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Editor's note: Cesium is committed to open source, open standards, and rapid innovation. We power training, planning, operations, and analysis across the US Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. We're proud to have collaborated with NUWC Division Newport and NSWC Carderock Division on this article about the impact of OTAs. Read the PDF here.

In March 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued the memo “Directing Modern Software Acquisition to Maximize Lethality,” mandating the use of the Software Acquisition Pathway for all Department of Defense (DOD) software development procurements. This memo also instructs DOD components to prioritize Other Transaction Authority agreements (OTAs) and Commercial Solutions Openings (CSOs) as the preferred methods for acquiring software capabilities. 

OTAs were created in 1958 to give DOD flexibility to incorporate business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and best practices into how it awards contracts. DOD historically employed OTAs in conducting research and development; in 2016, the National Defense Authorization Act expanded the use of OTAs to include prototype and production. This expansion provided the warfare centers with another alternative to a Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)-based procurement contract. 

NAVSEA’s warfare centers have been doing business this way for years. 

In 2016, the Undersea Technology Innovation Consortium (UTIC) was stood up as a non-profit research organization comprised of small and large technology companies, academia, and nonprofits who are developing undersea technologies and addressing defense and security challenges.  

By 2018, UTIC, represented by management firm Advanced Technology International, and NUWC Newport Division signed a three-year OTA contract (renewable for up to 10 years) to explore Undersea Technology Innovation in a broad range of undersea and maritime prototyping activities. NUWC Newport Division’s contracting professionals began exploring how to use OTA to deliver prototypes to the submarine Fleet faster and soon released its first Call for Topics under the OTA—the first warfare center to pursue this option.

Their success led to collaboration with other warfare centers including the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock Division via Dave Sracic, Distinguished Software Engineer for Fleet Signatures Systems.  

Sracic needed a solution that would let him approve software development without micromanaging it. In 2019, Sracic awarded two agreements utilizing NUWC Newport Division’s UTIC OTA, one of which went to Analytical Graphics Inc., whose subcontractor was Cesium.  

Cesium specializes in 3D geospatial technology, particularly for visualization and analysis. The company is considered a “non-traditional” government partner, which was a major aspect of the success of the collaboration. 

As part of the OTA prototype agreement, Cesium provided a platform for building 3D geospatial applications, including CesiumJS, an open-source library for 3D visualization in web browsers designed for robust interoperability and scaling for massive datasets. Cesium works to advance the geospatial ecosystem and open source, open standards, data sharing, and interoperability.  

In May 2024, NSWC Carderock awarded $2.2 million to Cesium through the OTA.  

Stills from Cesium’s bathymetry data set.

“UTIC had already proven to be effective for my team and our small initial toe-in-the-water approach had been highly successful. Given the choice between working with NUWC Newport to put together a new Request for Prototyping versus pursuing a traditional FAR-based path, it wasn’t much of a choice at all—I’ll take six weeks over 18 months any day,” said Sracic. 

Trent Tinker, director of Cesium’s federal business development, said, “From Cesium’s perspective, the OTA streamlined administrative processes and allowed for a direct line of communication with Navy customers. The OTA got us a step closer to the end users, and ensuring their data supports better, faster decisions is something that we’re really excited about.” 

According to Sracic, “Open source software is a building block of nearly every DOD system, and at some level, virtually all of the world’s most complex software systems. Our key challenge in building Navy combat systems is in using open-source software without finding ourselves trapped when it evolves faster than we do. Our thought was we’re using this open source CesiumJS and it does 80 percent of what we want, so let’s pay the experts who built it to make it do more.” 

As Sracic explained, “We got those changes back into CesiumJS, upstream, open source version, which means we do not have to keep a Navy fork of that software. The open source community maintains those specific changes. We care deeply about those features and use them heavily. Now that they’re part of the master branch, with test cases, we have reasonable confidence they won’t die, and we don’t pay some kind of sustainment fee. This is what the DOD policy aspires to—the government contributing back to open source.” 

“The OTA also enables Cesium to work with warfare centers on the open source position of their challenges,” said Tinker. “While some of the development stays with the government, other roadmap-aligned services go to the open source baseline and benefit everyone.” 

“Public-private partnerships between the Navy and UTIC members enable the Navy to create new paths to acquire and improve technological capabilities aboard its fleet, focusing on critical missions rather than the building blocks of visualization. Dave Sracic was proactive and flexible, and our terms were Firm Fixed Price, pairing our risk tolerance and desire to do meaningful work as a technology growth company,” said Patrick Cozzi, Cesium founder and Bentley Systems chief platform officer. 

“This is quantifiable value and return on investment, and sufficient to justify follow-on efforts to integrate capability into a combat system, which is a win for Navy in that it’s already risk-reduced and well understood,” explained Sracic. “And it’s a win for industry, which can do that work through non-competitive follow-on to the OTA.”

When it comes to infrastructure investments, visualization transforms public engagement from abstract discussions to concrete decision-making. HNTB’s Immersive Media Solutions team uses Cesium ion, Cesium for Unreal, Cesium for Unity, and Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles to help community stakeholders better understand proposed infrastructure projects and engage meaningfully in the approval process. 

A flythrough of a proposed design to replace the Bourne Bridge was used in public outreach efforts as part of the Cape Cod Bridges Program. Courtesy HNTB. 

HNTB: Bourne Bridge

Founded in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1914, HNTB initially focused on designing railroad bridges. Today, the company offers comprehensive services in engineering, architecture, planning, and construction management, primarily focusing on transportation infrastructure. Their architectural services extend to designing and managing projects for public assembly facilities, including numerous prominent sports stadiums and arenas.  

