The use of three-dimensional computer visualisation in shaping our urban environments has been discussed in the literature for the past ten years. In particular, the use of visualisation in design control has been of interest in opening up the planning process to those outside the design profession with a view to improving decisionmaking. Despite research demonstrating that this occurs, implementation of visualisation on a routine basis within planning authorities remains limited. In this paper a literature review is presented concerning visualisation of urban environments to explore the reasons for this lack of implementation. The interrelation of abstraction, accuracy, and realism in visualisation is used as a framework for this examination.
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