As urban architectural environments become increasingly complex and densely populated, the demand for precise registration of legal statuses, encompassing both private and public interests, has become more urgent. Traditional 2D cadastral registration systems are increasingly inadequate for addressing the multifaceted and vertical nature of modern urban landscapes. These systems are limited in scope and unable to fully capture the intricacies of multi-level property rights, overlapping parcels, and underground constructions. This study uses a BIM/IFC model for the building’s physical representation. The party and Rights, Restrictions, and Responsibilities (RRRs) data are stored in a DBMS, with all data and the building location being fictitious. Visualization is achieved in 3D over the web using Cesium JS, an extensible globe viewer. Unlike earlier 3D cadastral systems, this research has developed a new 3D Land Administration prototype based on ISO 19152-2 (Land Administration Domain Model (LADM)). The objective is to explore improved methods for analyzing and visualizing RRRs in complex buildings. Novel techniques include presenting UML instance-level LADM diagrams for selected parties and/or apartments, showing RRRs and BAUnits linking them. The study introduces a new method for displaying surrounding buildings at varying Level of Detail (LoD), with closer buildings rendered in higher detail and more distant buildings shown in less detail. This selective detailing enhances both performance and clarity in visualizations. A key feature of this digital twin system is its real-time update capability. This study supports the updating of party and rights information in the backend database, accurately reflecting these updates in the public front-end version. This ensures the maintenance and visualization of the most current property rights data. The system also integrates sunlight simulation, which is crucial for urban planning, architectural design, and aiding buyer decision-making. For more details, visit the project’s website 3D web-visualization platform.

The Delta Program states that the Netherlands must be climate-resilient and water-robust by 2050, posing a great challenge to spatial planning. This imminent challenge of climate adaptation requires a common ground of interdisciplinary approach as monodisciplinary reductionist approaches are often not enough to deal with complex phenomena such as climate change.
In this context, combining information models can support well-informed design decisions, since many interventions related to climate adaptation, such as those related to water storage, soil infiltration and underground spatial management, require a deeper knowledge of subsurface characteristics and configurations.
However, this interdisciplinary approach still face many organizational, technological and institutional barriers, related to inherent characteristics of design and geoinformatics in combination with practical challenges related to standardization and interface of existing products. There has not been yet an integrated approach that relates subsurface information models and local climate adaptation design interventions in a single place even if literature and design examples suggest information needs.
This thesis aims to explores how subsurface information models, in particular 3D ones, can aid the cause of concrete well-informed urban climate adaptation design interventions, identifying the reasons for an under use of existing subsurface data models and assessing existing subsurface information models, both in 2D and 3D, to better understand what are the information requirements for climate adaptation design interventions in the Netherlands.
As climate adaptation can often be a broad concept, this research opted to focus on concrete examples of standards for climate adaptation in urban design, coming from the Leidraad 2.0, the Maatlat, and the Klimaateffectatlas. The interventions used for the design analysis are also standardized and refer to a document published by the Dutch government containing the twenty five most relevant climate adaptation design interventions in the Netherlands.
The study of these interventions, standards, and models, along with the study of their interdependence, indicate information needs for local climate adaptation design.
Therefore, this thesis provides both theoretical and practical foundations for better integrating subsurface data models into standardized urban design practices for climate adaptation. As a result of this research, a tangible tool named CLIMACAT is developed. CLIMACAT integrates pre-existing subsurface information models in accordance with FAIR data principles: ensuring findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability. Subsequently, both the tool and the established information models undergo testing via design proposals across four neighborhoods within the city of Utrecht.

Land administration is the organized and systematic process of establishing and maintaining information about land. The efficient practice of land administration is anticipated to organize land registers for the provision of cross-sector and cross-border land administration services. Such a system should provide fundamental information regarding land administration without requiring access to land registers or geoportals. Due to disaggregated land administration systems in the Netherlands, land administration information related to the Dutch territory must be accessed through various geoportals. These geoportals include PDOK, Ruimtelijkeplan nen, Wozwaardeloket, Bagviewer, and Kaartenvannederland. These geoportals utilize different approaches to information delivery, processing and retrieval. The basic assumption for the functionality of land administration is the interoperability of data from different registers and geoportals containing land administration information. Therefore, there appears to be a need for an integrated land administration information system. The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) as a conceptual model is a way to integrate land administration information into the organized environment of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for efficient data organization and accessibility. The second edition of LADM consists of five parts about the generic conceptual model, land registration, marine georegulation, valuation information and spatial plan information. This study examines the benefits and drawbacks of the implementation of the LADM Edition II for data dissemination in the Netherlands with a linked data portal.

