GIS and BIM Integration in Infrastructure Design and Construction

Wiki Article

Introducing geospatial services to infrastructure design and construction leads to building much safer, and smarter, transportation methods, roads, and buildings. Merging BIM and GIS data provides a geospatial element that can be used in infrastructure design, allowing for more efficient workflows and consistent data.

This initiative came from the knowledge that the AEC industry has been facing a real challenge. How to solve the puzzle of lost data between the stages of the construction process? From the planning stage down to operations and construction, vital segments of information are lost.

Since the latest technology used in this industry is solely relying on consistent data and software systems, such a problem has been causing more issues than the industry can solve. Each time data is moved between the stages of a certain project, the entire sets of data are lost.

The problem appears the moment a project stakeholder requires data from an earlier stage of the process. Engineers, designers, and planners have to retrieve that data, sometimes manually, which causes even more problems. The GIS industry stepped forward by making a move towards 3D modeling to solve this issue.
Building Information Modeling in Construction and Design
The rapid evolution of the BIM industry made a real disruption in both the design and construction industries. This evolution includes a digital transformation, shifting from 2D to 3D building information modeling. The emergence of BIM and GIS integration brings a whole new approach to construction and planning.
This approach allows introducing a geospatial element to BIM design. This means that construction and infrastructure design companies can plan and put their newly built objects in the matching contexts of their surrounding environment.

The BIM and GIS Integration and Benefits
GIS data is necessary for planning all operations regarding any infrastructure such as rail networks, airports, bridges, roads, and so on. It helps put this infrastructure in the context of its surroundings.

While GIS helps understand how to put the infrastructure in that context, BIM information is the vital element that allows for the designing and building process of that infrastructure to take place.
BIM and GIS integration is the process of blending the BIM model into layers of the geospatial context. So, designers can use GIS to get the most accurate information about some areas where construction is to take place. If the area is prone to flooding, designers will learn about it and influence a structure’s construction materials, orientation, location, etc.

The reason why this matters is that GIS information can be applied to the country, regional, and city scales. On the other hand, BIM data is closely tied to designing and constructing a specific object, structure, or shape. By combining the two, you get the capability to build any structure at an object level.
GIS adding makes the entire picture bigger by adding a smarter and larger environment context, meaning that the object will become a part of the roads, utilities, and land in that environment.

Integrating GIS and BIM data allows design and construction companies to collect accurate and valuable data that will lead to much more effective and efficient design and project management.

Here are some of the benefits of GIS and BIM integration:
• Eliminating data redundancy
• Moving data seamlessly between the stages of the design and construction process
• Adding more effective geospatial context to the BIM process
• Reducing costs and saving money
• Better and improved designs
• Storing in the cloud to improve data management in any environment
• Reusing and repurposing data if necessary
• Eliminating the need to convert data for use in other contexts