The aerial remote sensing（RS） by unmanned aerial vehicles（UAV）

which is flexible and quick

showed great benefits in data collection for the area impacted by 5·12 Wenchuan earthquake.A framework of 3D visualization management system for UAV remote sensing image has been developed.There are four parts in this 3D visualization system: flight tracking design system

remote sensing image acquiring system

image processing system

and 3D visualization management system.The flight tracking system provides the tools to design flight path for UAV in a 3-D visualization environments.The flight path design can be loaded into the UAV flight path control system to control the UAV direction

speed

and so on.The remote sensing image acquiring system is to acquire remote sensing images by controlling the attitudes and camera actions of the aerial vehicles.The image processing system includes the functions of image distortion correction and registration.The 3D management system handles the management and 3D visualization of UAV images.The key technologies regarding the system are discussed.The high-resolution remote sensing images are used as base images

and the geometric correction and Gray-Scale transform methods are employed to change original UAV remote sensing images to new ones in geographic coordinate system.UAV remote sensing images are managed by spatial index in 3D visualization environment which has multi-scale remote sensing images from different satellites.The paper establishes the quadtree pyramid and LOD model for managing large volume remote sensing data

which can provide more fluent visualization when users navigate in the 3D virtual environment.A 3D visualization management system for UAV remote sensing images has been implemented based on the VGE-3DGlobeEarth platform.From the experimental results

the system works well when it manages and visualizes the UAV remote sensing images in the areas impacted by 5·12 Wenchuan earthquake.With regard to the roles of UAV remote sensing in the 5·12 Wenchuan earthquake rescue

it is argued that UAV remote sensing images acquiring and visualization management system can be a very important supporting tool for quick response of emergent events such as floods

earthquakes

forest fires

and environmental pollution earthquakes.