An analysis has been conducted on the current state of LADM Edition II. Two use cases were identified and modelled to assess the implementation of LADM. Country profiles of the Netherlands were developed to adapt the model to country-specific needs. Linked data, a technique based on standardized web technologies, can enhance the capabilities of an SDI. To enable the implementation of the model with linked data, the country profiles were converted into an OWL ontology model, and datasets based on the Dutch registers were created in accordance with the ontology. Finally, a data story was developed using SPARQL queries to query and present the data for the use cases. A data story is a narrative that makes data comprehensible to a wider audience.

The assessment shows that the implementation of LADM Edition II for data dissemination in the Netherlands with a linked data portal has the potential to offer benefits in terms of time efficiency, resource efficiency and usability. This is the result of linking multiple registers from different domains of land administration, which enables the consultation of a single geoportal, the data story. However, this requires significant investment. The country profile has to be validated, datasets have to be created according to the ontology by matching the attributes in the Dutch registers with the attributes in LADM, and SPARQL queries have to be written to retrieve the data. These last two steps require a thorough understanding of the Dutch land administration systems and the ontology, and can be a time-consuming task. It remains to be seen whether the benefits of LADM in the Dutch context are worth the investment required for implementation.

This thesis explores the integration of the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 1.4.2, which focuses on land tenure security and the availability of legal documentation. The primary objective is to design and implement a dynamic database system that simulates real-world land administration changes over time, incorporating the complexities of land rights transfers, party relationships, and spatial units. The research leverages PostgreSQL and PostGIS to create a flexible and scalable system capable of managing temporal data and generating SDG 1.4.2 reports.

Through the use of multiple constraints and custom functions, the system ensures data integrity while dynamically tracking changes in land tenure and ownership. Testing was conducted using simulated datasets across three years, which modeled evolving land rights, population changes, and administrative updates. The results were validated by comparing manual calculations with the system’s automated outputs, demonstrating the accuracy and reliability of the approach.

The findings highlight the potential of using LADM in SDG indicator calculations and demonstrate the system’s ability to handle complex, multi-dimensional land administration scenarios. However, limitations such as the use of artificial data and a focus solely on SDG 1.4.2 suggest that further work is needed to validate the model with real-world data and expand its application to other SDG indicators and land-related policies. This thesis contributes to the ongoing efforts to modernize land administration systems and provides a scalable solution for tracking land tenure security in line with global sustainability goals.

Traditional planning processes are often manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors. While much of the recent research has focused on automating the permitting phase, this study addresses an earlier step: automating compliance checks between spatial plans and against local regulations in the early planning stages. To ensure that spatial plans align with general regulatory frameworks prior to the permitting stage, this research introduces a standardized approach by integrating Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) with the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) Part 5 Spatial Plan Information (ISO Draft International Standard: 19152-5). This integration enhances data management, facilitates seamless information exchange, and ensures adherence to international standards. By automating early-stage plan compliance checks—such as verifying building height limits or distances between structures—the research aims to streamline the process, ensuring that only compliant plans proceed to the permitting phase, where the design itself is assessed for approval.

To achieve this, the integration of IFC with LADM Part 5 is explored to standardize model-based checking between spatial plans during the early planning stage, using Estonia as a case study. As one of the most advanced digital societies, Estonia is continually improving its digital services, making it an ideal setting for this research. The primary goal is to enhance efficiency, interoperability, and standardization in these checks by incorporating LADM Part 5 into the framework, ensuring that various levels of spatial plans adhere to both higher-level regulations and local requirements before progressing to the permitting stage. This includes assessments and validation between different plan levels (e.g., Master Plan vs Detailed Plan) and within the same level (e.g., Detailed Plan vs Detailed Plan).

