random sample survey and interviews. Interviewees would be selected randomly
for the sample survey, but for the structured interviews, the target would be the
end-users and professionals. The third part is the workshop session. The objective of
the Workshop is to achieve some consensus on the derived design schemes. The
fourth part is the exhibition part. Different design ideas would be presented at the
panels and questionnaire would be distributed to collect views on the preference of
the various design ideas. And the last part is the public forum. The aim is to provide a
platform for open public discussion on the design concepts and the ultimate goal is
to form the basis of the design according to public choice.
From the experience of implementing public engagement exercise in planning issues
in Hong Kong, it is found that there are several advantages for public participation.
Firstly, the project costs can be minimized. As the cost for urban development is
mainly from the tax, the tax payers are concerned whether their taxes are wasted or
used for unnecessary expenditures. Thus they are willing to actively participate in the
urban design process. Secondly, with public participation, there would be more
viewpoints and opinions as different parties can be involved to achieve a final
decision based on consensus. Thus the final urban design proposal can better fulfill
the social needs and face less objection from the public as their voice had been
absorbed and considered. Also, as stated by Ng, F. and Kwok, A. (2007), the creativity
can be enhanced as lay-knowledge may be transformed into great concepts through
lay-professional collaboration.
Roles of three-dimensional photorealistic simulations
Three-dimensional photorealistic simulation is a recent technology to deliver visual
information for collaborative urban design. A variety of three-dimensional

3. photorealistic simulation tools have been developed in the last decade, including
AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max, ArcGIS, Site Builder 3D, Multigen Creator and Google
SketchUp. These tools are parallel with the advanced computer technology, and play
an important role in decision making of urban design process.
With three-dimensional photorealistic simulation, a three-dimensional replica
community can be constructed according to the urban planner’s proposal. It allows
the users to have a chance to experience the virtual scene about the future
development. Any impacts that bring by the development can also be foreseen. Thus,
the public can have a clearer understanding on the design as it is similar to the reality
and the spatial relationship can be easily identified and understood. Then the public
may express their productive feedbacks and increase the collaboration and
communication between different parties. In overall, the 3D visualization can
increase public’s interest and their involvement in the urban design process
comparing with using the two-dimensional techniques. It works like a visual language
to communicate between the urban planners and the public, and allow the public to
enter a virtual scene to experience the proposed future environment.
In public engagement exercise, there are always discussions on the design ideas. The
residents usually raise their ideas to the urban designer. However, the expression can
only be in words or speeches. Thus the urban designers may not clearly understand
what the residents think indeed. However, with the aid of three-dimensional
photorealistic simulation tool, this can be solved. Three-dimensional photorealistic
simulation tools support real-time visualization. The urban designers can visualize the
public’s ideas in real-time, and analyze whether they are feasible and explain to the
public immediately by comparing the new design alternatives with the original design.
Therefore, the three-dimensional photorealistic simulation tools can bring a multi
directional discussion environment and these interactions can catch public’s
attention and increase their interest on the urban planning issues. The ultimate goal
is to achieve an informed decision on the design of future development of the
community.
According to Kim, D. H. &Bejleri, I. (n.d.), three-dimensional photorealistic simulation
tools can integrate the visual and non-visual data into one common environment.
Also, it can provide data query and spatial analysis functions to help the urban
planners have a better understanding on site conditions and its relationship to the
surroundings, including the study in the changes in the trend of city’s skyline and
landform, and how to control urban sprawl, as stated by Kim, D. H. (n.d.).

4. Improvement Areas
Three-dimensional photographic simulation has been regarded as a new information
delivery tool in urban design process. Most urban planning projects around the world
would apply this technique to produce a three-dimensional photorealistic simulation
model of the project area. However, the technology is still not being fully utilized in
the urban planning process.
The first issue is that the three-dimensional photorealistic simulation models are
one-time purpose only. After the project has finished, the models would not be used
again. Thus, the efforts to build the model are wasted and the cost for building such
models would be high as it would be classified as short-term expense. In fact, the
Government can consider reusing the existing 3D urban models and building a large
three-dimensional photorealistic simulation model covering all the regions of Hong
Kong. This model would be cooperated with a large-scale database and be kept on
updating. Once there are other new urban design proposals, the planners can simply
develop their design in the large model and check whether there are conflicts
between the proposal area and neighboring areas. Also, this can avoid the
Government to have redundant expenditures and efforts on 3D modeling.
Some people may criticize that developing such a large three-dimensional
photorealistic simulation model would be costly and ineffective. In fact, there are
some examples around the world showing that building such models would be
beneficial. According to Ben Delaney (2000), Los Angeles had been constructed for a
three-dimensional photorealistic model. The whole covering area is several hundred
square miles. Aerial photos, GPS data, street maps and eye-level photos are used to
create the model. All the models are texture-mapped for their facades and each
structure has a URL attached to include the relevant information. Also, ESRI has
developed a Mobile Mapping System (MMS), which enables to have high resolution
panoramic images from a moving vehicle or human being. The pixel of images would
be geo-referenced with three-dimensional coordinates. Trees, street lamps and other
street furniture can easily be captured and thus the three-dimensional photorealistic
simulation would be more easily done.
Firstly, all the design can be reviewed and compared with the neighborhood area. It
is obvious to notice if there are conflicts nearby. So such model can act as an
assistance tool to help the architects to design the buildings with consideration of
the neighboring environment.
Secondly, it can be checked whether the new design has obscured the other

