Abstract
A pilot web site study for comparative exploration of heritage landscapes and great European gardens have raised issues about the size and complexity of the datasets and the need to record locational and other metadata with visual and aural images. Such multimedia datasets deployed from spatial databases are likely to become served on demand with appropriate associated detail and data. Previous work on the Tower of London and its environs has shown that similar large complex datasets are increasingly common during the creation and management of 3D models of buildings and urban areas. Such datasets may also encompass digital video and high-resolution images, historical images and data, with maintenance and management information and record drawings. Little difference has been found in practice between the data management and retrieval issues that apply to web-based multimedia interpretations of historic environments and those that are particular to large area 3D models. A common approach may serve an initial web site based outcome and assist later development of a virtual reality 3D model. The question of when it is useful to model and when video or high-resolution images may be equally or more useful is also examined.