The methodology involves several key steps. First, a country profile for Estonia using LADM Part 5 is developed and tailored to the specific needs of the Estonian spatial planning system, detailing how the country acquires, stores, and manages its plan data. Subsequently, a new database is created based on this country profile, establishing a framework for data storage. Then, pilot Detailed Plan datasets, encoded in IFC format, are imported into the new LADM database using custom scripts, enabling checks to be executed through standardized data structures. Findings indicate that integrating LADM with Industry Foundation Classes improves data representation and interoperability while creating a consistent framework for plan assessments, thereby contributing to more efficient and reliable planning systems. Additionally, some simpler checks can be performed directly within the new database using straightforward queries.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations for residential areas are becoming increasingly important as the urban population keeps growing and extreme weather conditions due to climate change are becoming more prevalent. Since CFD simulations simulate and visualise fluid flows, users can analyse and predict air flows in urban environments, giving insight in pollution, heat dissipation, and weather conditions. Performing these simulations demands expertise and time: 3D urban models must be prepared, and pre-run setups must be defined to obtain accurate results. Partial automation can streamline this process. Therefore, we developed a method that identifies geometric errors and defines mesh parameters for the open source CFD software OpenFOAM. This method follows the ISO19107 standard and recent CFD guidelines for urban areas, ensuring accurate simulation results. We validated algorithms with a variety of urban models and parameters, and analysed the workflow developed for the mesh parameters definition. Additionally, we created a prototype, in the form of a web application, in which these algorithms are implemented. Our prototype will simplify the use of CFD simulations for urban areas, making them more accessible to everyone.

As the way we interact with maps keeps changing, so do the maps change alongside. And it can be easily pointed out how these changes come alongside a large number of advantages for the average map user, such as quick access to data or the ability to view more or less of the Earth's surface with just a mouse scroll, as well as for specialists such as cartographers or spatial data analysts, as it is now easier then ever to manipulate complex data. That being said, the challenges have also shifted, from the expertise of the map maker to the software solutions which now do all the work.

One of the many challenges imposed by the aforementioned is represented by the way the map generalization process is achieved. This graduation project serves as a continuation to the countless amount of research which has already been performed in this field, with a focus on the niche world on Vario-Scale Maps, and in particular how borders are handled in this generalization process.

There is already a large number of different solutions available, some of them being considered as standard and used by some of the biggest players in the world of geo-information. However, it seems that no single one solution is a `silver bullet`, as they all have their advantages and disadvantages, as well as cases where one generalization workflow is clearly more suited then others.

Considering the actual status quo of the industry, this thesis will take a look at some of these already available solutions on the market, both individually as well as together, and will try to answer the following research question: \emph{To what extent can multiple line-generalization algorithms be (simultaneously) introduced in the Vario-Scale structure such that they preserve the topology and enable an optimal line density (while trying to preserve the characteristics of the initial shape as well).}

To reach an answer, it is necessary to start first from the lowest level, with understanding how line generalization function in different situations, then slowly building up the structure by introducing these new concepts in the broader workflow, to see what impact it has on it as a whole.

Many MLS point cloud application scenarios, such as navigation and localization algorithms, require only static environments, but the original MLS data usually inevitably includes many dynamic objects such as moving vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Therefore, these dynamic objects need to be removed before using MLS point clouds. This thesis designs an efficient and memory-friendly Octomap-based dynamic object detection and removal method for MLS data. Firstly, the original MLS data is split into multiple data frames based on the timestamp of each capture point. Each data frame is inserted into a separate Octomap along with its neighboring data frames. The free points in all Octomaps are extracted by setting an occupancy probability threshold. Second, the region of interest (ROI) related to the dynamic object is delineated by the MLS sensor mounting height and the local large vehicle height limit. Only the free points located within the ROI are retained. Then the free-point rate and the multi-return rate are calculated for each free point using a fixed radius spatial search to denoise and detect vegetation points. Finally, the KNN spatial search is used to remove vegetation points and extract dynamic objects from the free points. The proposed method is tested in four case sites in Delft, the Netherlands and its producer’s and user’s weighted average dynamic object detection and extraction accuracies are 88.004% and 82.624%, respectively. The weighted average overall accuracy is 99.833%. Compared with the original Octomap, the proposed method is 35.472% more efficient on average and can be further accelerated by parallel computing, with a maximum memory consumption of only 42.437% of the original Octomap. The implementation results and accuracy assessment demonstrate that the proposed method can be effectively applied to dynamic object detection and extraction tasks in MLS data sets in a compute-friendly and memory-friendly way.