5. buildings’ view. As stated by Delaney, B. (2000), in 1997, a virtual Philadelphia was
built for the construction of a new baseball stadium near the city center. Then a
virtual stadium was built in the model. When the planners navigated the stadium at
ground level in the virtual scene, they found that the outfield scoreboard had
obscured the City Hall, which is the heart of the city. After that, they reoriented the
stadium so that the view of City Hall would not be obscured anymore. This example
demonstrates the value of building a large model.
Thirdly, such huge model can be utilized in different purposes apart from
collaborative urban design. Nowadays, the simulation tools can provide some
functions for planners to investigate the solution for growth development and
sustainable development, as suggested by Delaney, B. (2000).
Lastly, the three-dimensional photorealistic model can combine with different GIS
layers for different purposes of all departments. For example, the Police Force can
use the model to investigate the crime and simulate the crime scene in a digital way.
The Leisure and Cultural Services department can use the model to build a database
of historical structures and trees, and investigate which should be preserved. Thus,
the cost for building a huge model can be shared among the participating
departments and they all can take the advantages of the three-dimensional
photorealistic urban model.
The second issue is the computer requirement problem. As the three-dimensional
photorealistic simulation tools need to handle a large amount of data, the loading
time of the simulation scene would be very long with the current computer
technologies. The navigation speed would also decrease with a large set of data. This
would be inappropriate and impractical when the discussions perform. The public
may be distracted while waiting for the loading of data. Moreover, the storage of
data is in unit of terabytes. Thus advanced computer technologies are needed to be
developed, otherwise the latest simulation technologies can only be limitedly applied
to urban planning.
The third issue is that the public may have a desire to explore the virtual scene of
future development on their behalves, suggested by Kim, D. H. (2005). However,
nowadays, the test environment does not support their control on the tools. Thus,
the Government can provide computers during the exhibition part of public
engagement exercise to allow the participants to navigate the virtual environment by
themselves, with technicians nearby to provide assistance. Thus, the participants

6. would have a better understanding on different design ideas by having exploration
and investigation of the details through the computer scene, rather than watching a
short video navigating the virtual scene with a predefined route. Then the public
would choose the one closest to their expected life and more feedbacks would be
collected. Thus the collaborative urban design process can be achieved better.
Conclusion
Three-dimensional photorealistic simulation has a much better information delivery
capability comparing with the two-dimensional media. It can visualize a virtual scene
which allows the users to interact with, in which the scene could be at present, in the
past and in the future. It enables the users to add or remove structures to observe
the impacts brought to the environment. Also, it acts as a communication media for
urban planners and other stakeholders to achieve an informed decision on urban
planning issues, by attracting more participants to involve in the urban design issues.
Topographic studies and climate studies can also be investigated through
applyingthree-dimensional photorealisticurban simulation.
Although there are several advantages to apply three-dimensional photorealistic
urban simulation on urban planning issues, some areas have been found to be
improved in order to fully utilize the new simulation technologies. There is certainly a
need to build a huge three-dimensional photorealistic urban model covering the
whole Hong Kong regions. Many urban models are dumped after the projects have
finished. In fact, these models can be reused. And a large-scale database would be
constructed to store the attribute data and integrate with the large model. Different
departments can make use of the model for their own purposes, like investigating
crimes, foretasting environmental changes and helping preserve historic structures.
Although building a city wide three-dimensional photorealistic simulation model
requires enormous amount of money and labor, it would be worth to achieve it as it
would bring long-term benefits to Hong Kong in the decade of Generation Z.
References
Bhattarai, P. (2007). 3D Visualization and Urban Simulation. : University at Buffalo.
Delaney, B. (2000). Visualization in Urban Planning: They Didn't Build LA in a
Day, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 10-16
Kim, D. H. (n.d.). 3D Visual Urban Simulation: Methods and Applications. Korean

7. Local Administration Review .
Kim, D. H. (2005). THREE-DIMENSIONAL URBAN SIMULATION FOR COLLABORATIVE
URBAN DESIGN. : UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA.
Kim, D. H.&Bejleri,I. (n.d.). Using 3D GIS Simulation for Urban Design
Ng, F. & Kwok, A. (2007).CHarMing the Victoria Harbourfront – Public Engagement
Model on Planning Issue in Hong Kong. World Academy of Science, Engineering and
Technology 28, pp. 117-120.
Public engagement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2011). Retrieved October 12,
2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_engagement