“When presenting an infrastructure project proposal for public engagement, it’s crucial that local stakeholders and property owners understand where their property, building, or favorite park is located in relation to the proposal, and that the surrounding context is recognizable,” HNTB immersive media solutions manager Dave Willard said. 

Willard and his team create real-time interactive media to visualize and assess infrastructure project designs, from single highway interchanges to 30-mile road and rail corridors. They load a diverse range of 3D engineering and design models of roads, bridges, or rail networks—created in applications like OpenRoads, Revit, MicroStation, Civil3D, or SketchUp—directly into Unreal Engine or Unity. The team uses the Cesium for Unreal or Cesium for Unity plugins, depending on the project, and accesses Photorealistic 3D Tiles via Cesium ion to add real-world context, enriching project visualizations for public review and community engagement initiatives.  

Designed to deliver highly detailed and realistic data for immersive environments, Google Maps Platform's Photorealistic 3D Tiles enable immersive experiences that scale from individual buildings to entire cities. Photorealistic 3D Tiles leverage the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) community standard 3D Tiles format, created by Cesium, which performantly streams massive amounts of 3D geospatial data. 

Prior to adopting Cesium, providing accurate geospatial context for major projects was a significant time investment, requiring the team to manually model, texture, and detail existing buildings.   

“Now, we bring that data in from Cesium and use it as-is in many cases,” Willard explained. “It removes the headache on our end, allowing us to focus our time on visualizing the proposed project instead of the buildings that are already there.”   

HNTB's visualization team extended Cesium's open-source platform to vertically align long linear infrastructure models with the Earth's curvature. Courtesy HNTB.

This capability proved invaluable to HNTB during its work on a long highway corridor project in the southeastern United States. 

“Manually modeling existing buildings for contextual detail on long linear projects historically required over 1,000 hours of work,” Willard said. “Cesium reduces that time to between 200 and 300 hours." 

The extensibility and open-source foundation of Cesium enabled HNTB's visualization team to build a tool that addressed the challenge they faced in accurately aligning this 26-mile corridor model. Traditional engineering designs don't account for the Earth's curvature, leading to noticeable vertical discrepancies over long distances—in this case, the model floated about 80 feet above the earth at one end and dipped 80 below the other. 

HNTB developed a non-destructive mesh blending tool on top of Cesium that could automatically apply the necessary curvature to large, complex 3D models. This allowed them to continuously update design models in their Unity environment, with the tool automatically correcting for Earth's curvature, ensuring "ground truth accuracy" for their clients.  

“One of the really cool things about having Cesium is the ability to build other tools on top of it,” remarked Adam Liss, HNTB senior immersive media specialist. 

Willard's team, serving as a key consultant for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on the Cape Cod Bridges Program, was tasked with presenting 10 different interchange configurations for public review. 

Traditionally, this would have necessitated creating numerous individual videos and renderings for each combination, making it difficult for the public to compare scenarios and provide feedback. Instead, Willard's team applied their Cesium-powered interactive media capabilities, so presenters were able to dynamically display and toggle between these different interchange options, with detailed surroundings the reviewers expected to see, in real time via pixel streams and locally-run applications during public meetings. 

HNTB’s team also built masking tools using Cesium. These tools enable them to overlay potential designs directly onto existing structures, making it easy for viewers to compare the past with the proposed future.

For a bridge proposal to link barrier islands along the Gulf Coast of Texas, HNTB integrated Cesium’s World Bathymetry data into their visualization. This addition helped stakeholders understand how underwater topography and the locations of historic shipwrecks impacted the busy shipping lanes beneath the proposed bridge design. “It’s important to be able to render this 2D-type information in a 3D context,” Liss explained. 

This streamlined process, powered by Cesium, enables quick visualization of design alternatives and facilitates efficient collection of public input to identify preferred designs for their projects. 

Innovation defines HNTB's 111-year legacy in infrastructure, a commitment clearly seen in their Immersive Media Solutions team's work to transform public engagement by making the abstract concrete. When it comes to Cesium, the team feels like they are just scratching the surface. “As we transition away from manual modeling of existing context, technologies like Cesium will continue to make our workflows much faster,” Willard said. 

Looking into the future, Willard’s sights are set on digital twin delivery, bridging the work between owner-operators and engineering firms.  

“The end goal isn't just about interactive real-time visualizations; it's transforming those visualizations into informational environments—digital twins,” Willard said. “Imagine delivering a complete football stadium or road corridor, complete with all its element-level metadata as a digital twin. That, to me, is a truly valuable deliverable for an engineering firm.” 

Bring accurate real-world context, like Photorealistic 3D Tiles, to your infrastructure projects with Cesium ion. 

