BIM & GIS Connectivity
paves the way for
really Smart Cities
Today, we see several good examples of Smart
City and Geodesign initiatives around the world.
They often depend on BIM data (Building informa
tion modeling/Bygnings Informations Modellering)
and spatial data. However, interoperability is a
Ulf Månsson,
Project Manager, SWECO, challenge that must be adressed in a more effi
[email protected].
cient way.
More generally, the question is what is required
to take the leap from good examples to broad
and mainstream application in urban and
regional development?
In this article, some key success factors for this
development and described and the important
challenges outlined. The V-Con innovation project
addressing these challenges is described as a
possible solution.
Keywords: Geodesign, BIM (Building information modeling), GIS (Geographical
Information Systems), Internet of things, Semantic Web, Smart Cities
Connectivity
Way back in time, when I started studying GIS and Remote Sensing, I
remember discussions like ”Are you vector or are you raster?”. The idea of
combining these features would have been considered revolutionary at the
time. Also, if you did choose a GIS-tool, you committed yourself to the vendor
of the chosen platform and the system´s proprietary file-storage format.
Perspektiv nr. 25 • 2015 • 19
Figure 1. Achieving connectivity between GIS and BIM, Ulf Månsson
Exchanging data between platforms was hard - if Smart Cities
even possible at all. There are many different definitions of Smart City
Since the introduction of connectivity to standard but the fundamentals are (Wikipedia 2015):
databases and the evolving of the Internet - the GIS
•E
nhancing quality and performance of urban
industry has come a long way. We have standards like
services.
GML, WMS and WFS (Reichardt, Mark E. 2012).
•R
educing costs and resource consumption
Interoperability tools are considered a must in most
– thus achieving sustainability.
organizations. ”We do not want vendor lock in” is a
•M
ore effective engagement with its citizens.
common phrase heard in many organizations.
The official reasons for the fear of ”vendor lock in” A typical future scenario in a Smart City is often
may vary (Verstraete, C. 2015): It can be an economic exemplified with emergency response (Enbysk, L.
motive. If we invest heavily in a platform from vendor 2013). In a really Smart City, the ambulance
A - the cost can skyrocket if the vendor changes the personnel not only gets notifications about the
license-model. Also you may be too dependent on a fastest route to the correct building, considering all
certain expertise. … It can also be a decision about current traffic-related data. They would also get
Open Source or Proprietary. You may feel safer with live instructions on which entrance to use and
either side when thinking of the long time aspect. finding a fire safe way to the correct floor as fast as
Personally, I think the most important fact to possible.
consider is none of the above. Focus should be on To achieve the above, all kinds of data must be
connectivity. Data created, collected and stored by connected between many different sources and
an organization has greater value if it can be systems leading to useful information and
connected and combined with other data - coming knowledge. With regards to spatial areas, cities
from any place. Connectivity is a cornerstone in two have huge spaces and functionality inside buil-
trending fields, Smart Cities and Geodesign. dings. As an example, Dan Campbell at the City of
20 • Perspektiv nr. 25 • 2015
The Smart City as visualized by August Wiklund, Sweco
Vancouver, explains that just one BIM-model uses ’A design and planning method which tightly couples
¼ of the space of the 3D GIS-model of the entire the creation of design proposals with impact simulations
city (Safe Software 2015). This means that in many informed by geographic contexts’ (Flaxman M. 2010)
Smart City scenarios, most data will have to come Within the geodesign discipline, some of the
from BIM Systems (Building Information Models) steps in planning and implementing a new
and connect to GIS. Therefore, BIM databases will residential area could be:
have to evolve to the same state of openness as GIS
• Gather information based on existing data
(Figure 1) to make this feasible.
such as road-networks, traffic-information,
Figure 1 explains how GIS and BIM have evolved
building information, geology etc.
during time and how different areas have been
• Perform analysis and simulations. (For
embraced. Today, the use of Open Spatial Databases
example; How will traffic be affected with
can be considered a de facto standard within GIS.
more residents?).
However, BIM focus today is very much on WEB-
• Create proposals based on evaluation models
enabling it and not yet on using Open BIM
and communicate these for feedback among
Databases.
stakeholders and citizens. (Steinitz C. 2012)
Geodesign In these steps, we need current data, we also create
Once again, there are many definitions. The new data and when something eventually is built
following definitions is short and concise enough we should evaluate on the accuracy of the simulati-
for this context: ons and predictions.
