What is GIS?

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a 2D & 3D representation system of geospatial shapes.

It provides information on natural and man-made environmental assets and other important factors considering geography, socio-economics and environment. It is a system for collecting, generating, integrating, managing, analyzing and visualizing spatial data using maps. It helps users understand patterns, spatial relationships, and geographic context. Ultimately, it helps make effective decisions about facility management, operations, and maintenance of those assets.

What is BIM?

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the holistic process of creating and managing information for a built asset. Based on an intelligent model and enabled by a cloud platform, BIM integrates structured, multi-disciplinary data to produce a digital representation of an asset across its lifecycle, from planning and design to construction and operations.

The connection between GIS and BIM

By providing a real-world context of an asset’s existing environment within which designers and engineers can explore and evaluate design and construction – GIS informs BIM. Then, rich, more accurate models can be utilized to improve the overall operations and maintenance of assets within a larger area – in this way, BIM fuels GIS.

The fusion of BIM and GIS provides the power to build a robust context model where geographic information and infrastructure design data are brought together, helping to better understand how assets interact within the context of a real place and geography.

Application of the combination of GIS and BIM

The developed BIM & GIS model includes all information about the utility infrastructure used in the planning, design, construction and operation phases. BIM-GIS integration application is as follows:

• Visualization:
  The BIM & GIS platform provides geometric 3D images of each component containing geometrical and semantic information. Visualization facilitates project planning and execution. The visualization of the topography, detailed topography, surrounding facilities, and ground and underground infrastructure can be performed in a GIS environment.
• Facility management:
  Operation and maintenance work is required due to utility failures or on a regular schedule. The BIM & GIS integrated model makes information available to us about utilities that operations and maintenance teams can use to determine location, type, and material. Information is readily available about the utility, making the system efficient, reducing time delays and cost overruns.
• Conflict detection:
  Renovation and repair activities are common in operation stages. Traditionally, utility information was not available or readily available in 2D CAD drawings. It is difficult to extract accurate utility information from 2D drawings causing potential conflicts between utilities. In this BIM-GIS integration platform, many BIM tools like Civil 3D, Navisworks and GIS tools like ArcGIS provide 3D utility model conflict detection. 3D models help provide information that will help take further actions.

Benefits of integrating GIS and BIM

• Advanced geospatial context information in great detail
• Improved workflows, which reduce data reuse for all stakeholders
• Make more informed decisions to accelerate project delivery and improve operations and maintenance of completed assets.
• Approve architects and engineers to design smarter, more efficient buildings and infrastructure
• Collect and analyze data from the field and improve communication with key stakeholders
• Connecting existing records systems to create a linked source of credentials helps to reduce costly errors and delays associated with critical design decisions