HNTB Streamlines Infrastructure Project Visualization with Cesium 

都市開発や社会インフラ整備において、関係者間の認識のズレは大きな課題でした。特に、専門知識のない行政担当者や住民にとって、設計意図を正確に理解することは容易ではありません。その背景には、膨大なデータをどのように統合し、可視化し、合意形成を円滑に進めるかという長年の問題がありました。特に、リアルな背景データの作成は、従来膨大な時間とコストを要する作業でした。しかし、日本工営株式会社はこの課題を解決するためにCesium for Unrealを導入し、設計対象エリアに対する正確な地理空間背景データの取得・処理を大幅に効率化。その結果、関係者や意思決定者、住民がインフラ設計やシミュレーションをより容易に理解できるようになりました。

都市開発やインフラ計画において、設計対象エリアのみならず、周辺環境の再現が不可欠です。背景データがなければ、設計の影響を適切に評価できず、関係者間の共通認識が形成されにくくなります。しかし、正確な地理空間の背景データの作成は従来、非常に手間のかかる作業であり、他にも多くの課題がありました。

背景データ作成の負担：都市全体や広範囲の地形データを個別に作成する必要があり、多大な時間と労力を要していた。

データ統合の壁：DEMデータ、航空・衛星画像、点群データ、SfMメッシュ、BIM/CIMデータなど、多種多様なデータを手作業で統合する作業が必要だった。

リアルタイムレンダリングの限界：高精細な3Dモデルの処理が困難で、スムーズなシミュレーションが実現できなかった。

こうした課題を克服するため、日本工営はCesium ionとCesium for Unrealを活用し、背景データの作成コストを劇的に削減しました。

Cesium ionとCesium for Unrealによる背景データの革新

高品質な3D地理空間データを活用した、効率的な背景データ生成

以前は、設計対象エリア外の背景モデルを作成するために、手作業で航空測量データや点群データを取得し、3Dモデリングソフトウェアで調整する必要がありました。しかし、Cesium ionを利用することで、このプロセスが一変しました。Cesium Globeの3Dコンテンツやパートナーのデータから地形・建物・画像情報にアクセスすることで、ゼロからデータセットを構築する必要をなくしたのです。

Unreal Fest 2024 Tokyo 講演資料より抜粋　提供：日本工営株式会社

Cesium World Bathymetry を活用し、海底地形データをそのまま取り込むことで、港湾・沿岸開発の背景作成が簡単に。

Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles を適用することで、高精度な都市環境を手作業なしで背景データとして取得。

Bing Mapsの航空写真 + Cesium World Terrain を活用し、広範囲の地形情報を即座に統合。

Japan 3D Buildings は、国土交通省PLATEAUが提供する全国200を超える市区町村において、クリック一つでこれまで整備されたすべての建物データが利用可能。

Cesium ionのContent Data（衛星画像、3D建築データ、地形情報など）を利用することで、ゼロからデータを作成する手間を省き、高品質な背景データを短時間で取得可能。

これにより、日本工営では、背景データ作成にかかっていた膨大な工数を削減し、設計エリアのモデリングに集中できるようになりました。

Cesium ion導入による作業工数削減効果 - Unreal Fest 2024 Tokyo 講演資料より抜粋。提供：日本工営株式会社

Cesium ionを通じたUnreal Engineとのシームレスな統合

Cesium ionとCesium for Unreal pluginを活用することで、膨大な地理空間データをクラウドから直接ストリーミングし、Unreal Engine内でダイナミックに可視化が可能になりました。

3Dタイルの自動処理：Cesium ionのタイリングパイプラインを活用し、BIM/CIMデータを自動的に3Dタイル化。

リアルタイムストリーミング：Google Photorealistic 3D TilesやCesium World Terrain、測量で取得した地形のデータを動的に読み込み、必要に応じて表示。

データの軽量化とパフォーマンス向上：Cesium ion上で処理されたデータをCesium for Unrealを使用しUnreal Engineに取り込み、最適化された形でレンダリング。

住民説明会では、Cesium World TerrainやCesium ionに搭載されているPLATEA 3D都市モデルを活用し、設計対象箇所に密接に関連する都市の背景データを即座に表示。住民が自分の街の未来像を直感的に理解でき、説明の効率が向上しました。従来の住民説明会では、パースや平面配置図を使用しており、参加者が自ら頭の中で3次元空間を想像していましたが、この手法により、空間に対する正確な共通認識を得た状態で議論を行うことができました。

水辺空間開発プロジェクトでの活用例　提供：日本工営株式会社

水辺空間開発プロジェクトでの活用例　提供：日本工営株式会社

Using Cesium in waterfront development projects. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nippon Koei waterfront development projects

Bing画像 + Cesium World Terrainを利用し、川の周辺環境を詳細に再現。流況シミュレーションデータと組み合わせることで、河川の状態や氾濫リスクの可視化が飛躍的に向上しました。河川の流れの様子や都市の氾濫シミュレーションをCesiumの各種データと重ね合わせることで、場所に対する理解、リスクの理解が大幅に向上します。流況シミュレーションをゲームエンジンで表現する取り組みは進めていましたが、場所の理解につながる周辺環境の際現には時間がかかっていました。これがCesium ionとCesium for Unrealを用いることで大幅に効率化できるようになりました。

河川管理プロジェクトの成果例　出典：日本工営株式会社

Using Cesium for river management project outcomes. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nippon Koei river management project

Cesium World Bathymetryを活用し、震源データを海底地形と統合。日本工営は、これにより、震源位置や震源域の変化、海底地形との関係性など防災や地球科学の観点で有用な可視化を実現しました。非常に多くの地震が日本全国で発生していることを立体的に見ることは、防災教育の観点でも重要な資料として利用できると考えられます。

2020年～2022年3月までの震源位置を３Ｄデータの動画で見せたもの（提供：日本工営株式会社）

2020年～2022年3月までの震源位置を３Ｄデータの動画で見せたもの（提供：日本工営株式会社）

3D visualization content of the earthquake epicenter. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nippon Koei earthquake epicenter

上の動画のコンテンツを制作した日本工営の佐藤隆洋氏は、以下のように語ります。「日本ではプレート沿いや断層沿いに発生する地震が多く、震源位置を3次元で表現した見せ方でも、関連性が浮かび上がってきます。そこで2020年～2022年3月までの震源位置を３Ｄデータの動画で見れるように作成したのが上の動画コンテンツです。

