AUTHOR=Fitzpatrick Mia , Hedley Nick TITLE=Review of the state of practice in geovisualization in the geosciences JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science VOLUME=11 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2023.1230973 DOI=10.3389/feart.2023.1230973 ISSN=2296-6463 ABSTRACT=

Geosciences modelling and 3D geovisualization is growing and evolving rapidly. Driven by commercial urgency and an increase in data from sensor-based sources, there is an abundance of opportunities to analyze geosciences data in 3D and 4D. Geosciences modelling is developing in GIS based systems, 3D modelling through both game engines and custom programs, and the use of extended reality to further interact with data. The key limitations that are currently prevalent in 3D geovisualization in the geosciences are GIS representations having difficulty displaying 3D data and undergoing translations to pseudo-3D, thus losing fidelity, financial and personnel capital, processing issues with the terabytes worth of data and limited computing, digital occlusion and spatial interpretation challenges with users, and matching and alignment of 3D points. The future of 3D geovisualization lies in its accelerated growth, data management solutions, further interactivity in applications, and more information regarding the benefits and best practices in the field.