A user-level geographic information system (GIS) appeared in the late 1980s. Today such systems are used as mobile applications in smartphones, thus they can help with orientation in the city, getting information about the nearest museums, monuments and other attractions. However the Geoinformation systems department employees went further and created a multifunctional geo-information complex. Its concept combines the analysis, collecting and synthesis of the spatial data systems and the data visualization in two-dimensional and three-dimensional formats.
The complex includes the terrain geodatabase with the possibility of its renewal and mobile consoles based on different platforms, which use the web technologies. The mobile consoles allow the complex to have online versions and organize area operational monitoring.
Such a complicated complex "core" expands the scope of its application significantly, without dwelling on the solution of a single problem.
"This complex can ease and improve the efficiency of most city departments," Andrey Karmanov says, the GIS Department employee. "Tourism development, construction, property conflicts solution, prevention of natural and manmade disasters, and much more - is not a complete list of its scope. It all started with the fact that in 2007 "Russian Railways" instructed us to design and implement a terrain geographic information model for the monitoring of railway construction for the Olympic Games in Sochi. I went to photograph the terrain textures in Sochi, to get a close to the original model, carried out interviews with the development management and staff. We worked with the project documents and spatial geographic data base, used some specially designed unmanned aerial vehicles that remotely probed the area. And two months later we built a prototype."
After a few years of work a virtual Sochi appeared, a vector geoinformation complex with a high degree of detail. This geoinformation model not only helps to control the area in real time, but also allows to look in the future. The system allows to operate such parameters as time of day, season, weather conditions, which are important in dealing with construction, designing, transport problems.
"If we put the evening time in the summer, we will be able to see, in what place the light is not enough. This will allow the well-designed setting of street lighting and illuminations. One can also identify the area, which is in the shadow most of the day. This information may be useful for the development of agriculture and effective planting of different crops. Activating the "fog" mode will allow to predict what speed should a driver adhere on the road not to get into an accident. As you can see, it is a versatile machine that is relevant to the use in the different urban structures," Andrey Karmanov continues.
The possibilities of the geoinformation complex have already become interesting for the government of St. Petersburg. The project team is working with the Committee on Urban Planning, the main artist of the city and the committee on tourism. A part of the highway leading to the city of St. Petersburg, is already embodied in the form of geoinformation model.
One of the immediate objectives of the GIS Department staff is to do the construction of three-dimensional model of Vasilievsky Island. Also, to supplement and integrate the data of underground and underwater structures, including hydrodynamic processes. "Most major cities have a high-quality 3D-model from Google," Andrey Karmanov shares his opinion. "However, neither Moscow nor St. Petersburg has not got such a model. If we bring this work to the end fast enough, I'm sure the government will want to expand the project to other areas of the city."