A state-of-the-art review of built environment information modelling (BeIM)

Elements that constitute the built environment are vast and so are the independent systems developed to model its various aspects. Many of these systems have been developed under various assumptions and approaches to execute functions that are distinct, complementary or sometimes similar. Also, these systems are ever increasing in number and often assume similar nomenclatures and acronyms thereby exacerbating the challenges of understanding their peculiar functions, definitions and differences. The current societal demand to improve sustainability performance through collaboration, whole-systems and through-life thinking, is driving the need to integrate independent systems associated with different aspects and scales of the built environment to deliver smart solutions and services that improve the wellbeing of citizens. The contemporary object-oriented digitization of real world elements appears to provide a leeway for amalgamating modelling systems of various domains in the built environment which we termed as built environment information modelling (BeIM). These domains included Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Urban Planning and Design. Applications such as Building Information Modelling, Geographic Information Systems and 3D City Modelling systems are now being integrated for city modelling purposes. The various works directed at integrating these systems are examined revealing that current research efforts on integration fall into three categories: (1) data/file conversion systems, (2) semantic mapping systems and (3) the hybrid of both. The review outcome suggests that a good knowledge of these domains and how their respective systems operate is vital to pursuing holistic systems integration in the built environment

Integrating BIM and GIS for design collaboration in railway projects

Collaboration is essential to achieve project targets and minimising rework in any project including railway projects. The railway project is considered as a megaproject that requires effective collaboration in order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. To ensure that the railway continues to provide safe, reliable, cost-effective services, and remains environmentally friendly while driving economic growth, engaging new technologies and new types of work models are required. Among these technologies, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are recent technologies that support collaboration. However, using these technologies to achieve effective collaboration is challenging, especially in railway projects as they are amongst the most complicated projects and often numerous parties are involved in making important decisions. Currently, there is a lack of evidence-based guidelines or processes for effective collaboration in railway projects throughout their design stage. Therefore, this thesis has focused on developing a process model to improve collaboration in the design stage of railway projects using BIM and GIS. This research adopted a mixed-methods approach to examine and identify the issues that hinder collaboration in railway projects to assist in developing theBIM and GIS-enabled collaboration process model. An online questionnaire was designed and distributed to professionals to assess the state-of-the-art in BIM and GIS followed by two rounds of in-depth interviews with experts. The first round aimed to identify collaboration issues and consisted of 15 in-depth, face to face and videoconference/telephone interviews; while the second round consisted of 10 in-depth interviews to identify the process model components of the collaborative process using IDEF technique.The questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive statistics and statistical tests (for example, Regression analysis, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks and Kruskal-Wallis Test). The results showed a lack of training in BIM and GIS and identified collaboration as a significant factor for railway projects, but there were many challenges to achieve effective collaboration. These challenges have been further investigated during the first round of interviews using content and thematic analysis. The results revealed that the most common challenges were getting the right information at the right time for the right purposes followed by resistance to change. Furthermore, the findings indicated that developing a process model, based on a clear plan of work demonstrating the collaboration process, is a potential solution to tackle these challenges. Thus, a Collaborative Plan of Work (CPW) has been developed through combining the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Plan of Work and the GRIP (Governance for Railway Investment Projects) stages. This CPW will be the basis to develop a process model for BIM and GIS-enabled collaboration. The results from the second round of the interviews identified the process model components which are: key players’ roles and responsibilities, tasks (BIM and GIS Uses), BIM and GIS-based deliverables, and critical decision points for collaborative process design. Moreover, this process model was formulated utilising Integrated DEFinition (IDEF) structured diagramming techniques (IDEF0 and IDEF3).In conclusion, the process model of the collaboration process and the integrated implementation of BIM and GIS sets out role and responsibilities, deliverables, and key decision points. Finally, the research outcomes have been validated through a focus group and interviews with professionals in the biggest Railway company where the proposed process model was operationalised using a commercial Common Data Environment platform (viewpoint 4project). From their discussion, feedback and recommendations the IDEF processes model have been refined. It is concluded that such a process is crucial for effective collaboration in railway projects as it enables the management of the design process in terms of technologies used, activities, deliverables, and decision points. Therefore, the research findings support the notion that BIM and GIS can help to achieve effective collaboration by delivering the right information at the right time for the right purposes. As a result, they help to achieve the projects’ objectives efficiently in terms of time, cost and effort.</div

Citizen participation in city planning and public decision assisted with ontologies and 3D semantics

