https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230714114743.htm

Construction measures that transform urban settings change the environment of both the people who live there permanently and those who visit them temporarily. It's not always possible to foresee the effects in advance. In such cases, it helps to recreate the setting in a 3D model which people can experience through immersion. To this end, the cartographers working with Marco Weißmann use software that was originally designed to programme computer game environments. "We've developed a lab kit of sorts in which you can simulate an environment virtually, complete with traffic," explains Weißmann. The researchers can use it to directly visualise the effects of planned structural changes: how does the traffic flow? Do cars and pedestrians get in each other's way or not?

Measuring the implicit effects of spaces