CityJSON in QGIS: Development of an open-source plugin.

Area of Science:

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
• Urban Planning

Background:

• QGIS 3.0 introduced 3D visualization capabilities.
• CityJSON emerged as a standard for 3D city models using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
• Integrating semantic 3D city models into open-source GIS was previously limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a QGIS plugin for loading and visualizing CityJSON datasets.
• To enable the use of semantic 3D city models within the QGIS environment.
• To bridge the gap between CityJSON data structure and QGIS's relational model.

Main Methods:

• Developed a QGIS plugin to parse CityJSON files.
• Analyzed CityJSON's tree structure to identify city objects.
• Transformed CityJSON geometries and attributes into QGIS features and layers.
• Addressed hierarchical data mapping to QGIS's relational model.

Main Results:

• Successful parsing of CityJSON datasets was demonstrated.
• The plugin effectively transforms CityJSON data into QGIS features.
• Methods were developed to handle the mapping of hierarchical CityJSON data to QGIS.
• CityJSON data can now be loaded and visualized within QGIS.

Conclusions:

• The developed QGIS plugin facilitates the integration of semantic 3D city models.
• The tool supports educational purposes and can benefit researchers and practitioners.
• This advancement enhances the capabilities of open-source GIS for 3D urban data.