Issue: integrated software system for the urban environment

A current project at ABACUS is to develop a specification and produce a partial implementation of an interactive software system through which information on the urban environment can be compiled, maintained, and accessed. The heart of this prototype is a geometrical model of the terrain, buildings, and transport networks covering an area of some 20 km<SUP>2 </SUP>in and around the city centre of Glasgow. A database of upwards of ten thousand buildings is now in existence, from basic block outlines to fully detailed architectural models. The current research is intended to enhance the data set by providing a series of software bridges between the geometry model and extant alphanumeric databases. Advances in computer hardware and in information technology software offer the prospect of an integrated system relating to the urban environment -- a database of databases -- which would be accessible to all those who plan, manage, work in, live in, or simply visit the city.