Urbanisation and a lack of available construction land has led to the increased development of underground space which can contribute to the development of the urban areas by providing space for the construction of (infra)structural objects and networks necessary for a city to function and provide services to its citizens. The main challenge in developing the underground space is registering the RRRs of the underground objects into Land Administration Systems (LASs). Registering the RRRs of these underground objects in 3D can facilitate a better understanding, as well as a more efficient registration and clear visualisation of the RRRs.
To register the objects below the surface in a 3D LAS, 3D physical data as well as 3D legal data need to be registered and integrated into one model. BIM/IFC models can be (re)used as input data to register the 3D physical data. To register the 3D legal data in an efficient way, the ISO 19152:2012 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) standard can be applied. The motivation for linking the BIM/IFC models with the LADM is that the geometry of the BIM/IFC models can be reused from design for the registration of the legal spaces in LASs or that BIM/IFC models can serve as a technical encoding for the exchange of data in LASs and thereby connect the workflows from the (AECOO) community. In this research the mapping of the basic classes of the LADM to IFC entities is presented to support the linkage of these two data models.
Research to investigate the implementation of the LADM in a 3D LAS, with the use of BIM/IFC models as input for 3D objects on the surface such as apartment buildings and infrastructure objects has been carried out. The result of this research was that the RRRs of objects on the surface can easily be determined by applying the legal information from the enriched BIM/IFC model. No research has been done in implementing the LADM in a 3D LAS, with the use of BIM/IFC models as input for 3D objects below the surface. This research will therefore complement the earlier related work, thereby supporting the modelling of legal information of all 3D objects, below as well as on the surface.
To solve the challenges that currently prevent the implementation of 3D objects below the surface in LASs and to harmonise the different (technical and semantic) requirements for LASs a standardised workflow was developed and is presented in this thesis. The standardised workflow shall provide more insight into the modelling of the legal spaces of 3D objects below the surface, stimulate the exchange of data across the AECOO community, and promote the use and development of 3D LASs.
Two case studies were conducted, where objects (pipes) from the sewage system and a tunnel were used. The tunnel was a BIM/IFC model, while the sewage pipes were converted to an BIM/IFC model. The models from both cases were stored according to the LADM standard in a 3D LAS, represented by a 3D database and a 3D geospatial visualisation platform. The main results are that the technical part of the proposed workflow supports the registration of 3D underground objects in 3D LAS and that for underground objects the legal spaces from the 2D parcels that are extruded to 3D volumetric parcels, are sufficient enough to describe the RRRs of the objects.

In the Dutch government attempting to become fully circular 2050, VMRG, a Dutch Metal Façade Association, has initiated several pilot projects. Two of the most prominent ones are Cirlinq, an asset management platform for documenting building facades, and FaSA (Façade Service Applicate), a collective of stakeholders aiming to use drones and image recognition technology predict the maintenance requirement of facades. There are also attempts to extend the producers' responsibility by developing new business models in collaboration with TU Delft, resulting in developing a Façade Leasing Business model. However, despite these several initiatives and the emergence of new technology to facilitate them, there was still a lack of clarity on how they can be integrated to collect, organize and use façade information to enable decision-making at its End of service.

The first steps of the research involved conducting a literature review on the current state of the art in Circularity, the façade industry, and digital technology in the lifecycle of a façade. A preliminary framework was generated that conceptually maps out the information generated in the lifecycle of a façade, a data structure to store this information, and a conceptual framework for a façade product passport. Based on this preliminary framework, several hypotheses were tested and validated or refuted using surveys and interviews, which helped develop a more detailed framework. This contains detailed process maps of stakeholder roles in the supply chain of the façade, the digital methods used, and information exchanged in the process.

Several criteria are identified by referring to additional literature that can influence the End of Service (EoS) scenario of a façade and are categorized and arranged into decision trees, which eventually can form a framework for a computational tool. These are then grouped into modules which, when processed together, results in a decision. The criteria were then co-related to the information currently exchanged by the stakeholders to determine what is most crucial to making a decision. During this process, it was found that most information required to make a decision is un-processable by computational methods; firstly, they are in unstructured data formats such as documents, and secondly, the necessary criteria to make a decision are subjective and still need human interpretation. Therefore, the decision-making framework can either be used to evaluate existing facades scheduled for demolition or determine the crucial information to be entered in the passport for facades that are not yet constructed.

