Using three-dimensional visualization to represent hydrological influence on wetland plants

Wild Duck Lake (WDL) wetland, a Nature Reserve of Beijing, China is suffering from regional groundwater table declining and potential flood inundation. This paper aims to visualize the hydrological influence on plant species in this area. The photorealistic plants were rendered at 3D scale with exact georeferencing on the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) covered with an aerial photo. The simplified relationship between plants and hydrology was established according to the field survey of individual height, population density, depth to shallow groundwater table, and depth to surface water level. Seed-spread algorithm was used to simulate flood inundation with a given flood level. Plant species with the influenced individual height and population density were then represented according to specified shallow groundwater table and flood level. Navigation, animation and some other 3D handling tools were developed to improve interactive and immersive abilities for exploring. The result shows that 3D visualization can be an effective way to understand interaction between hydrology and ecology, which usually hides behind of some complicated and interdisciplinary processes. It provides us a visual decision-making support for water resource management on considering of ecological response.