一方で、プレート活動により発生する地震とプレート活動で形成された海底地形の関係性の理解まではできません。そこで、Cesium ionとCesium for Unreal、およびCesium ionのworld Bathymetryを使用して、震源の位置と海底地形の関係や、地震の発生状況を時系列で表現する取り組みを行いました。それが、2024年8月に日向灘で起きた地震を可視化した次のコンテンツになります。この地震では南海トラフ地震臨時情報（巨大地震注意）が発表されています。このコンテンツでは、地震の発生場所はどこか、発生場所は移動しているのかなど、海底地形と同時に表示することで現象の理解を深めることができたと考えています。」

（2024年8月8日の日向灘の地震：8月8日に日向灘を震源とするM7.1,最大震度6弱の地震が発生。このコンテンツは、その地震をUnrealEngineとCesium ionを活用して可視化し、震源の位置と海底地形の関係や、地震の発生状況を時系列で表現したもの。Cesium World Bathymetryを利用。 動画提供：日本工営株式会社、 2024年8月6日～17日の震源データ出典：気象庁震源リスト）

地震の震源データ可視化プロジェクトの成果例　提供：日本工営株式会社

2020年～2022年3月までの震源位置を３Ｄデータの動画で見せたもの（提供：日本工営株式会社）

A 3D visualization powered by Cesium, illustrating the August 8, 2024 Hyūga-nada earthquake’s epicenter, seabed topography, and seismic timeline. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nippon Koei earthquake

土砂災害は、大雨や地震などにより発生し大きな被害を生じさせます。どういったメカニズムで土砂災害が発生しているのかの理解は、対策を考えるうえでも重要になります。そしてここでも、土砂災害が発生している場所と周辺の関係性の理解が重要になります。Cesium for UnrealとCesium ionに登録した詳細な地形データやCesium World Terrainを活用し、高精度な地形データを取得。土砂崩れの3次元シミュレーションと合成することで、どういった現象がどこで発生したのかの理解が容易になっています。

土砂災害シミュレーション可視化の成果例　提供：日本工営株式会社

土砂災害シミュレーション可視化の成果例　提供：日本工営株式会社

Visualization results from landslide disaster simulation. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nippon Koei landslide simulation

Cesium ionの活用により、日本工営は以下の大きなメリットを得ました。

各種データの重ね合わせの効率化：Cesium ionを利用することで詳細な測量データや各種モデルの地理的座標合わせの効率化が図られました。

背景モデル作成の時間削減：従来の手作業による背景作成が不要になり、設計業務に注力できるようになりました。

プロジェクトのスピード向上：背景作成がゼロになったことで、設計や解析により集中できるようになりました。

合意形成の迅速化：高精度な背景データを即座に表示できるため、関係者全員が直感的に理解できるようになりました。

日本工営は、Cesium for Unreal、Cesium ionの活用をさらに拡大し、スマートシティやデジタルツインの導入を推進。今後は、ゲーミフィケーションの要素を取り入れ、市民参加型の都市計画やインフラ管理を実現していく予定です。

高品質な3D地理空間データで変わる未来のインフラ設計

Cesium ionとCesium for Unrealの活用により、日本工営は、インフラ設計の大幅な効率化と高精度な可視化とシミュレーションを実現しました都市開発や社会インフラ整備の分野において、より正確でリアルな3D空間を提供し、リソースを最適に活用するために、ぜひCesium ionアカウントに登録してください。

Nippon Koei Transforms Infrastructure with Cesium for Unreal

In urban development and social infrastructure projects, discrepancies in understanding among stakeholders have long been a significant challenge. For government officials and residents without specialized knowledge, accurately grasping the intent behind a design is not always straightforward. At the heart of this challenge lies the need to effectively integrate vast amounts of data, visualize it clearly, and facilitate smooth consensus-building.

Particularly, creating realistic background data has traditionally been a labor-intensive and costly process. To address this, Nippon Koei began using Cesium ion and Cesium for Unreal, significantly streamlining the acquisition and processing of accurate geospatial context for a design area. As a result, collaborating stakeholders, decision-makers, and residents are more easily able to comprehend infrastructure designs and simulations.

Recreating not only the design area but also its surrounding environment is crucial in urban development and infrastructure planning. Without accurate background data, it becomes difficult to properly assess the impact of a design, making it harder for stakeholders to establish a common understanding. Creating this accurate geospatial context has traditionally been a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, accompanied by several key challenges:

The burden of background data creation: Large-scale terrain and city models had to be manually created, requiring extensive time and effort.

Challenges in data integration: Combining multiple data formats—such as DEM, aerial and satellite imagery, point cloud data, SfM meshes, and BIM/CIM data—often required manual adjustments.

Limitations in real-time rendering: Processing high-resolution 3D models was computationally demanding, making smooth simulation and real-time visualization difficult.

To overcome these challenges, Nippon Koei adopted Cesium ion and Cesium for Unreal, significantly reducing the cost and time required for background data creation.

Revolutionizing background data with Cesium ion and Cesium for Unreal

Leveraging curated 3D content for seamless background data generation

Previously, creating models for areas surrounding the core design zone required manually acquiring aerial survey data, processing point cloud data, and refining models using 3D modeling software. Nippon Koei uses Cesium ion to access terrain, buildings, and imagery from Cesium Globe 3D Content and partner data, eliminating the need to build datasets from scratch.

