1.  proposed work This project aims to design and develop a framework for terrain visualization flexible enough to allow arbitrary visualization of terrain data using hardware acceleration available in common computers, and leveraging distributed computing resources where appropriate. The framework should integrate external data management and storage resources through an easy to use GUI. This framework will allow us to research new approaches related to the spatial- temporal exploration of terrain data through visualization, and the development of data partitioning and management schemes and/or algorithms that incorporate level-of-detail (LOD) rendering optimizations, performance scalability, data streaming considerations, and visualization-related metadata. project description Understanding the dynamics of the hydrological phenomena associated to wetlands requires analyzing models built upon remotely gathered data, such as satellite images or digital elevation maps (DEM). The goal of this project is to develop a framework which will allow building more powerful visualization tools to complement the analysis of hydrological models for the study of wetlands. The Island of Hawaii – Visualization combining digital elevation map with satellite image. Rendered with prototype application. references 1.Rabinovich, B. and Gotsman, C. 1997. “Visualization of large terrains in resource-limited computing environments.” In Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Visualization '97 (Phoenix, Arizona, United States, October 18 - 24, 1997). R. Yagel and H. Hagen, Eds. IEEE Visualization. IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 95-102. 2.Lindstrom, P., Koller, D., Ribarsky, W., Hodges, L. F., Faust, N., and Turner, G. A. 1996. “Real-time, continuous level of detail rendering of height fields.” In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and interactive Techniques SIGGRAPH '96. ACM Press, New York, NY, 109-118. 3.Yuan, M., 1996. “Temporal GIS and spatio-temporal modeling.” In: International Conference/Workshop Integrating GIS and Environmental Modeling, January. 4.NERRS - Jobos Bay Reserve - http://nerrs.noaa.gov/JobosBay/ 5.Reserva Nacional de Investigación Estuarina Bahía de Jobos - http://ctp.uprm.edu/jobos/ UPRM-TVE: Terrain Visualization Explorer A visualization framework for the Study of Wetlands Automated Information Processing Group Ricardo Veguilla-González M.S. Student in Computer Engineering veguilla@ece.uprm.edu Nayda G. Santiago, Ph.D. Faculty Advisor nayda.santiago@ece.uprm.edu technology Implementation in Java using OpenGL for cross-platform deployment with hardware accelerated rendering. architecture Modular architecture design allows customizing the data pipeline to better exploit the available resources and to provide multiple visualization options. future work Using DEM and satellite images of the Jobos Bay Reserve, we will explore different aspect related to: Performance scalability of terrain visualization. Scientific visualization of spatial-temporal data. Integration of diverse data acquired through remote sensing. Integration between hydrological modeling and visualization. Source Acquisition Format Conversion Metric Multi-scale Reduction Visual Multi-scale Reduction TessellationRendering I/O LayerData Reduction LayerRendering Layer File system Database DEM TIN TIFF BMP Nearest Point Linear Interpolation Bilinear Interpolation Inverse Distance Weighting Progressive Meshes Discrete LOD Real-time Optimally Adapting Meshes Continuous LOD Point, Lines, Polygons Vertex arrays Bezier Curves Texture Mapping Height- Based Coloring Stereoscopic Rendering Triangle/ Quads Strips Unify multiple data repositories. Transparent support for multi-format data files. Uniformly reduce data resolution for better scalability. Further reduce data by eliminating detail in areas far from the viewpoint. Provides different 3D representations allowing to exploit for vendor- dependant optimizations. Enhance the terrain 3D representation by incorporating additional visual aids. project status A prototype application was developed which is currently being used as a starting point for analyzing the performance considerations related to the real-time rendering of DEM in normal PC desktops. It will also allow us to start experimenting with different visualization techniques by building different data pipelines, researching new approaches related to terrain modeling, visualization, and analysis. Remote Repository