From a geographic point of view, a scientist can use the model to examine different maps of Sardinia in a 3D environment, retrieving cartographic information directly tight to the elevation of the terrain. With our model it is now possible to analyze three-dimensional variations, both for territorial planning and structural geology analysis. The combined vision of the satellite images and the spatial model leeds to a new frontier in territorial variation interpretation.
Multiple ways to explore the Sardinia territory are used to provide different views and navigation tools. A large amount of heterogeneous data concerning the island of Sardinia is represented in such a way that a casual user can easily navigate through them in a virtual trip. All these data are interconnected in an hypermedia way, browsable in the World-wide Web. We believe that this approach provides a new way to create regional information systems easily available that could be made available to the general public.
Future directions of the project will be toward: a finer resolution of the 3D model, both for images and for elevation data; the addition of new hyperlinks to the 3D model; the creation of "specialized" thematic models, e.g. a model only with touristical informations, another one with geological data, and so on; different combinations of the satellite images to explore different aspect of the island, e.g. vegetation and water distribution.
The Virtual Sardinia project can be accessed at the address http://www.crs4.it/PRJ/VIRTSARD/. All the features described in this paper are currently available to the general public, except for the 3D interactive navigation, which is for the moment limited to users at our site.