Sustainable development of cities implies investigating cities in a holistic way taking into account many interrelations between various urban and environmental problems. Urban models are created with the objective of helping city planners and stakeholders in their decision-making processes. Models which represent in 3 dimensions the geometric elements of a city are called 3D city models. These models are increasingly used in different cities and countries for an intended wide range of applications beyond mere visualization. Such uses are made possible by adding semantics to the geometrical aspects, leading to semantically enriched 3D city models. This can be achieved by using the primary data and ontologies to achieve the semantic enrichment of 3D city models as well as their interoperability with other urban models. Objective of the paper is to present how semantically enriched 3D city models and ontologies may help in sustainable landscape city planning

A BIM - GIS Integrated Information Model Using Semantic Web and RDF Graph Databases

In recent years, 3D virtual indoor and outdoor urban modelling has become an essential geospatial information framework for civil and engineering applications such as emergency response, evacuation planning, and facility management. Building multi-sourced and multi-scale 3D urban models are in high demand among architects, engineers, and construction professionals to achieve these tasks and provide relevant information to decision support systems. Spatial modelling technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are frequently used to meet such high demands. However, sharing data and information between these two domains is still challenging. At the same time, the semantic or syntactic strategies for inter-communication between BIM and GIS do not fully provide rich semantic and geometric information exchange of BIM into GIS or vice-versa. This research study proposes a novel approach for integrating BIM and GIS using semantic web technologies and Resources Description Framework (RDF) graph databases. The suggested solution's originality and novelty come from combining the advantages of integrating BIM and GIS models into a semantically unified data model using a semantic framework and ontology engineering approaches. The new model will be named Integrated Geospatial Information Model (IGIM). It is constructed through three stages. The first stage requires BIMRDF and GISRDF graphs generation from BIM and GIS datasets. Then graph integration from BIM and GIS semantic models creates IGIMRDF. Lastly, the information from IGIMRDF unified graph is filtered using a graph query language and graph data analytics tools. The linkage between BIMRDF and GISRDF is completed through SPARQL endpoints defined by queries using elements and entity classes with similar or complementary information from properties, relationships, and geometries from an ontology-matching process during model construction. The resulting model (or sub-model) can be managed in a graph database system and used in the backend as a data-tier serving web services feeding a front-tier domain-oriented application. A case study was designed, developed, and tested using the semantic integrated information model for validating the newly proposed solution, architecture, and performance

The evolution of ontology in AEC: A two-decade synthesis, application domains, and future directions

Ontologies play a pivotal role in knowledge representation, particularly beneficial for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector due to its inherent data diversity and intricacy. Despite the growing interest in ontology and data integration research, especially with the advent of knowledge graphs and digital twins, a noticeable lack of consolidated academic synthesis still needs to be addressed. This review paper aims to bridge that gap, meticulously analysing 142 journal articles from 2000 to 2021 on the application of ontologies in the AEC sector. The research is segmented through systematic evaluation into ten application domains within the construction realm- process, cost, operation/maintenance, health/safety, sustainability, monitoring/control, intelligent cities, heritage building information modelling (HBIM), compliance, and miscellaneous. This categorisation aids in pinpointing ontologies suitable for various research objectives. Furthermore, the paper highlights prevalent limitations within current ontology studies in the AEC sector. It offers strategic recommendations, presenting a well-defined path for future research to address these gaps

A semantic graph database for the interoperability of 3D GIS data

none6siIn the last decades, the use of information management systems in the building data processing led to radical changes to the methods of data production, documentation and archiving. In particular, the possibilities, given by these information systems, to visualize the 3D model and to formulate queries have placed the question of the information sharing in digital format. The integration of information systems represents an efficient solution for defining smart, sustainable and resilient projects, such as conservation and restoration processes, giving the possibilities to combine heterogeneous data. GIS provides a robust data storage system, a definition of topological and semantic relationships and spatial queries. 3D GIS makes possible the creation of three-dimensional model in a geospatial context. To promote the interoperability of GIS data, the present research aims first to analyse methods of conversion in CityGML and IndoorGML model, defining an ontological domain. This has led to the creation of a new enriched model, based on connections among the different elements of the urban model in GIS environment, and to the possibility to formulate queries based on these relations. The second step consists in collecting all data translated into a specific format that fill a graph database in a semantic web environment, while maintaining those relationships. The semantic web technology represents an efficient tool of interoperability that leaves open the possibility to import BIM data in the same graph database and to join both GIS and BIM models. The outcome will offer substantial benefits during the entire project life cycle. This methodology can also be applied to cultural heritage where the information management plays a key role.openMalinverni E.S.; Naticchia B.; Lerma Garcia J.L.; Gorreja A.; Lopez Uriarte J.; Di Stefano F.Malinverni, E. S.; Naticchia, B.; Lerma Garcia, J. L.; Gorreja, A.; Lopez Uriarte, J.; Di Stefano, F

