Awesome 3D Semantic City Models

Type: Curated directory / awesome list
Category: Themed directories
Source: GitHub – awesome-citygml
License: MIT

Overview

Awesome 3D Semantic City Models is a curated, “awesome-style” list of open semantic 3D city and region models, with a strong focus on CityGML and similar formats. It centralizes high-quality, open 3D urban datasets from multiple institutions to make discovery and reuse easier for research, GIS, and 3D city modeling projects.

Features

• Curated directory of datasets

  • Collects open data semantic 3D city and regional models.
  • Focus on CityGML and comparable semantic 3D urban data formats.
  • Aims to be a more complete list than scattered institutional resources.

• Semantic 3D focus

  • Emphasizes models with semantic information (e.g., buildings with attributes, not just geometry).
  • Useful for applications such as urban analysis, 3D reconstruction, GIS workflows, and city digital twins.

• Aggregation of multiple sources

  • Builds upon and complements existing lists and initiatives, including:
    • CityGML Wiki “Open Data Initiatives”.
    • TU Delft 3D open data / open cities.
    • Towards Data Science articles on open-source 3D semantical building models.

• Open source repository

  • Hosted on GitHub, enabling transparent updates and version control.
  • MIT license for open reuse and redistribution of the list itself.

• Community contribution

  • Open to pull requests and contributions of new datasets.
  • Provides contact email for maintainers.

• Related tooling information

  • Separate software.md subpage listing software and tools relevant for working with the listed 3D models.

• Academic linkage

  • Accompanied by a peer-reviewed paper: “Reviewing Open Data Semantic 3D City Models to Develop Novel 3D Reconstruction Methods” (ISPRS Archives, 2024).
  • Citable via the linked paper and Zenodo entry, useful for academic referencing.

Data & Technology Focus

• Domains: GIS, 3D city modeling, urban data, 3D reconstruction research.
• Data types: Open semantic 3D city / region models (e.g., CityGML datasets).

Pricing

• Access to the repository and the curated list is free (open source, MIT-licensed).

Useful Links

• Main repository: https://github.com/OloOcki/awesome-citygml
• Software subpage: https://github.com/OloOcki/awesome-citygml/blob/main/software.md
• CityGML Wiki (referenced): https://www.citygmlwiki.org/index.php?title=Open_Data_Initiatives
• TU Delft open 3D data (referenced): https://3d.bk.tudelft.nl/opendata/opencities/
• ISPRS paper (referenced): https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-4-2024/493/2024/