Visualization Applications

There are many applications for visualization of environmental data. Visualization enables technical personnel to better understand their work. It is often the only practical method of communicating complex results to a non-technical audience such as public hearings or litigation support. In these environments, animations are particularly useful and often employed.

Though GIS software often includes some visualization capability, it often falls short as compared with true 3D visualization software. However GIS software has the ability to store images and animations created with other software in their databases. These images or animations can be viewed by selecting them on a site-by-site basis. In this manner, GIS software can become the repository for detailed visualizations performed on small sites that are a portion of a much larger project. With GIS systems like ESRI's ArcView, images and animations can be hot-linked to objects in the GIS project allowing them to be viewed with a single mouse click.