Building Information Modeling (BIM) refers to a process where various tools and technologies are employed to generate and manage the digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. While the concept of BIM had its inception in the 1970s, today it stands at USD 6 billion and expected to grow more than twofold by 2025. BIM facilitates interoperability of software for planning, designing, construction, and maintenance of buildings various other physical infrastructure. Overall, it streamlines the AEC sector towards more efficiency, productivity, cost savings, Return on Investment (RoI) and faster project timelines.
BIM has four dimensions covering the three physical dimensions and time, though some industry players even tout a 6D BIM. Nevertheless, interoperability of different kinds of BIM software has persisted as a problem. Users may miss out on context that BIM does not provide.
A report by Plangrid outlines that 80% of projects overshoot their primary budget, while 52% require rework during their course. Worryingly, 20% of projects overshot their stipulated time.
As such, the integration of BIM and Geographic Information System (GIS) provides a user-specific platform that provides a more holistic view of a project, which can then be efficiently shared, managed, and accessed by different stakeholders. The benefits are tangible in both the project assessment stage, as well as the quality inspection stage.
Integrated GIS and BIM workflows enable a process field for delivering constructed facilities with enhanced collaboration, coordination, visualization, project forecasting, and clash detection.
A detailed report published by Geospatial World in collaboration with Esri and Autodesk highlights the benefits of the integrated solution.
At the project assessment stage, the integration provides an array of solutions in the form of non-intrusive measures. BIM solutions not only enable cost and time effectiveness of project design assessment, but also structural load distribution and other miscellaneous calculations.
With the integration of GIS and BIM, monitoring of technical installations and tracking of energy consumption using spatial data can help deliver sustainable and energy efficient built infrastructure. It also helps with the assessment of health and safety on-site.
Project monitoring is important for sustainable project delivery, and it is crucial to incorporate quality inspection and identify quality tolerance during the early stages of a project’s lifecycle.
At the quality inspection stage, the integration of BIM and GIS helps to conduct virtual inspections, which help monitor the quality of project execution.
Applying integrated GIS and BIM solutions to different project parameters such as site selection, energy design, structural design, and performance evaluation among other things, has enormous potential during the plan and design stage of a project’s lifecycle.
In a nutshell, site selection, optimized structural and energy design, accelerated project approvals, reduced costs, performance evaluation, etc., are key benefits of integrated BIM and GIS.
In the construction phase, application of integrated GIS and BIM solutions can be seen to yield benefits in different tasks such as clash detection, site logistics, and 4D planning and schedule management.
The figure below shows the breakdown of RoI, as perceived by owners and operators, in the entire lifecycle of a project using integrated GIS and BIM solutions.
This has resulted in the user demand for integrated solutions among all stakeholders associated with construction services such as design, construction, and owners or operators of construction projects in increasing.
Data interoperability, mismatch, and loss of semantic information during the process of integration are key challenges in the integration of BIM and GIS.
Aspects like common data environment (CDE), lifecycle information management, and BIM component orientation cause implementation hiccups for GIS users. In order to address them, Christopher Allen, VDC/BIM Manager and Laser Scanning Expert, Reis Contracting, Inc., says, “The first thing that we do in order to reduce the amount of change orders and time spent is utilize geospatial solutions like reality capturing technology from the very beginning of the project lifecycle. Generally these solutions were applied by designers, but these days, this has been adopted by contractors to avoid expensive rework.”
The success of a digital transformation strategy with integrated solutions plays a crucial role in achieving sustainable project delivery outcomes.
For the post-construction phase, George Floros, GIS Lead – Infrastructure, Skanska, says, “Integrating GIS and BIM together gives the owners and operators the opportunity to develop an internavigable system for monitoring their assets in an infrastructure project. It is extremely important to not only capture the real-time location data but also to identify a network that will allow stakeholders to make decisions in case of emergencies by following a specific path, which takes into consideration the MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing), potential hazards around the site, creating evacuation plans, etc.”
“The government has to play a role in providing a mandate wherein BIM model along with Geo, would encourage the adoption of GIS and BIM technologies together in the infrastructure projects,” says Professor Prof. Henk Scholten, leading scientist and CEO, GEODAN.
Apart from governments, the academia too has a critical role to play in the advancement of the integrated solution. Only then will businesses be ready to adopt them.