Perspektiv nr. 25 • 2015 • 21
Relationship between Geodesign
and Smart Cities
One can see that a well-performed Geodesign-
process would benefit from existing Smart City
information for well-informed decisions. For
example, getting information about traffic-
statistics and all kinds of sensors and other Big
Data sources. On the other hand, one could also see
a well-performed Geodesign-process as funda
mentalto a Smart City. If the designs coming out
of the Geodesign process are not stored, updated
and kept accessible - they won’t help the vision of Figure 2. Graph model
the Smart Cities.
In regard to data, achieving connectivity in these IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) to be able to
fields has many barriers, both technical and legal. exchange information in an efficient way (buil-
Fortunately, as more organizations open their dingSMART 2015). However, it is still very rare that
datasets, there are now less legal barriers. The you have storage in open databases where data
technical challenges still remain. Many of these are lives. In the GIS-industry, it can be considered best
well known to the GIS industry, and are linked to the practice to have a database that owns the informa-
difficulties of combining data from different sources. tion, and different platforms can access this
database with modern tools such as version-con-
Examples of challenges:
trol, integrity rules etc. Other, non-spatial systems
• Reading and writing from different formats can directly connect to the databases as they use
and sources (including open standards and the same technology. This can be exemplified by
proprietary). Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle - databases that
• Combining different types of geometry types. are widely used and shared between many types of
• Co-ordinate systems and precision. systems – spatial or not.
• How data is layered or have attribute- The BIM-industry is far from this point. Software
schemas. tools exist - but they are rarely open for integration
The more complex BIM-platforms have not come as (Isaac S et al 2013).
far as the GIS-platforms regarding connectivity. Using BIM-data together with GIS-data in reality
This is quite understandable as these models are so mostly means:
complex with their high level of detail and •Y
ou export a subset of your BIM-model to your
3D-capabilities. In reality, most BIM-data live in GIS database.
their proprietary systems, and exchanging •Y
ou import a subset of your GIS database into
information is cumbersome. your BIM-model.
You very rarely connect these sources on an object
The challenges ahead level directly.
The vision of smooth Geodesign processes and
blooming Smart Cities will benefit greatly if two Systems understanding systems
specific areas will be addressed. When we traditionally think of GIS, it is often in
the context of seeing and relating to maps
Accessibility of BIM Data produced for the human eye. That is, the data is
A lot of effort is being made in standards such as presented in a form that allows a human to make a
22 • Perspektiv nr. 25 • 2015
well-informed decision. This also affects the way object model where you define tables or classes and
data is stored. relate them together according to predefined rule
BIM is often ”more” intelligent as one of the sets or schemas – as most GIS solutions do.
major purposes is to keep track of details and of However - a key element for the semantic web
how objects are interconnected describing the is that you store and send information as graphs
topology of a building or complex infrastructu- (Figure 2). You have nodes, edges and properties.
re-projects. But still - it is humans making most Communicating in this triplet-way adds meaning
decisions based on what is displayed. for machines interpreting these connections. As
The Smart City concept relies on complex a graph can be dynamic, it can evolve during
chains of systems communicating with each other. time and become more or less complicated. This
In the ambulance example above, several systems is something that works very well with BIM-
would need to interact. Traffic-information, models, for instance the IFC-standard that in its
navigation, BIM with building layouts and elevator complete implementation is very extensive. In
systems would need to understand each other. most implementations, only subsets of the
The traditional way of achieving this is through IFC-standard are used. However, during a projects
standard protocols. That is, you ”hard wire” life cycle, different subsets and parts are being
intelligence into systems to understand what other adopted. To support these dynamics in an
systems mean. A protocol can both describe the IFC-model with a relational database is almost
physical means of communications and also the impossible but far more possible with a dynamic
standards describing the logic of data. So if two graph database.
systems understand the same protocol - they can The idea of achieving better connectivity
communicate. The drawback is that operating on between BIM and GIS systems with help of the
new types of data demands new protocols. So a above technique is based on the assumptions that:
Smart City getting smarter by connecting new data • It’s easier to model BIM-data as a graph than
would demand a lot of new protocols. in a relational model
An exciting alternative to using predefined
• BIM-models change over time – something
protocols is the ”Linked Data” approach. Linked
that is possible to handle with new links in
Data describes a method to communicate data so it
the graph.
can be interlinked and become useful through
• Connections between specific BIM and
semantic queries. The approach uses standard Web
GIS-objects can be maintained with links in
technologies but instead of serving web pages it
the model. (The actual geometries could be
can be read and understood automatically by
stored in the model or it can be links to
computer systems.
external storage as physical files. Something
called “Hybrid Approach”).
