Using 3D Scanning to Highlight Climate Change

Congratulations to Dr. Zachwieja and her lab members on their new publication in Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 171, released in the September 2025 issue.

Anthropologists at the University of Minnesota Medical School are researching the best way to communicate the scale of the environmental impacts of climate change happening in Alaska. UMN researchers have highlighted that these effects can be reached without expensive specialty cameras and use simple tools to create the same effect. Using free software and an iPad they have created augmented reality (AR) models that anyone with a smartphone can interact with. Research shows that 3D scans of climate change impacts in the context of viewers' everyday life makes participants more likely to grasp the scale of the problem versus simply viewing a photo. This technology helps users experience the urgency of the climate disaster in far off places from the comfort of their homes or classrooms-- telling the story of our climate present to build a better climate future.

Image caption: 
The four steps to capture an area of interest in a 3D Image, using the Scaniverse Application.

Step 1: Demarcate area of interest
Step 2: Open Scaniverse Application and choose area to scan
Step 3: Capture area of interest using iPad
Step 4: When scan is done, process scans in Scaniverse