3D building interior modelling for navigation in emergency response applications

•Broad perspective review on building interior modelling.•Three-dimensional model representations for navigation in emergency response.•Application requirements on a spatial model: space subdivision, topology representation, semantics and graphic representation. The aim of this paper is to present a broad perspective on applications dealing with 3D building models and indoor navigation during an emergency. This is an immense topic, which has been considerably investigated by researchers from different fields of expertise: construction, cognition, spatial information science, cartography, robotics, mathematics, engineering, etc. It is not possible to provide one, complete approach to the problem, because it largely depends on the application. However, some solutions are prevailing, and they are adopted by others. In this paper there is an attempt made to signalise specific directions and trends related to the topic. They include building model requirements, navigation network generation and representation, and 3D visualisation of models and navigation paths. These issues are important in the process of rapid model generation, which is suitable for decision support and situational awareness systems for first responders. The authors highlight issues that may be investigated by young researchers or may be considered as alternatives by more experienced ones. The paper is therefore the aim of this paper is to summarise the contemporary research conducted in various research teams, as well as to present author’s own observations and experiences.