The semantic web
The semantic web concept is complicated so it will Communicating with a Semantic Web enabled
just be touched upon briefly. A cornerstone is the system can be done with special query-languages
use of Linked Data. ’The Semantic Web is not a separate like SPARQL. These languages provide a way to
Web but an extension of the current one, in which query graphs over the Web and can be utilized by
information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling different systems.
computers and people to work in cooperation’ (Tim
Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila, 2001). V-Con paves the way
The more traditional way of storing and commu- The author is currently participating in the
nicating information is through the relational or PCP-part of the V-Con project (The Virtual Construc-
Perspektiv nr. 25 • 2015 • 23
tion for Roads) that aims to improve the efficiency the chances of the Linked Data approach to be
and effectiveness of the National Road Authorities adopted throughout the industry.
in Europe. (Read more at http://www.rws.nl/english/ If the prototype meets the challenges in phase 2
highways/v-con) it might be a candidate for pre-production testing
PCP is an approach for procuring R&D services towards the end of 2016. After this it can be
and consists of a funnel of three phases: challenge released as a solution for the market.
solution design, challenge prototype and pre-pro- The V-Con project is one example that may pave
duction testing. the way to broad application of Smart Cities and
This project is managed by the Dutch National Geodesign solutions. We need more such initiatives
Road Authority at the Ministry of Infrastructure & in all affected sectors of our society in order to
the Environment. Other participators are the make BIM and GIS databases better connected and
National Swedish Road & Rail Authority and research help the vision of really Smart Cities.
institutes from France and the Netherlands.
The ground breaking idea in this project is to References
keep using existing standards in GIS & BIM but also
•b uildingSMART (2015). IFC Overview summary, at http://
keep the information linked. The foundation for www.buildingsmart-tech.org/specifications/ifc-overview
achieving this is envisioned to be via a linked data • Enbysk, Liz (2013). How smart transportation systems
approach through the semantic Web. reduce emergency response times, saves lives. Smart
Citiescouncil, at http://smartcitiescouncil.com/article/
It is a very ambitious project and is very how-smart-transportation-systems-reduce-emergen-
technically challenging. V-Con aims at enabling cy-response-times-saves-lives
• Flaxman, Michael (2010), quote from Geodesign Summit,
national road authorities to introduce software
Redlands, California. Amended by Stephen Ervin (2012)
tools for exchanging/sharing comprehensive road • Isaac S., Sadeghpour F., and R. Navon (2013), Analyzing
information with commercial parties in the sector. building information using graph theory, Proceedings of
the 30th ISARC, Montréal, Canada at http://www.iaarc.
The author is responsible for designing
org/publications/proceedings_of_the_30th_isarc/analy-
SWECO’s solution idea that was selected in zing_building_information_using_graph_theory.html
competition with 14 proposals and further • Reichardt, Mark E. (2012). Driving geospatial inter
operability - communities of interest, 2012 NGAC Meeting,
developed in phase 1 of the PCP-process. The
at https://www.fgdc.gov/ngac/meetings/april-2012/
solution idea has now qualified for phase 2 of the open-geospatial-consortium-activities-reichardt.pdf
project - meaning that challenge prototyping will • Safe Software (2015), How to Create BIM & GIS Interope
rability, http://www.safe.com/webi
begin January 2016. In short, the solution design
• Steinitz, Carl (2012). A Framework for Geodesign,
consists of designing modules adding Semantic Redlands, Esri Press
Web capabilities to a standard Spatial Data • Verstraete, Christian (2015). You don’t want vendor lock-
in...but aren’t you always lockedin?,ITPeerNetwork,at
Integration platform (FME by Safe Software). This https://communities.intel.com/community/itpeernet-
platform already supports reading and writing work/blog/2015/03/11/you-dont-want-vendor-lock-in-
most BIM and GIS standards but currently doesn’t but-arent-you-always-locked-in
• Wikipedia (2015). Smart city, at https://en.wikipedia.org/
have Semantic Web functionality. Adding these wiki/Smart_city
new Semantic Web capabilities to an already wide
spread integration platform will hopefully increase
24 • Perspektiv nr. 25 • 2015