Datasets available via Cesium ion. Excerpt from presentation materials at Unreal Fest 2024 Tokyo. (Courtesy of Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.)

Cesium World Bathymetry enables direct integration of seabed terrain data, simplifying background creation for port and coastal development projects.

Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles provide detailed urban environments, eliminating the need for manual modeling of background data.

Bing Maps Aerial imagery + Cesium World Terrain allows for instant integration of large-scale terrain information.

Japan 3D Buildings allows users to access building data with one click from over 200 municipalities nationwide from PLATEAU (provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).


With Cesium ion, Nippon Koei has drastically reduced the labor previously required for surrounding geospatial data creation, allowing engineers to focus on modeling the actual design area.

Impact of Cesium ion on reducing workload. What used to take 20-40 hours now takes just 1 with Cesium. Excerpt from presentation materials at Unreal Fest 2024 Tokyo. (Courtesy of Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.)

With Cesium ion and the Cesium for Unreal plugin, vast amounts of geospatial data can be streamed directly from the cloud, enabling dynamic visualization in Unreal Engine with high efficiency.

Automated 3D tiling: The Cesium ion tiling pipeline allows BIM/CIM data to be converted into 3D Tiles without manual intervention.

Real-time streaming: Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, Cesium World Terrain, and survey-based terrain datasets can be dynamically loaded and displayed as needed.

Optimized performance: Cesium ion processes data efficiently, allowing seamless integration and rendering of optimized data within Unreal Engine.

During a public consultation meeting, Cesium World Terrain and PLATEAU 3D city models available on Cesium ion were used to instantly visualize urban background data closely related to the design area. Residents were able to intuitively grasp the future vision of their city, significantly improving communication and efficiency in the presentation.

Previously, such meetings relied on static perspective drawings and site plans, requiring attendees to mentally reconstruct 3D spaces. However, with this new approach, discussions took place with a shared and accurate spatial understanding, eliminating interpretation gaps and improving decision-making processes.

Using Cesium in waterfront development projects. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

Nippon Koei used Bing Maps Aerial imagery and Cesium World Terrain and have achieved a highly detailed reproduction of the river’s surrounding environment. When combined with flow simulation data, the visualization of river conditions and flood risks has improved dramatically. Overlaying river flow patterns and urban flood simulations with various Cesium datasets significantly enhances spatial understanding and risk awareness. While they had been working on visualizing flow simulations using game engines, reproducing the surrounding environment to support spatial understanding used to be time-consuming. This process has now been greatly streamlined through the use of Cesium ion and Cesium for Unreal.

3D visualization content of the earthquake epicenter. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

This video content visualizes the hypocenter locations of earthquakes that occurred between 2020 and March 2022 using 3D data. In Japan, many earthquakes occur along tectonic plate boundaries and fault lines, and by presenting the hypocenters in three dimensions, these correlations become more apparent. However, this method alone does not provide a clear understanding of the relationship between earthquakes caused by plate activity and the seafloor topography shaped by that same activity.

To address this, Nippon Koei used Cesium for Unreal, Cesium ion, and Cesium World Bathymetry to visualize the relationship between hypocenter locations and seafloor features, as well as to show the progression of seismic activity over time. This led to the creation of new content visualizing the earthquake that occurred off the coast of Hyuga-nada in August 2024. In this case, an Emergency Nankai Trough Earthquake Information (warning of a potential megathrust earthquake) was issued.

By displaying the location and movement of the earthquake in conjunction with the seafloor topography, this content helped deepen understanding of the phenomena.

A 3D visualization powered by Cesium, illustrating the August 8, 2024 Hyūga-nada earthquake’s epicenter, seabed topography, and seismic timeline. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

On August 8, 2024, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Hyūga-nada Sea, registering a ​maximum seismic intensity of lower 6 on the Japanese scale. This content illustrates the relationship between the earthquake's epicenter and the seabed topography, as well as the chronological progression of the seismic events. Nippon Koei used Cesium World Bathymetry for geospatial context. Seismic data source: Japan Meteorological Agency earthquake list from August 6-17, 2024.

Landslides can occur due to heavy rain, earthquakes, and other natural events, often resulting in significant damage. Understanding the mechanisms behind how landslides occur is essential when considering effective countermeasures. In addition, it is crucial to understand the relationship between the locations where landslides occur and their surrounding environments.

Using Cesium for Unreal along with high-resolution terrain data uploaded to Cesium ion, the Nippon Koei team generated a high-fidelity mountain landscape to support 3D landslide simulations.

By integrating real-world elevation data and erosion models, researchers and engineers can better understand how landslides develop and are able to predict potential high-risk areas.

Visualization results from landslide disaster simulation. Courtesy Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.

By adopting Cesium ion, Nippon Koei now has:

Efficient data integration: Cesium ion streamlined the alignment of survey datasets and 3D models with accurate geospatial positioning.

Reduced background model creation time: Manual background creation was eliminated, allowing greater focus on core design and analysis tasks.

Accelerated project timelines: With accurate geospatial context readily available, engineers and planners are able to work more efficiently.

Faster consensus building: High-precision models of surrounding areas allow all stakeholders to immediately grasp key project aspects, leading to more effective discussions and approvals.

Nippon Koei plans to further expand its use of Cesium for Unreal and Cesium ion, driving advancements in smart city development and digital twin technology.

By incorporating elements of gamification, the company aims to promote more interactive, community-driven urban planning and infrastructure management.