Innovating the Construction Life Cycle through BIM/GIS Integration: A Review

The construction sector is in continuous evolution due to the digitalisation and integration into daily activities of the building information modelling approach and methods that impact on the overall life cycle. This study investigates the topic of BIM/GIS integration with the adoption of ontologies and metamodels, providing a critical analysis of the existing literature. Ontologies and metamodels share several similarities and could be combined for potential solutions to address BIM/GIS integration for complex tasks, such as asset management, where heterogeneous sources of data are involved. The research adopts a systematic literature review (SLR), providing a formal approach to retrieve scientific papers from dedicated online databases. The results found are then analysed, in order to describe the state of the art and suggest future research paths, which is useful for both researchers and practitioners. From the SLR, it emerged that several studies address ontologies as a promising way to overcome the semantic barriers of the BIM/GIS integration. On the other hand, metamodels (and MDE and MDA approaches, in general) are rarely found in relation to the integration topic. Moreover, the joint application of ontologies and metamodels for BIM/GIS applications is an unexplored field. The novelty of this work is the proposal of the joint application of ontologies and metamodels to perform BIM/GIS integration, for the development of software and systems for asset management

Extending Building Information Modeling (BIM) interoperability to geo-spatial domain using semantic web technology

As Building Information Modeling (BIM) applications become more sophisticated and used within other knowledge domains, the limitations of existing data exchange and sharing methods become apparent. The integration of BIM and Geographic Information System (GIS) can offer substantial benefits to manage the planning process during the design and construction stages. Currently, building (and geospatial) data are shared between BIM software tools through a common data format, such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). Because of the diversity and complexity of domain knowledge across BIM and GIS systems, however, these syntactic approaches are not capable of overcoming semantic heterogeneity. This study uses semantic web technology to ensure the highest level of interoperability between existing BIM and GIS tools. The proposed approach is composed of three main steps; ontology construction, semantic integration through interoperable data formats and standards, and query of heterogeneous information sources. Because no application ontology is available to encompass all IFC classes with different attributes, we first develop an IFC-compliant ontology describing the hierarchy structure of BIM objects. Then, we can translate the building's elements and GIS data into semantic web standard formats. Once the information has been gathered from different sources and transformed into an appropriate semantic web format, the SPARQL query language is used in the last step to retrieve this information from a dataset. The completeness of the methodology is validated through a case study and two use case examples.Ph.D

Towards BIM/GIS interoperability: A theoretical framework and practical generation of spaces to support infrastructure Asset Management

The past ten years have seen the widespread adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) among both the Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) and the Asset Management/ Facilities Management (AM/FM) communities. This has been driven by the use of digital information to support collaborative working and a vision for more efficient reuse of data. Within this context, spatial information is either held in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or as Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models in a Common Data Environment (CDE). However, these being heterogeneous systems, there are inevitable interoperability issues that result in poor integration. For this thesis, the interoperability challenges were investigated within a case study to ask: Can a better understanding of the conceptual and technical challenges to the integration of BIM and GIS provide improved support for the management of asset information in the context of a major infrastructure project? Within their respective fields, the terms BIM and GIS have acquired a range of accepted meanings, that do not align well with each other. A seven-level socio-technical framework is developed to harmonise concepts in spatial information systems. This framework is used to explore the interoperability gaps that must be resolved to enable design and construction information to be joined up with operational asset information. The Crossrail GIS and BIM systems were used to investigate some of the interoperability challenges that arise during the design, construction and operation of an infrastructure asset. One particular challenge concerns a missing link between AM-based information and CAD-based geometry which hinders engineering assets from being located within the geometric model and preventing geospatial analysis. A process is developed to link these CAD-based elements with AM-based assets using defined 3D spaces to locate assets. However, other interoperability challenges must first be overcome; firstly, the extraction, transformation and loading of geometry from CAD to GIS; secondly, the creation of an explicit representation of each 3D space from the implicit enclosing geometry. This thesis develops an implementation of the watershed transform algorithm to use real-world Crossrail geometry to generate voxelated interior spaces that can then be converted into a B-Rep mesh for use in 3D GIS. The issues faced at the technical level in this case study provide insight into the differences that must also be addressed at the conceptual level. With this in mind, this thesis develops a Spatial Information System Framework to classify the nature of differences between BIM, GIS and other spatial information systems