As Data Collection Technology Advances, So Does BIM

My fellow geospatial editor, Art Kalinski, wrote about BIM (building information modeling) earlier this week in the GeoIntelligence Insider newsletter. I’ve touched on the subject before. All too often we think of GIS as it relates to outdoor infrastructure: street maps, utility systems, parcel maps, timber harvesting, land management, environmental management, etc.

Last summer at the Esri Surveying and Engineering Summit, I attended a talk presented by Stuart Rich, chief technology officer of Penobscot Bay Media, LLC. He presented on understanding, documenting, and building systems to support spatial data infrastructure’s security requirements as well as initiatives to move GIS inside the building footprint.

He said he was involved in using terrestrial LiDAR inside buildings to collect massive amounts of data. So much, in fact, that “the value of measurement is trending very close to zero” using very high-volume data collection at 250,000 points/second.

Stuart’s Factoid: Only 16% of cities are mapped, with a big vacuum being building interior maps in urban areas.

He also discussed the lack of attention to underground infrastructure mapping.

Another example of BIM detail, as provided in Art’s article, is a building wall which, in most GIS, if it exists at all, is a single polyline, maybe two polylines in rare cases. Thinking in a GIS sort of way, a building wall ”could contain more than six layers of data: paint, drywall, framing, blocking, fire stops, insulation, etc.” Think about this for a minute. Imagine how the quality of decisions would improve if the building owner was considering renovating his building and had this sort of information and software tools available. The decisions about which walls to leave or take down and future layout, for instance, would likely change if this information was readily available.

Honestly, for building design, and most kinds of design for that matter, CAD isn’t the right tool if you think about it. It doesn’t have the database or analysis tools behind the various points, lines, and polygons to make the best decisions. This is the foundation of the GeoDesign concept being promoted these days.

Although I didn’t set out to write about GeoDesign, it’s very fitting. According to Wikipedia, “GeoDesign brings geographic analysis into the design process, where initial design sketches are instantly vetted for suitability against a myriad of database layers describing a variety of physical and social factors for the spatial extent of the project. This on-the-fly suitability analysis provides a framework for design, giving land-use planners, engineers, transportation planners, and others involved with design the tools to leverage geographic information within their design workflows.”

Of course, as Stuart mentions and as I’ve written about before, a highly related topic is underground infrastructure (sewer, water, electric, gas, telecom). That’s a whole other subject and one that I’m close to as I spend quite a bit of time working with landscape architects who deal with underground infrstructure on a daily basis in their projects. For them, as opposed to “what’s inside the wall,” a landscape architect has to ask “what’s under the ground.” If he or she doesn’t know until the construction crew starts tearing down and digging, then the project risk increases substantially.

A good example and story I read this week was a short interview that Directions magazine published about the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion which killed nine people. You can read the interview here. Essentially, it’s a lesson in spatial data management with respect to underground infrastructure, with spatial data accuracy being the primary theme.

Data, Data, Data

In the world of real estate, it is said the three most important features of real-estate property are location, location, and location. I think you can say that the three most important feature of a GIS are data, data, and data. It’s not the software tools we are lacking, it’s the data. That’s why revenue from GIS data over the past eight years has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~15 percent, while GIS software has grown considerably less, according to research firm Daratech, Inc.

Where Is the Data Coming From?

Data collection technology is changing rapidly. Look at two key sources of geospatial data: remote sensing and GPS. Remote sensining, in particular, is well-suited for building interior data collection.

At the same Esri Surveying and Engineering conference I mentioned above, Lawrie Jordan, director of Imagery at Esri, said that this is the most exciting time to be involved in imagery during his 40-year career.

Commercial satellite imagery quality and availability is the best it’s ever been. It wasn’t that long ago that three-year-old, one-meter-pixel resolution, black/white imagery was the norm. Today, GeoEye, DigitalGlobe, RapidEye, and Spot Image are delivering an amazing amount of digital imagery at even more amazing resolutions. Jordan stated that in less than five years, every square inch of the Earth will be imaged (by satellites) constantly. He said we are already half-way there.

Another form of remote sensing that’s busting at the seams is 3D scanning (terrestrial LiDAR). We’ve seen a lot of development in 3D scanning over the past 10 years. The equipment used to be pretty expensive, but the prices are coming down as the technology gains acceptance. I recall using the technology a number of years ago (circa 2003). I was tasked with an accident reconstruction project. Part of the task was to create a 3D model of a wrecked automobile. Traditionally, one would use a surveying total station and measure shot-by-shot at key points on the automobile. Even measuring 1,000 points on the automobile wouldn’t result in enough data points to create a reasonable 3D model. We decided to use a 3D scanner. We were able to scan the automobile in under two hours and collect a tremendous amount of detailed data.

The good news is that we had a tremendous amount of detailed data to work with. The bad news was the same, we had a tremendous amount of detailed data to work with. I think it took us four weeks to produce a deliverable from the data. However, keep in mind that this was nearly eight years ago and software tools have come a long way since then (Safe Software, Leica Geosystems, Trimble, Topcon, all have software tools for dealing with 3D scan data), so the process in producing a deliverable today is more efficient.

I’ve written and said this many times over: geospatial data fuels the GIS software engine. Esri and other GIS software developers are making very powerful GIS engines. In fact, the GIS software engines far exceed the quality of the geoespatial data we have to work with. BIM is a great example of that. There’s a substantial lack of BIM data, but with 3D scanning and other geospatial data collection technology advancing rapidly today
, that will change. GIS will move indoors.

Thanks, and see you next week.

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