The entire framework from information capture, organization, and end-of-life decision-making is then demonstrated with information received of the CiTG Façade in the TU Delft campus as part of the Façade Leasing project TU Delft. During this evaluation, it was found that several essential information about the façade not available, and hence the façade was evaluated by assuming industry-standard processes and references to external databases such as the Granta Edu Pack. Information that is available and information generated is noted, which indicates the most crucial information required for EoS Decision making. During the EoS assessment process, while the façade can be disassembled and reused, it can be done early to design a new building, as it had fixed non-modular dimensions. Many conditions have to be considered, mainly regarding sizing, geometry, positioning, and structural system of the façade while designing the building for the CiTG façade to be reused. It was also found that recycling and energy recovery of the façade is only possible if the separation between the aluminum profiles and the thermal barrier is achieved. Although specific modules such as the condition assessment and the performance assessment could not be thoroughly carried out, a table with results of the assessments is generated and therefore acts as a starting point of how this framework can eventually be used and adapted to assess different facades. This framework can be eventually be developed in an iterative manner which can expand it to cater to multiple façade typologies and eventually forming a basis for an EoS assessment tool. All the research questions are answered at the end, acting as a summary of findings. As this research is just a starting point for further in-depth research, conclusions are made regarding recommendations to the Dutch Metal Façade industry and the following possible research stages.

In this thesis a new method to show the generalization process is proposed and assessed - parallel step assignment. It investigates the feasibility and applicability of this method with respect to three proposed generalization approaches and tries to evaluate the possibility of vario-scale map representation. First, the generalization sequence is created for each of these approaches. It is then processed with a greedy algorithm in order to decide which generalization operations can be shown at the same time. After that, two aspects are assessed: the generalization of the map quality and the assignment itself. The results show that the method is feasible for the vario-scale maps, however, the proposed generalization techniques need to be improved and none of them can be considered as suitable at its current state of development. Nevertheless, the main aspect of the interaction is significantly improved and the solution can be considered feasible. At last, based on various observations and conclusions from the project, some ideas for future work are proposed together with an evaluation of the chosen methodology with underlined drawbacks.

This research is aimed to answer the main research question: to what extent we can use LiDAR point clouds directly in the PostgreSQL by means of FDW, and thus a FDW supporting the Point Cloud Data Management System is implemented. Then, the range and performance of its functionality are evaluated. The results shows this FDW solution is feasible while the querying time is relevant to the number of returned points. The benefit and problem of this FDW are analyzed.

Visualizing the point clouds is an integral part of processing the data, which enables users to explore and interact with the point clouds more intuitively. However, most of the current point cloud renderers are developed in non-immersive environments. In the last few years, some new technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR), have emerged and introduced new ways of presenting the 3D content. Among them, AR is the most commonly used technology, since AR applications can be used on mobile devices without specific equipment like helmet and handles. There are already plenty of existed applications for mobile AR environment. These mobile AR applications play important roles in fields like architecture, industrial design, navigation, advertisement, medicine and gaming. However, the use of point clouds in mobile AR environment is still waiting to be explored. Like rendering point clouds on other platforms, the biggest issue of showing point clouds in the mobile AR environment is that point cloud datasets usually have a massive amount of data. Moreover, the mobile devices have relatively limited CPU and GPU resources, reaching ideal performance, and the visual quality requirement is quite challenging. Also, the current \ac{clod} methods are developed for desktop, VR, and web-based viewers. The cLoD method has to be improved and revised in order to fit the mobile AR environment. In this paper, an interactive visualization of point clouds using cLoD method in the mobile AR environment will be realized. The main idea of this method is to reduce the number of points to be rendered considerably. A cLoD model that has an ideal distribution over LoDs is used in the method, with which can remove unnecessary points without sudden changes in density as present in the commonly used discrete level-of-detail approaches. Camera position, orientation and distance from the camera to point cloud model are taken into consideration while filtering the points as well. In order to further improve the visual quality, an adaptive point size rendering strategy is applied. What is more, for user's convenience, in the \ac{gui} some setting options are provided to the rendering system to change the value of parameters required in the rendering. The performance of the rendering system is evaluated with multiple quantity indicators and examined by different types of datasets. The result shows that our method can significantly improve rendering performance and meanwhile achieve good visual quality. The finalized rendering system is suitable for most of the indoor applications and some of the outdoor applications. What's more, a comparison between our cLoD method and the traditional mesh-based approaches will be presented to show that our cLoD method has the potential to replace mesh models in some cases. The resource code and the installation package are available at: https://github.com/LiyaoZhang0702/AR_PointCloud}.

