A Data Model for Geometric, Semantic and Spatial Topology Validation of CityGML Datasets

3D city models are gaining importance across applications such as urban analytics and digital twins, where geometric and semantic data quality directly determine downstream usability. While tools for validating the geometric and semantic consistency of individual CityGML features already exist, support for validating the spatial topology between distinct features remains absent from current validation tools. This paper presents ongoing research extending the data model of CityDoctor2 (CD2), an open-source Java library for CityGML validation and repair, to enable spatial topology validation at city-model scale. We describe CD2’s existing data model and detail the architectural adaptations required to support topology checks: replacing the original streaming-based parser with a persistent, database-backed storage layer complemented by an in-memory cache, enabling spatial indexing, multi-threaded validation, and candidate-pair queries via bounding-box predicates. Performance evaluation on a CityGML test dataset shows the new architecture incurs a considerable increase in runtime when compared to the previous streaming approach, in exchange for the ability to perform spatial topology validation on datasets too large to hold entirely in memory.

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Publication Details

Journal
˜The œinternational archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences/International archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences
Published
2026-09-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-l-4-w3-2026-145-2026
Primary Topic
3D Modeling in Geospatial Applications
Type
article
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article

A Data Model for Geometric, Semantic and Spatial Topology Validation of CityGML Datasets

Volker Coors, Matthias Betz, Luna Riegel
˜The œinternational archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences/International archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences
3D Modeling in Geospatial Applications
article

A Data Model for Geometric, Semantic and Spatial Topology Validation of CityGML Datasets

Volker Coors, Matthias Betz, Luna Riegel
article en

Abstract

3D city models are gaining importance across applications such as urban analytics and digital twins, where geometric and semantic data quality directly determine downstream usability. While tools for validating the geometric and semantic consistency of individual CityGML features already exist, support for validating the spatial topology between distinct features remains absent from current validation tools. This paper presents ongoing research extending the data model of CityDoctor2 (CD2), an open-source Java library for CityGML validation and repair, to enable spatial topology validation at city-model scale. We describe CD2’s existing data model and detail the architectural adaptations required to support topology checks: replacing the original streaming-based parser with a persistent, database-backed storage layer complemented by an in-memory cache, enabling spatial indexing, multi-threaded validation, and candidate-pair queries via bounding-box predicates. Performance evaluation on a CityGML test dataset shows the new architecture incurs a considerable increase in runtime when compared to the previous streaming approach, in exchange for the ability to perform spatial topology validation on datasets too large to hold entirely in memory.

˜The œinternational archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences/International archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciencesVol. L-4/W3-2026(0)
Stuttgart Technical University of Applied Sciences (DE)
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 15%
3D Modeling in Geospatial Applications
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