Transforming infrastructure design with curate 3D content

By utilizing Cesium ion and Cesium for Unreal, Nippon Koei has significantly improved the efficiency of infrastructure design, enhancing both visualization and simulation capabilities for its users.
To provide more accurate and realistic 3D spaces and optimize resources in urban development and social infrastructure maintenance, sign up for a Cesium ion account.

日本工営 - Cesium for Unrealで描くインフラ革命

Hobu, Inc., with its deep roots in open-source geospatial, has led the contributions of standards and tools such as PROJJSON, ASPRS LAS, Cloud Optimized Point Cloud (COPC), and the Point Data Abstraction Library (PDAL). To enable Hobu’s users to visualize and interact with massive point clouds and raster data, the company developed its browser-based Eptium viewer using CesiumJS.

See Hobu and Eptium in action at the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference

Eptium builds upon CesiumJS to allow users to directly visualize and interact with COPC and Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF in the browser in 3D. Supporting these archive and transmission formats reduces data duplication and conveniently enables visualization of commonly available cloud content. Eptium makes city- or country-scale point cloud datasets accessible for visualization and analysis on the web, especially for disadvantaged users. Streamlined access to massive cloud-based datasets enables interactivity and understanding for a broad audience, including those in the field or students and professionals using devices without high-end graphics capabilities.

Eptium users can perform multipoint observer line-of-sight (LOS) analysis, generate viewsheds, and export GeoTIFF or SVG images directly from the browser without the need for specialized desktop software. They are able to collaborate by saving and sharing application view state as links. Customers use Eptium as a complete web application, build with it as a JavaScript developer bundle, or directly use it for free by visiting eptium.com and pointing at their own data.

Point cloud and viewshed of Montreal, Canada, in Eptium. Courtesy Hobu.

Distribution of point clouds as COPC eliminates the need for extensive preprocessing or local storage of large files. Eptium consumes COPC data on the fly, converting it into 3D Tiles in-browser for efficient streaming. Eptium optionally uses Cesium World Terrain via Cesium ion and Bing Maps Aerial imagery for additional geospatial context. For a comprehensive picture of areas of interest, this data is fused in CesiumJS, which was built for interactive web apps and scaling for massive datasets.

Eptium, COPC, and CesiumJS also power the moonlidar.com application that Hobu's Connor Manning created in support of NASA’s recomputation of the Moon’s elevation.

The Hobu team uses CesiumJS for moonlidar.com. Courtesy Hobu.

By combining Hobu's expertise with CesiumJS, the Hobu team empowers geospatial users by making complex 3D data accessible and actionable.

Learn to build your own CesiumJS app for 3D geospatial visualization and analysis on the web by following our tutorials.

Hobu's Eptium Visualizes Country-Scale Point Clouds with CesiumJS

今回ご紹介するのは、大阪公立大学の金子健作博士による挑戦です。金子氏は建築物の耐震工学を専門とし、最近では、AIを活用した構造ヘルスモニタリング (SHM) を研究されています。SHMとは建物内に加速度センサを設置して、大きな地震の発生直後に建物の安全性を自動的に判定する技術です。このSHMの新たな展開に関して、金子博士はこのSHMシステムの普及を進めるために、3DのWeb GISで建物の安全性を可視化する新たなアプローチに挑戦しています。

構造ヘルスモニタリング（SHM）に利用される加速度センサは、地震時の建物の揺れを記録します。これらのセンサは建物内に設置され、クラウドサーバーにデータを自動的にアップロードする機能もあります。(画像提供：金子 健作 博士）

金子氏がCesiumJSに興味を持ったきっかけは、2021年に国土交通省のProject PLATEAUに関する記事を読んだことでした。Project PLATEAUは、日本全国の3D都市モデルを整備し、オープンデータとして公開する国家プロジェクトです。

「当時、私はGISを本格的に使ったことがありませんでした。しかし、PLATEAU ViewerでCesiumJSが使われていることを知り、試してみようと思いました。また、地球規模の数千kmから建物室内の数mまでスケール感を損なわずにシームレスに可視化できる点に強く惹かれました。」（金子博士）

最初は純粋な興味から始めましたが、CesiumJSの柔軟な3D可視化の可能性に魅了され、学びを深めていきました。2Dでは味わえない3Dならではのスケール感を実感し、オープンデータの活用とWebでの展開により、より多くの人々に役立つシステムを世に問うことが大きなモチベーションの一つとなりました。彼はCesiumJSで多数のエンティティを効率的にレンダリングし、地上構造物と地下構造物の両方を表示する方法を学ぶ中で、Cesium community forumなどのリソースを活用しました。

大阪市内で想定される津波浸水深と3D都市モデル、緊急避難場所の情報を重ね合わせてWeb上で表示した例。（画像提供：金子 健作 博士）

金子氏はAIによる都市スケールの広範囲な地震被害推定と構造ヘルスモニタリング（SHM） の統合を目指した先端的な研究に取り組んでおり、Cesiumはそれに役立てられています。将来的にSHMは、ドライブレコーダーのように多くの建物に導入されて一般市民に認知されことが期待されるなか、AIはSHMの普及を後押しすると金子氏は確信しています。研究過程で開発されたシステムは、「MeSM」と命名されています。MeSMという呼称は、Machine Learning-Enhanced Structural Health Monitoring（機械学習を活用した構造ヘルスモニタリング）プロジェクに由来しています。現在では、SHMの記録やAI機能を含む研究成果を省いた形で、市民が日常的に活用できるようにWebアプリケーションが一般公開され、防災講座や教育にも活用されています。

