BIM/GIS integration for web GIS-based bridge management

Abstract

Integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) can benefit both the Architecture, Engineering and Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) domain, and the geospatial industry. For GIS, BIM is a promising source of three-dimensional (3D) building information that can be used in the study of smart city, green building, big data, etc. The underlying data transformation from Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to shapefile enables GIS to use the rich building information. However, this transformation is difficult due to the different modelling methods used by IFC and shapefile. IFC generally represents 3D objects using boundary representation (Brep), swept solid, constructive solid geometry (CSG), clipping and mapped representation, while shapefile only uses Brep. In addition, the use of different coordinate systems also contributes to the geometry transformation issue. Among all the solid modelling methods used by IFC, Brep and swept solid are the most often used two methods. Compared with Brep, the transformation of swept solid is more challenging as each type of profile for swept solid defined in IFC has to be properly interpreted and converted. This paper develops algorithms to interpret the commonly used profiles of swept solid for the transformation of IFC into shapefile. A bridge model is used to validate the proposed method, and a Web GIS-based bridge management system is developed to demonstrate a possible usage of the transformed shapefile model.