VGE-A New Communication Platform for the General Public

Abstract

Virtual geographic environments (VGE) are environments pertaining to the relationship between post-humans and 3-D virtual worlds. Post-humans are defined as a combination of humans in the real world with 3-D avatars in 3-D virtual worlds. VGE can be a platform for the public participation in spatial data analyses, in model computation and simulation, and in environmental planning and decision making. In this paper, we present three cases in terms of human-data, human-model, and human-human relationships. Three prototype systems are designed and developed for the public participation in visual impact assessment of urban landscape, wildfire simulation and ecological planning, and country park management respectively.