この研究プロジェクトは、三つのアプローチから構成されています。第一のアプローチは、日本の気象庁から得られる地震情報（震源位置、震源深さ、マグニチュードなど）を基に、3D都市モデルを活用して建物ごとの構造情報を考慮したうえで、事前学習したAIによって都市レベルでの地震被害を即時に推定するものです。この推定は、数十万棟規模あるいはそれ以上の面的な被害情報を含み、CesiumJSを用いて可視化されます。ただし、この手法には被害推定の不確かさが伴うという課題があります。第二のアプローチは、加速度センサを1台だけ設置した建物において、センサ情報と構造設計情報を組み合わせて被害推定を行うものです。この手法により、特定の建物に対しては高い確度での被害推定を可視化できます。現在は、集合住宅の設計・建設を主業務とする建設業者との共同研究を通じて、社会実装を展開している段階です。しかし、このアプローチは加速度センサ（SHMシステム）が導入されていない建物には適用できず、都市全体の面的な被害推定には利用できないという制約があります。第三のアプローチは、第一と第二のアプローチを統合したハイブリッド手法です。具体的には、SHMシステムが導入されている建物の情報を活用し、周辺の建物を含む面的に広がる建物群に対して、AIによる地震被害推定の信頼性を向上させるよう補正を行うものです。これは、カーナビゲーションシステムに例えると、GPSと車載センサを組み合わせて車の位置を推定する仕組みに類似しています。

第三のアプローチの実現には、SHMデータの共有（部分的なオープンデータ化）が不可欠ですが、その実現には制度的な課題や、利他的行為の必要性といった障壁などが多く存在します。そこで金子氏は、CesiumJSを用いた魅力的な可視化によって、この手法の必要性を段階的に社会へ示すことで、第三のアプローチの実現を目指しています。その取り組みの一環として、市民が日常的に活用できるWebアプリケーションが一般公開され、地震被害情報への理解や将来的な地震リスクへの関心を高めることが期待されています。

Cesiumを用いた最初の可視化実装には約2週間かかりましたが、その後はさらに湧き上がる興味が学習を後押ししました。Project PLATEAUの3D都市モデルのほかにも、気象庁や国土地理院、防災科学技術研究所、USGS（アメリカ地質調査所）などが公開する様々なオープンデータを活用して、CesiumJS上での3D可視化を実現しました。その後は少しずつ開発を進め、地震被害推定について開発したAIをOpen Neural Network Exchange(ONNX) ファイル形式でCesiumJSに統合するなど、数ヶ月程度で研究に活用できるレベルまで到達しました。

MeSM では、例えば2021年東北地方太平洋沖地震で観測された地表の加速度記録を3Dで対話的に閲覧することが可能です。（画像提供：金子 健作 博士）

さらに、MeSM では、人が体感できない小さな地震も含めて、震源の分布を3Dで表示し、回転アニメーションを通じて立体的に視覚化しています。（動画提供：金子 健作 博士）

さらに、MeSM では、人が体感できない小さな地震も含めて、震源の分布を3Dで表示し、回転アニメーションを通じて立体的に視覚化しています。(動画提供：金子 健作 博士）

MeSM visualizes earthquake epicenter distributions in 3D—even for small, imperceptible quakes—enhanced with rotating animations to provide a spatially intuitive experience. Courtesy Kensaku Kaneko.

MeSM by Kensaku Kaneko

3. Cesium Certifed Developerの取得と今後の研究の展望

金子氏がCesium Certifed Developer (CCD) の取得を考えたのは、Cesiumの知識修得の過程で恩恵を受けたオープンコミュニティーに恩返しをしたいという思いからでした。当初はJavaScriptもGISもまったくの初心者でしたが、1年でCCDを取得されるに至りました。

「Cesium Certified Developerには、地理空間情報やWebアプリケーション開発の専門家が応募するに値すると感じていました。最初は応募を躊躇しましたが、他分野からの積極的な参加がコミュニティーの発展に繋がると考えて、応募しました。」

金子氏は、継続的にCesiumJSを活用して研究を発展させるとともに、若い世代への教育や防災意識の向上にも貢献する考えです。彼が所属する大阪公立大学は、都市型の森之宮キャンパスを2025年に開設予定です。今後は、そのBIM（Building Information Modeling）などのデータをCesiumJSなどで活用し、都市から建物の室内までを結びつける新たな地震防災とSHMの挑戦に取り組んでいくようです。

2025年秋に開学する大阪公立大学の都市型森之宮キャンパスのCG（画像提供: 大阪公立大学）

金子氏は、これからの展望について次のように語ります。

「3D地理情報の可視化は単なる技術ではなく、社会に貢献する手段です。見慣れたデータであっても、3D表示やさまざまなデータとの重ね合わせによって、新たな発見が生まれることがあります。その発見はユーザーごとに異なり、他者と共有することで、より多様な視点が生まれることが期待されます。」


CesiumJSを使用して、2Dでは見えなかった地理空間のインサイトを容易かつ効果的に視覚化し、分析する方法を学びましょう。

The Journey of an Earthquake Engineering Researcher Utilizing CesiumJS—Structural Health Monitoring in the Digital Twin Era

This article highlights the challenge taken on by Dr. Kensaku Kaneko from Osaka Metropolitan University. Specializing in earthquake engineering of buildings, Dr. Kaneko has recently been engaged in research on structural health monitoring (SHM) using AI. SHM involves installing accelerometers in buildings to automatically assess their structural safety immediately after a major earthquake. To promote the adoption of this SHM system, Dr. Kaneko is pioneering a new approach—visualizing building safety through 3D Web GIS.