Over the last decades, laser scanners are becoming more and more established for the acquisition of geo-information. Depending on the sensor platform where the laser scanners are mounted, there are MLS, ALS and TLS techniques for both indoor and outdoor environments. The high-quality 3D point clouds produced from laser scanners is an important source of 3D spatial information and it is increasingly used in a wide field of applications from engineering to medical modeling, gaming and agriculture. Although laser scanners provide dense and accurate point clouds, a scene coverage and the creation of a complete 3D representation requires multiple scans of the same area. The procedure integrating multiple scans does not always result to a perfect match. Errors that exist in the datasets or errors in the transformation of datasets create difficulties during the matching procedure. Matching data-sets with the best alignment is a topic that has been researched in many fields and a variety of methods have been analyzed for registering point clouds. A co-registration can be compared to a mathematical model and hence it is important to present not only the functional model and the set of functional relationships between the variables but also the stochastic model that describes the variability among the values and gives insights about the level of satisfying predefined demands. As a result, it becomes necessary to establish an evaluation of the output of a procedure and each result to be accompanied by its quality description. The aim of this graduation thesis is about presenting the stochastic model of a co-registration with a quality description of the result of co-registration between point clouds. The approach will be applicable to results acquired from an image-based registration and the goal is to implement a method in order to quantify the quality of the co-registered result of two different point clouds. A probabilistic analysis of the results of an image-based method results to a quantification of the quality of the output. Response images acquired from an image-based co-registration are tested and the quality indicators of precision and reliability are determined. Moreover, the shift parameter is also defined, fact that enhances the applicability of this research to co-registrations referring to big areas where multiple local registrations have to be combined in a globally consistent manner and each local result contributes to the global registration according to its quality indicators. Particularly, response images that have clearly defined peak areas and pass the tested criteria, are considered more reliable and contribute to the global registration with a greater weight. On the contrary, blurry response images, fail to satisfy the tests, are considered less reliable results and contribute with a smaller weight. The analysis of the images performed by testing the distribution of pixel values in both directions of the images. The implemented approach provides information about the precision and reliability of the images that have normally distributed values. Furthermore, by fitting a Gaussian line to the discrete pixel values, a sub-pixel accuracy of the result is achieved as values are generated in between the discrete pixels. The developed method quantifies the quality of an image-based registration but further improvements and investigation of the recommendations can also attach additional value.

In this thesis, a proof of concept is developed that describes a complete data processing chain for registering new apartment rights in 3D. This chain starts by defining and adding legal space to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) Building Information Model (BIM) models. Once the IFC BIMs are enriched with legal space, the 3D parcels are automatically extracted. The legal space is checked and validated, and stored in a Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) compliant database. Finally, the legal space is visualised on a desktop and browser-based client. Currently, there is no functional 3D Cadastral system functional in the Netherlands. A pilot study has been conducted to register 3D rights on the railway station in the city of Delft. This complex area contained many stacked objects such as a tunnel, offices, shops, etc. [Stoter et al., 2017]. However, the 3D drawings of the area were stored in a PDF document, which only serves as a visualisation tool in a separate document in the Public Registers. As a result, it is not possible to check for overlap with other 3D Cadastral objects. This research focuses on registering apartment rights for a 3D cadastre by using IFC BIM models as source data. Apartment rights are one of the most common rights found in apartment complexes. The IFC file format is chosen because it is the most widely used open data format for the exchange of BIM. In the Netherlands, submitting a IFC BIM file is mandatory for obtaining a construction permit for buildings with a value of 10 million euro or higher. IFC BIM files contain a lot of information, including 3D geometries of the indoor spaces, constructions and building infrastructure. However, there is no explicit information defining the individual apartments (property units). Therefore, the IFC is enriched with legal space in order to enable fully automatic extraction of the 3D spaces that belong to one apartment. This enrichment is based on analysing the current way of registering apartment rights using annotated 2D floorplans as part of a notarial deed [Kadaster, 2014, 2019c], analysing the Dutch legal system related to apartment rights, and based on this knowledge make a proposal for enriched IFC IFC files. To reach practical suggestions for the IFC enrichment, that can be used in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, stakeholders such as notaries, the Dutch cadastre, BIM experts and other parties are involved. Also, current guidelines and practices in the Netherlands on IFC usage have been taken carefully into consideration, such as specification documents of the National Government and the National BIM Platform. The conclusions of this research are that it is possible to enrich IFC BIM model with legal space in such a way that it fits current IFC BIM practices and legal system as much as possible. This is demonstrated with two use cases that describe the registration process of a (fictional) new apartment building, and sub splitting apartment rights of a (fictional) existing building. It is also concluded that there is still many future work to be done, such as improving the definition of legal space in IFC, further researching cadastral administration systems, and the changes to the current in the legal system that are required to facilitate 3D registration of property units.

