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Virtual environments are computer-based digital spaces that we can observe, participate in, and experience in person. Virtual environments were initially viewed as “mirror worlds”(Gerlenter 2004), although they are being extended as this virtuality broadens to include scenarios that cannot be found in real life. Employing virtual environments as a tool to facilitate scientific exploration is not a new story. For example, virtual worlds, such as Second Life (SL) and World of Warcraft (WoW), have demonstrated the potential for studying social, behavioral and economic issues (Bambridge 2007; DeMers et al. 2013; Messinger et al. 2009), while a wide array of virtual laboratories are being developed to advance research in conventional domains, such as those dealing with chemical and biological problems (Bettenworth and Abbott 2000; Bohil et al. 2011; Yaron et al. 2010). Similar examples have been reported in the domain of geography. Several three-dimensional geospatially referenced virtual environments (GRVEs) have been developed at different scales to include virtual objects (eg terrain, landmarks, and buildings) that correspond to real world representations. With these ‘windows’ on the real world, users can observe and move in abstract representations of the real places in which they live and work or in unfamiliar places that they have not experienced hitherto. This approach provides a valuable strategy for obtaining images of real geographic scenes or future scenarios, thus facilitating direct perception. However, this strategy does not yet allow for rigorous geographic analysis because a mismatch exists between actual environments and the …