The Third Dimension in Noise Visualization – a Design of New Methods for Continuous Phenomenon Visualization

ABSTRACT 3D cartographic visualization of a continuous time-dependent phenomenon is not an easy task. The focus of this research is motivated by the struggle to visualize such a phenomenon. Based on the current state of the art, we implemented new visualization methods to visualize continuous time-dependent phenomena. All visualizations are based on the use case of road-traffic-generated noise in outdoor urban areas. These visualizations utilize the third dimension of the map scene. The first two methods focus on the variations of the noise in the vertical dimension (i.e. height). The third method is based on the idea of space–time cube and therefore utilizes the time variable as the third dimension. For demonstration purposes, all methods were implemented in an online application. Furthermore, user testing of those applications was conducted. This paper thus describes design, implementation and user evaluation of newly proposed methods for third dimension visualization.