In 2017 the Netherlands had 7146km of railways [Ramaekers et al., 2009], which are owned and managed by ProRail and have to be frequently surveyed, for quality inspection. Surveying is done using a variety of surveying techniques, many of which require surveyors to walk on or near the tracks, which could cause injuries. An alternative surveying technique would be photogrammetry using images acquired with a camera mounted on a drone. In this technique a 3D point cloud is constructed out of images, which is georeferenced using GPS measurements on the drone and Ground Control Points (GCP). The positions of the rail rods can then be found by modelling the rail rod using the point cloud. The quality of the point cloud, defined here as a combination of accuracy, precision, point density, completeness, and the rail rod feature detectability, is an important factor in deciding if photogrammetry is a sufficient surveying technique for this project.

In this research the influence of the distance between the camera and the track, the baseline, and the number and spread of GCPs on the quality of the resulting point cloud. The distance to the track was set to 25, 30 and35m and the baseline was varied between 2 and 10m. The requirement set for the accuracy is 15mm, while the precision has to be below 10mm. For the point density an K-nearest neighbors (K-nn) of at least 10 is required, the completeness requires less than 10% missing cells and finally the feature detectability requires that at least once every 2m the location of the rail can be determined. The features are detected using a 2D model of the rail that is fitted in a flattened slice of the point cloud using a modified version of the iterative closest point algorithm.

It is shown that the accuracy and precision are influenced by the distance and baseline, but no clear relation was found, while the accuracy improves when using GCPs. For the point density it is shown that increasing the distance between the camera and the track linearly decreases the point density, while the baseline has no impact and for the completeness a decreasing trend was found when increasing the baseline, while no relation could be found between the completeness and the distance between the camera and the track. For the rail rod feature detectability it was shown that the percentage of accurately found rail rod positions goes down when increasing the distance to the track and the baseline. Overall it is proven that when using a 100MP camera, 5 GCPs, a distance of 25m, and a baseline of 2.17m the rail rods could be surveyed so that the requirements set for this research were met.

LiDAR technologies are used to measure point cloud data of the earth's surface. The usage of LiDAR allows for the fast collections of massive data sets. The AHN2 point cloud data set, part of Rijkswaterstaats initiative to map the surface of the Netherlands, contains 639 478 217 460 points. For efficient visualization in web viewers, these massive point clouds are stored in an octree data structure. Visualization through this method has the downside of discretely visualizing the point cloud. These discrete artefacts are referred to as density jumps, and are visible where there is a boundary between blocks retrieved from the octree. These blocks contain different densities because they are retrieved from different levels of the octree. This thesis proposes a continuous visualization method for massive point cloud data sets that aims to eliminate these density jumps. While the continuous visualization of vector data sets has been extensively researched, this is a novel field of research for point cloud data sets. This thesis explores the feasibility of a vario-scale visualization method, and aims to implement it in an existing web viewer architecture. Due to the massive nature of the AHN2 data set, cloud computing and distributed computing techniques are used to imrove the workflow. The presented methodology removes the \textit{density jumps} by determining an upper density bound for the point cloud density relative to the camera position. Circle packing theory is used to reinforce the upper bound continuously, thus removing artefacts created by discrete density jumps. A proof-of-concept for this theory is implemented in an existing point cloud web viewer architecture.

The promotion of the data re-usability was the main motivation behind the conception of linked data. Spatial data can also be expressed as linked data. This thesis explores different approaches to utilize spatial data in linked data format, in order to determine if the technologies have matured enough to assist solving spatial problems. More precisely, it attempts to select a position to build a new shopping center in Delft, Netherlands by using relational data and linked data. Five different Linked-data implementations are identified and examined; two of them, a Geographic SPARQL Protocol and Resource Description Framework (RDF) Query Language (a recursive acronym for GeoSPARQL) (GeoSPARQL) endpoint and an API, are offered from Publieke Dienstverlening Op de Kaart (PDOK). The other three approaches are designed using Oracle Spatial and Graph. From the latter three, one approach utilizes linked data stored in a local database while the rest utilize relational data mapped into linked-data. All five approaches are assessed for GeoSPARQL compliance and are compared to a QGIS solution. From the aforementioned approaches, only the two mapping ones have achieved the desired solution. However, none of them fully complies with GeoSPARQL specification hence, further research is necessary.

