Visualization of Flood Simulation with Microsoft HoloLens

It is necessary for decision makers and stakeholders to have the necessary information and tools needed to make sound decisions for mitigation plans for flooding. However, most of the decision makers and stakeholders are not technically-trained, it is often difficult for them to envisage the flood impacts based on the reports of the flood damages analysis. Thus, in order for them to visualize the impacts of the floods, a virtual reality tool is developed where the user is transported to the flooding location where they are able to access the flood damage and the benefits of mitigation in first person perspective. The visualization of the flood simulations using virtual reality transports users into a simulated world and transforms watching the screen into a living experience. Compared with the original plane drawing, screen watching, and sand table model, exhibition with virtual reality will no longer be limited by time or space. It also provides more comprehensive information with lower cost and better viewing experience. The scenes that are presented in this work are produces using the AR device of Microsoft HoloLens. They have the following functions: (1) exhibition of the city model, (2) interactions to manipulate the model, flood simulation. The city model was firstly designed using CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. The exported model files are then imported into the Unity3D, where IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is used to design the virtual scenes. Flood simulation data are also imported into Unity3D which are fed into the program to compute the level of the flood at every location in the scene.