RIS3D: A Referenced Information System in 3D

3D Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Building Information Modeling (BIM),… These words are increasingly used for Cultural Heritage studies to refer to the necessity to connect heterogeneous data with a 3D model. In this article, we introduce and formalize the notion of RIS3D (Referenced Information System in 3D), which extends the concept of GIS to 3D supports and generalizes it. For this purpose, we propose a generic and modular client-server approach that brings the required flexibility, extendibility, and sustainability to deal with heterogeneous data. For queries and their visualization in a 3D environment, we push forward the notions of layers and markers. We also provide the readers with our technical choices that allowed us to develop our own implementation of a RIS3D solution. We demonstrate it on a real-case scenario: the preservation of the Lascaux painted cave where our solution has been deployed and is in use. The proposed notion and generic architecture of RIS3D, its implementation, and its deployment show the suitability of such an approach and its potential applications.