Dataset. The Actuale Hoogtekaart Nederland (AHN) is a so-called point-cloud, consisting of 3D points measured using LIDAR technology. LIDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging - a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges to the Earth, in the case of AHN taken from an airplane. We got 2TB of point cloud data for you to analyze.

You may find the following Spark package useful: https://github.com/IGNF/spark-iqmulus though it works only with Spark 1.6.2 (which you would have to install yourself, as the preinstalled version now is 2.1.1)

C1: 3D Kadaster. We have downloaded XML descriptions contain all Dutch addresses and 2D building plan polygons. We would like you to turn these 2D plans into 3D models, using the point cloud dataset.

Summary. The 3D point cloud data was masked and intersected with the kadaster 2D data, and the remaining points were fed into the 3dfier tool from TU Delft to generate 3D shapes for the buildings.

In the resulting three.js WebGL visualization you can use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom (press S and move mouse to zoom if you do not have a scroll wheel). The most centric yellow tile contains the 3D model for the city of Amsterdam (displayed below the map).

Data Curiosity: ****
Paper Writing: ****
Technical difficulties mastered: ****
Visualization coolness: ****