2. Overview

The aim of the 3D City Database is to provide a high-performance and scalable datastore for virtual 3D City Models also known as Digital (Geo-)Twins. The database schema implements and is fully compliant with the conceptual data model of the OGC standard CityGML 2.0. This allows you to store, manage, analyze and even visualize your 3D geodata based on an open and interoperable standard rather than to seal it in proprietary data silos.

The 3D City Database and all bundled tools are free and open source software. The database schema is available for the open source database PostgreSQL/PostGIS and the commercial Oracle Spatial Database solution. Both database systems are highly optimized, de-facto industry standards for storing and querying 3D spatial data. The geometry data types and spatial functions offered by both systems follow common OGC and GIS standards. This way the data stored in the 3D City Database can be easily accessed and consumed by both open source and commercial GIS tools such as QGIS, ESRI ArcGIS or Safe Software’s Feature Manipulation Engine (FME).

This chapter introduces the key aspects and main features of the 3D City Database and provides a brief development history as well as acknowledgements to supporters of the project. Contributions to the 3D City Database project are always welcome!