Interactive Visualization of Flood and Heavy Rain Simulations

Information

• Publication Type: Journal Paper with Conference Talk
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s):
  • Rendering and Modeling
  • VRVis Competence Center
• Date: June 2019
• Journal: Computer Graphics Forum
• Volume: 38
• Number: 3
• Location: Porto, Portugal
• Lecturer: Daniel Cornel
• ISSN: 1467-8659
• Event: Eurographics/VGTC Conference on Visualization (EuroVis) 2019
• DOI: 10.1111/cgf.13669
• Call for Papers: Call for Paper
• Conference date: 3. June 2019 – 7. June 2019
• Pages: 25 – 39

Abstract

In this paper, we present a real-time technique to visualize large-scale adaptive height fields withC1-continuous surfacereconstruction. Grid-based shallow water simulation is an indispensable tool for interactive flood management applications.Height fields defined on adaptive grids are often the only viable option to store and process the massive simulation data. Theirvisualization requires the reconstruction of a continuous surface from the spatially discrete simulation data. For regular grids,fast linear and cubic interpolation are commonly used for surface reconstruction. For adaptive grids, however, there exists nohigher-order interpolation technique fast enough for interactive applications.Our proposed technique bridges the gap between fast linear and expensive higher-order interpolation for adaptive surfacereconstruction. During reconstruction, no matter if regular or adaptive, discretization and interpolation artifacts can occur,which domain experts consider misleading and unaesthetic. We take into account boundary conditions to eliminate these artifacts,which include water climbing uphill, diving towards walls, and leaking through thin objects. We apply realistic water shadingwith visual cues for depth perception and add waves and foam synthesized from the simulation data to emphasize flow directions.The versatility and performance of our technique are demonstrated in various real-world scenarios. A survey conducted withdomain experts of different backgrounds and concerned citizens proves the usefulness and effectiveness of our technique.

Additional Files and Images

Weblinks

• Entry in the publication database of TU-Wien
• DOI: 10.1111/cgf.13669

BibTeX

@article{CORNEL-2019-IVF,
  title =      "Interactive Visualization of Flood and Heavy Rain
               Simulations",
  author =     "Daniel Cornel and Andreas Buttinger-Kreuzhuber and Artem
               Konev and Zsolt Horvath and Michael Wimmer and Raimund
               Heidrich and J\"{u}rgen Waser",
  year =       "2019",
  abstract =   "In this paper, we present a real-time technique to visualize
               large-scale adaptive height fields withC1-continuous
               surfacereconstruction. Grid-based shallow water simulation
               is an indispensable tool for interactive flood management
               applications.Height fields defined on adaptive grids are
               often the only viable option to store and process the
               massive simulation data. Theirvisualization requires the
               reconstruction of a continuous surface from the spatially
               discrete simulation data. For regular grids,fast linear and
               cubic interpolation are commonly used for surface
               reconstruction. For adaptive grids, however, there exists
               nohigher-order interpolation technique fast enough for
               interactive applications.Our proposed technique bridges the
               gap between fast linear and expensive higher-order
               interpolation for adaptive surfacereconstruction. During
               reconstruction, no matter if regular or adaptive,
               discretization and interpolation artifacts can occur,which
               domain experts consider misleading and unaesthetic. We take
               into account boundary conditions to eliminate these
               artifacts,which include water climbing uphill, diving
               towards walls, and leaking through thin objects. We apply
               realistic water shadingwith visual cues for depth perception
               and add waves and foam synthesized from the simulation data
               to emphasize flow directions.The versatility and performance
               of our technique are demonstrated in various real-world
               scenarios. A survey conducted withdomain experts of
               different backgrounds and concerned citizens proves the
               usefulness and effectiveness of our technique.",
  month =      jun,
  journal =    "Computer Graphics Forum",
  volume =     "38",
  number =     "3",
  issn =       "1467-8659",
  doi =        "10.1111/cgf.13669",
  pages =      "25--39",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2019/CORNEL-2019-IVF/",
}