3D-GIS Modeling of Mansoura University Campus for Evidence-Based Urban Decision Making

Abstract

University campuses host a large number of users, particularly in densely populated countries. Students, professors, and workers move to campus daily to fulfill their educational, research, work, and cultural needs. Effective decision-making for the campus urban environment requires more updated data and interactive communication with users to manage crowds and provide an ideal learning and research environment, especially during maintenance works, infrastructure upgrades, paving, etc. In this study, an attempt is made to apply and develop a process for digital modeling of the Mansoura University campus in Egypt using the integration of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) as an approach to smart campus management. The study develops a 3D GIS-generated model using ESRI City Engine software and visualizes it using ESRI web-scene portal and virtual reality application. The 3D GIS model was evaluated in terms of the quality of the driven data to measure its ability to support urban decision-making. The study finds that the 3D-GIS model fulfills up to 80% of the required data quality parameters and needs support from other software and databases in the remaining 20%. The study is supported by Mansoura University administrations and related research entities for updating its GIS-database.