FOSS4G-Asia 2023 Seoul

In recent years, 3D city models have been instrumental in advancing urban planning, stimulating citizen engagement, and fostering research. With advancements in technology and infrastructure, a growing number of cities and nations have come to rely on 3D models to tackle urban challenges, bolster public participation, and steer informed decision-making processes.

The Japanese government, notably through the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Project PLATEAU, has been an advocate for open 3D city models and 3D point cloud data. As of February 2023, over 100 cities are in the process of curating and disseminating open digital twin data in the CityGML format. The outcomes of these endeavors have been documented by Binyu et al., and further spotlighted in the 3D City Index benchmarking report. Notably, this report indicates that an impressive seven out of 40 cities (18%) examined were located in Japan.

This presentation sheds light on the present status of open digital twin data in Japan, which aligns with the open database license ODbL. This data is adaptable to widely-used platforms like OpenStreetMap, and specific converters have been crafted to facilitate this transition. Since 2022, importation efforts have been executed on a trial basis, orchestrated in conjunction with both national and global communities. This year, after several rounds of import operations, we have successfully integrated significant portions of the data into OpenStreetMap. Our results show improved urban planning accuracy and heightened public engagement in the areas where the data was implemented. By sharing both our accomplishments and the obstacles we encountered, we aspire to spur the worldwide utilization of 3D city model data.