Visualization of rooftop solar potential in smart cities

Abstract

Visualizing 3D building rooftops with solar potential data on a map-based application gives a new look into the possible gains of using rooftop solar panels in a smart city. For local governments, cities, and individuals, visualizing the solar potential of buildings allows for a more informed evaluation of what the maximum gain from using solar panels on a roof would be. In this work, a solution for visualizing 3D city buildings in the 3DCityDB web map client was analysed and developed as a continuation of a previous thesis project. Scripts were created, that directly colour KML 3D building rooftops, based on the rooftops solar potential. The finished solution is made using open-source software and is capable of visualizing Estonian CityGML data attributed with solar potential data. Issues of the previous continuation project were fixed, and points of future developments are discussed. The finished work also serves as a basis for future 3D visualizations using CityGML data and the web application can be further improved to support more types of semantical 3D visualizations.