Open standards like Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards can be used to improve interoperability and re-usability among geospatial tools, datasets and services across the web. Today more than six thousands commercial and non commercial implementations of the OGC Web Services (OWS) are available, and more and more Geographical Information Systems (GIS) web applications, platforms and datasets are being published from organizations in the global geospatial community. This thesis explores if the GIS standards, their implementations, and the organizations themselves are mature enough to support quality decision making in sectors like the risk management, by developing GIS web applications with up-to-date spatial datasets and complex geo-processes. Motivation for this research has been the Risk Indicators for Infrastructure in Data scarce Environments (RI2DE) GIS web tool of Deltares institution, a tool that performs GIS analysis based on datasets with global coverage, in order to detect areas around road infrastructures that are susceptible against climate related geohazards, and its need to provide quality risk maps and more friendly to the user Graphical User Interface (GUI) through status reporting messages and control of the processes. The tool is developed with open source technology components, OWS and standard data formats (such us Geographic JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) (GeoJSON), JSON and eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Having as case study the RI2DE tool, within this research the OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) 2.0.2 standard that is responsible for publishing geoprocesses as web services and its free and open source PyWPS 4.0.0 implementation has been evaluated according to the new operations for job monitoring and job control that the standard offers, in order to assess if it is feasible to have status report messages and control of the processes. Moreover it has be assessed how easy is to find and access up-to-date datasets, services and tools from distributed Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI)s that implement the Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) standard, and how flexible are the WPS to accept different inputs. From an early stage of this research it has been clear that the status reporting and the control of the process would have been difficult to be implemented, since the PyWPS implementation of the WPS 2.0.2 is still undergoing until the delivery of this thesis. While the standard has been published since 2015, the only available full implementation of it is from the ZOO-Project, which arise question regarding the complexity of the standard specification and the currently state-of-the-art technology. The greatest achievement of this thesis has been the integration of the distributed searching for services at different CSW catalogues, at the RI2DE tool web browser. While the implementation was achieved, many question were arise concerning the sharing of the produced geospatial information from organizations and countries.

During the last three decades, the Earth’s climate is changing rapidly, with higher average temperatures every year that leads not only to the melting of the ice sheet in the arctic and on most of the glaciers all over the world but also to extreme weather phenomena. The rise of the temperature can affect the Sea Surface Height (SSH) in more than one way, and since 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by the oceans, if the oceans are being affected then the whole Earth also is. The monitoring of the SSH can help the scientist predict the changes that will take place in the future. The SSH is a dynamic phenomenon that constantly changes not only within different decades but also from year to year, month to month even within the same day. These changes are the result of various phenomena and are called anomalies. When the SSH is monitored different phenomena are represented in different time scales and it is important to be taken into consideration if there is the need for a proper understanding of the SSH phenomenon. Many spatial data vendors are providing a large number of data-sets related to the monitoring of SSH and its anomalies and as a result, there is the need to find the most effective way to extract information from the data. Over the years has been established that one of the most effective ways to extract information from data is through the various visualization techniques and since the data of SSH is mainly spatial the main visualization technique is cartography. The advancements of the technology over the last couple of decades have led to a reality that the ”online” application is the norm and consequently the web mapping and web geographical information system (GIS).
The goal of this thesis is to propose an architecture for a web GIS application that will be able to visualize dynamic data while adding elements of interactivity to improve the chances of the Sea Surface Height Anomaly (SSHA). IN order to achieve the goal of this thesis three main research questions need to be answered: What type of animation should be used (in order to visualize the passing of time), what interactivity elements should be added (e.g. zooming/panning in space and time) and what system’s architecture is optimal for such application (server-side/client-side etc.). This document is providing guidelines on how to create such an application and is resulting in the production of a prototype. The first part of this thesis is the review of the main ideas that are introduced in this project and how they were implemented by other researchers. Then, a comparison between the different implementation techniques (for every research question) is taking place to determine the main characteristics of the application. The final part is related to the implementation of the chosen techniques that lead to the development of the prototype application. The resulted prototype even though it is not perfect, due to technical limitations that were a consequence of implementing some of the most recent concepts in web development, is functional and paves the way for the development of new improved dynamic/interactive web GIS applications (https://giorgosdimo.github.io/MSc-Thesis/).