INTRODUCTION

Over the last thirty years the unprecedented growth and development of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, has sparked concern among local urban planners, policy makers, and the academic community as they plan for the city’s future. Key issues ranging from water shortage, population growth, suburban sprawl, and the preservation of the desert ecosystem have lead to the creation of Digital Phoenix, an academic research program at Arizona State University (ASU) that aims to visualize these issues in an innovative 3D environment.

By creating an  interactive 3D model, Digital Phoenix strives to aid city planners, engineers, and the public by allowing critical issues affecting the city to be visually analyzed. The project’s two components include an interactive 3D model of Phoenix’s downtown core and digital scenarios based on a database of city population, transportation, employment, and water consumption statistics. The aim is to integrate these components into a fully interactive framework for visualizing key issues facing the city.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Created in 2006, Digital Phoenix is a research program at ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.  The interdisciplinary program combines the knowledge of students and professors from urban planning, architecture, geography, computer science, and design.  Digital Phoenix was designed as a multi-faceted program with two primary components, the visualization program and developing future scenarios. Professor Yoshihiro Kobayashi from the ASU School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture heads research in the 3D visualization program, and Professor Subhrajit Guhathakurta from the ASU School of Planning leads research in developing future scenarios for the city that are presented as 3D models by the visualization team.

The program was created as an innovative way to study the unprecedented growth occurring in and around the city of Phoenix, Arizona.  The project’s two components work in tandem to create 3D visualizations of urban issues like traffic congestion, population growth, water shortages, and infrastructure projects so that decision makers and planners can more easily understand the scope of certain problems. The completed framework allows users to interact with data displayed in the context of the city model, visualizing patterns and gaining new insights that might not otherwise emerge by analyzing data through traditional means.

DEVELOPMENT

We developed the Digital Phoenix 3D components using a modeling technique called Photogrammetry. This method allowed our team of three modelers to rapidly generate 3D models of several hundred buildings in downtown Phoenix using high-definition aerial photographs. The result was a complete, photo-textured 3D model of Phoenix’s central business district that took our research team only one week to produce. City modeling of this scale using conventional techniques can take several months for a small team to complete.

The top image to the right shows our model, roughly one square mile, rendered in 3D Studio Max. Photogrammetry software Nverse Photo was used in tandem with 3D Studio Max to produce the building models.

After developing the 3D contents for the project, the entire city model was exported to the virtual reality/presentation software UC-win/Road. In this real-time software, our team modeled over 200 roads with accurate lane details, set traffic lights and signal phases, and added foliage and vehicle models to the scene. The image to the right shows a screenshot of the completed model rendered in UC-win/Road. The real-time controls and live traffic simulation provide a unique and imaginative ‘playground’ for urban designers and planners to imagine possibilities for the city’s urban core.

RESULTS

After three years of development beginning in 2006, the Digital Phoenix Project has been exhibited extensively at major venues around the world.  Since the first public presentation of the model at ASU’s Decision Theater on October 26, 2006, the 3D interactive model has been exhibited at Siggraph 2007 in San Diego, Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress 2008 in New York City, and many others.  The project has also been the recipient of honors at both the 2007 and 2008 Forum8 Annual 3D VR Simulation contests in Tokyo, Japan.

Despite accolades and recognition for innovation in 3D city modeling, Digital Phoenix struggled to achieve one of its primary goals of integrating macro-simulation data into its 3D city model.  Primary complications revolve around insufficient testing of data translation and software compatibility in the project’s initial design phase.  Despite these complications, Digital Phoenix has surpassed numerous technical barriers and made an impact on not only the 3D graphics community, but also proved to be a valuable tool for local civil engineers, urban planners, transportation experts and decision makers.

ECO-DRIVE

The Digital Phoenix model was used in tandem with a hardware drive simulator to develop a software tool that monitors a driver’s gas and brake behaviors. The tool records the driver’s use of the gas and brake pedals through a course of mixed highway and surface roads, then calculates estimated fuel consumption using an algorithm based on an average mid-sized sedan. The results of this project were published in the 2010 Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design (SIMAUD), and laid the groundwork for a new youth-oriented driver training program in Westport, Ireland called VR-Drive.

User testing of the Digital Phoenix Eco-Drive software

DESERT TULIP

Desert TULIP (Temporary Urban Land Infill Project) is a student-led program at Arizona State University’s Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory (PURL) with the goal of temporarily transforming Phoenix’s abundant vacant properties into vibrant assets prior to future development. Because the project is rooted in Phoenix’s urban core, the Digital Phoenix model was used to create an animation that outlines Desert TULIP’s visions and goals to city officials, policy-makers, and planners. The animation can be viewed at PURL’s website here: http://geoplan.asu.edu/node/4582

Presentation given December 8, 2009 at Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory

TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT

The Digital Phoenix model was used in a 2011 PURL study focused on the user experience of Phoenix’s light rail system. Integration of GIS data (Geographic Information System) highlighting the distribution of vacant parcels throughout the downtown core revealed just how empty the city can appear to light rail passengers as they disembark the train and venture outward from stations. The study built on the research of the Desert TULIP project and proposed a series of policy reforms that would allow city-owned parcels to be used as parks/recreation space. Privately-owned parcels could be activated more effectively by providing incentives to land owners to develop their properties, such as an idle-land tax or policy mandating the hosting of cultural events or construction of shade structures.

Vacant land GIS data (2010) visualized in the Digital Phoenix model shows how holes in the urban fabric separate the Roosevelt St. light rail station (bottom center) with the emerging Roosevelt Row Arts District (circled in purple). Publicly-owned lots are shown in orange and privately-owned lots are shown in red.