What will the view from the 20th floor be? Today Esri can help you answer that question quickly. Eye catching visualizations are useful, but the real value is in geospatial analysis. The 3D approach is being used in "What If" scenarios to find out what happens if a flood happens.  3D can be used in large scale construction planning. In Hong Kong 3D analysis is being used to determine the view from each location of a high-rise. Now, shadow analysis quantifies how sunlight is blocked by new construction for any given area.

In his work with 3D mapping and its management, Tamarat Belayneh has seen the development of an increasing number of tools to manage visualization and spacial relationships. Tamarat Belayneh recalls how interest in GIS has grown in the five years he has been coming to an O'Reilly Where conference. He observes that people are more and more interested in the world around them.

There are five concerns Esri likes to cover when dealing with 3D data situations. First, create a 3D data set, the content. Secondly, manage the data set. Third, determine how it will be visualized. (Various Esri tools are available to help do this, such as ArcSCene.) The fourth concern is analysis, and the fifth is how your data will be shared. (The newest iteration of Esri GIS software allows you to publish data.) Esri guides its users through all these tasks as the movement to share and publish GIS data grows exponentially.