Digital technologies of virtual reconstruction of historical urban landscape

The article is devoted to the issues of methodology and techniques of studying and preserving the historical urban landscape. The evolution of this concept and its modern content determined by the UNESCO document are considered. Along with the commonly discussed task of preserving the historical urban landscape, there is another relevant research task set in the focus of this work, which is a virtual reconstruction of the historical landscape of the cities with a long history. This is a new developing field of urban history. Technological basis of this field is digital technology, mostly 3D modeling and three-dimensional GIS. The article describes the research experience based on advanced technologies for reconstructing historical landscapes. The interdisciplinary project aimed at creating a virtual reconstruction of the historical landscape of the Bely Gorod (White City) in the 16th - 18th centuries is given. Bely Gorod is the historic area in the centre of Moscow. Attention is paid to the formation of the historical source base relevant for such a reconstruction, which includes sources of different types: historical plans of Moscow and its central part (with designations of elevations and contours of the relief or the general character of the urban landscape), plans and drawings of individual possessions of the 18th - early 19th centuries; text documents containing information about the owners, sizes of households, and construction works; archaeological sources. Based on those materials the project also aims at the virtual reconstruction of the dominant historical objects of the Bely Gorod, 3D models of which are included in the reconstructed historical landscape.