Vilnius authorities have built a detailed 3D map of the city which is of great use to urban planners, but also an entertaining way to explore the city.
The map, which was put online earlier this year, is primarily intended for city planners and architects to visualise new projects and assess their impact on existing urban structures.
Vilniaus Planas (Vilnius Plan), the municipal agency that designed the map, made 72 flights over the city and took 30,000 high-resolution orthographic images to generate the model.
Thanks to the map, city planners have been able to assess construction proposals more independently, according to Vilnius chief architect Mindaugas Pakalnis, while before they had to rely on visualisations provided by developers.
“[The visualisations] would not always be accurate and cause discussions among specialists, neighbours of the project and interested members of the public,” he is quoted in a press release from Vilnius Municipality. “Now, a 3D model is immediately imported into the city's virtual model and anyone [...] can look at [the proposed building's] volume from any point they like.”
This immediately allows to see how the structure would fit its environment and whether it would block views and sunlight for the neighbours.
The map received an award from the international geographic information system software developer Esri, which commended it as an innovative and unique solution, according to the municipality.
Vilnius is not the first city to have such a map, but it is the first one to open data about all ongoing construction projects.
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