Urbes Globe Viz

Interactive 3D globe visualization platform for the URBES research group at EPFL, displaying urban morphology, mobility flows, building heights, and other geospatial datasets.

• Dev: https://urbes-globe-viz-dev.epfl.ch/
• Prod: https://urbes-globe-viz.epfl.ch/
• GitHub: https://github.com/EPFL-ENAC/urbes-globe-viz

---

Adding New Data

Researchers: follow the step-by-step guide → docs/guide.md

It covers everything from installing tools to submitting your dataset as a pull request. No programming experience required.

For quick reference on individual data conversion commands, see the processing cookbook.

---

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js v22+ and npm — download from nodejs.org (LTS version). npm is bundled with Node.
• Python 3 (for data processing)

Windows users: after installing Node.js, use the commands below via PowerShell or the Node.js command prompt. Replace make install with the commands it wraps:

npm install
npm install --prefix frontend
npx lefthook install

Commands

make install   # install frontend dependencies + git hooks
make lint      # ESLint + Prettier check
make format    # Prettier auto-format

cd frontend && npm run dev    # dev server at http://localhost:9000
cd frontend && npm run build  # production build

Pre-commit hooks

This project uses lefthook to run Prettier before each commit. Stage all changes to a file before committing to avoid patch-reapply conflicts.

---

Project Structure

urbes-globe-viz/
├── frontend/
│   └── src/
│       ├── components/features/   # Map renderers (Globe3D, DaveFlowsMap, ProjectMap)
│       ├── config/projects/       # Per-dataset configs (one .ts file per project)
│       ├── pages/                 # GlobeView (home) + ProjectDetailView
│       └── stores/                # Pinia stores
└── processing/
    ├── cookbook/                  # ← Recipes for converting data (start here)
    ├── aldo_netcdf/               # WRF/PALM NetCDF → multi-band COG pipeline
    ├── ghsl_to_pmtiles/           # GHSL built-surface pipeline (SCITAS HPC)
    ├── dave_flows/                # DAVE mobility flow processing
    └── martin_building_heights/   # Building heights → PMTiles

---

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend framework	Vue 3 + TypeScript
UI components	Quasar
Map engine	MapLibre GL JS
3D overlays	Deck.gl
Build tool	Vite
Web server	nginx (Docker)

---

Contributors

• EPFL URBES (Research & Data): Gabriele Manoli, Guo-Shiuan Lin, Martin Hendrick
• EPFL ENAC-IT4R (Implementation): Pierre Ripoll
• EPFL ENAC-IT4R (Project Management): Charlotte Weil

License

GNU General Public License v3.0