Abstract: Traditional methods in irrigation area using 2D management technology can not express complex and grand scenes fully due to the shortage of cubic spatial information. This problem stands out especially along with the ever-increasing complexity of irrigational routine tasks. Three-dimensional (3D) Virtual reality(VR) which makes the analysis and simulation of the routine tasks more effective and visually perceptual is, therefore, a matter of urgent concern. In the paper, methods and technologies used for building 3D virtual environment were reviewed and analyzed, and a technical route based on shared resources to generate complex geographical 3D virtual environment in irrigation area was proposed by synthetically integrating Geographic Information System(GIS), Remote sensing(RS), and Virtual reality(VR), as well as applied hybrid modeling and data fusion methods. Being compact and practical, the proposed technology takes advantage of shared resources, which enables us to build a 3D virtual environment for meeting the route tasks in irrigation area in no need of special software and hardware. This would be beneficial for improving the level of irrigation area management and scientific decision making.

Key words: geographical environment in irrigation area, 3D models, data fusion, interactive and integrative modeling, management of irrigation area