Accelerometers used in SHM record the building's response during an earthquake. These sensors can automatically upload data to cloud servers. Courtesy Kensaku Kaneko.

Dr. Kaneko’s interest in CesiumJS began in 2021 when he came across an article on Japan’s Project PLATEAU—a national initiative to develop and release 3D city models as open data.
 “At the time, I had no prior experience with GIS. However, I learned that the PLATEAU Viewer used CesiumJS and decided to try it myself. I was deeply drawn to the ability to seamlessly visualize scales ranging from thousands of kilometers down to just a few meters inside a building without losing a sense of scale,” recalls Dr. Kaneko.

What began as a simple curiosity turned into a deep interest, as he became captivated by CesiumJS’s flexibility for 3D visualization. Experiencing a sense of scale not achievable in 2D and realizing the potential to create open, web-based systems that could benefit society became a strong motivation. As he learned to efficiently render large numbers of entities and display both above-ground and underground structures in CesiumJS, Dr. Kaneko used resources like the Cesium community forum.

An example of a web-based visualization combining projected tsunami inundation depths in Osaka, 3D city models, and emergency evacuation sites. Courtesy Kensaku Kaneko.

2. Application to research and implementation

Dr. Kaneko is conducting advanced research that integrates AI-driven large-scale earthquake damage estimation with SHM. CesiumJS plays a vital role in this endeavor. He envisions SHM becoming as commonplace and familiar to the public as dashboard cameras in the future. AI, he believes, will play a key role in accelerating SHM’s widespread adoption.

Through this research, Dr. Kaneko developed MeSM, short for Machine Learning-Enhanced Structural Health Monitoring. A simplified version of the system—excluding the SHM logs and AI functionality—is publicly available. This web app is already being used in disaster preparedness courses and educational programs.

The research project is built on three core approaches:

Using earthquake data (e.g., epicenter location, depth, magnitude) from the Japan Meteorological Agency and integrating pre-trained AI models with 3D city models to estimate urban-scale earthquake damage in real time. This allows visualization of damage across hundreds of thousands of buildings using CesiumJS. This method involves a degree of uncertainty in its predictions.

By installing a single accelerometer in a building and combining its data with structural design information, it enables more accurate damage estimation for individual buildings. This approach is currently being applied through joint research with a construction firm specializing in residential buildings. This is not suitable for buildings without SHM sensors and thus does not support area-wide damage assessments.

A hybrid method combines the above two approaches. Information from SHM-equipped buildings is used to correct and enhance the AI-driven estimates for surrounding buildings. This is similar to how GPS and vehicle sensors are used together to improve location accuracy in car navigation systems.

To implement this third approach, sharing SHM data (even partially as open data) is essential. However, institutional barriers and the need for altruistic participation pose challenges. Dr. Kaneko aims to overcome these through compelling visualizations using CesiumJS, raising awareness of the method’s societal value via the existing public version of MeSM, encouraging public engagement with earthquake risk.

The initial Cesium visualization took about two weeks to build, but Dr. Kaneko’s curiosity drove him to further deepen his skills. In addition to Project PLATEAU’s 3D city models, he leveraged open data from the Japan Meteorological Agency, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), and the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Within a few months, he advanced the system to a research-ready level, even integrating his AI model into CesiumJS using the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) format.

In MeSM, users can interactively explore surface acceleration data recorded during the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in 3D. Courtesy Kensaku Kaneko.

MeSM visualizes earthquake epicenter distributions in 3D—even for small, imperceptible quakes—enhanced with rotating animations to provide a spatially intuitive experience. Courtesy Kensaku Kaneko.

3. Becoming a Cesium Certified Developer and future prospects

Dr. Kaneko pursued the Cesium Certified Developer (CCD) certification with a desire to give back to the open community that had supported his learning journey. Despite having no prior experience with JavaScript or GIS, he became a CCD within a year.

“I felt the CCD program was something best suited for experts in geospatial and web application development. I was hesitant at first, but I came to believe that active participation from those in other fields would benefit the community,” he says.

The university he belongs to, Osaka Metropolitan University, is scheduled to open its urban Morinomiya Campus in 2025. Looking ahead, Dr. Kaneko aims to continue using CesiumJS in his research while also contributing to public disaster awareness and education for younger generations.

Warfighting, Software, and the OTA

HNTB Streamlines Infrastructure Project Visualization with Cesium

日本工営 - Cesium for Unrealで描くインフラ革命

Hobu's Eptium Visualizes Country-Scale Point Clouds with CesiumJS

耐震工学の研究者が歩むCesiumJS活用の軌跡　-　デジタルツイン時代の構造ヘルスモニタリング

Boost Graphics Uses Cesium to Give Premier League's Global Audience a Geography Lesson

Ansys Uses Cesium ion Self-Hosted for Geospatial Data Cloud

Warfighting, Software, and the OTA

HNTB Streamlines Infrastructure Project Visualization with Cesium

日本工営 - Cesium for Unrealで描くインフラ革命

Hobu's Eptium Visualizes Country-Scale Point Clouds with CesiumJS

耐震工学の研究者が歩むCesiumJS活用の軌跡 - デジタルツイン時代の構造ヘルスモニタリング

Boost Graphics Uses Cesium to Give Premier League's Global Audience a Geography Lesson

Ansys Uses Cesium ion Self-Hosted for Geospatial Data Cloud

耐震工学の研究者が歩むCesiumJS活用の軌跡　-　デジタルツイン時代の構造ヘルスモニタリング