Between the Poles

Oracle Spatial and Graph to support NURBS

At the Oracle Spatial and Graph User Meeting, the folks from Oracle outlined some of the things to expect in the next version of Oracle 12c.  I was very impressed.  All of the below is my interpretation of what will be in Oracle 12c.

Parametric curve support

The really big news for the architecture, engineering and construction community (AEC) who use CAD and BIM applications is that Oracle 12c is expected to support NURBS (non-uniform rational basis spline) a type of parametric curve widely used in the design space.  According the Siva Ravada the support will be very general and will be able to handle different ways of representing NURBS. Up to now the only parametric curve supported by Oracle was circular arcs.

To me it looks like Oracle is taking a major step toward being able to store natively and manipulate (in some cases by stroking) the parametrized curves used by CAD and BIM applications.  There is a lot of CAD and BIM data out there and being able to store it and manipulate it in Oracle Spatial and Graph is going to be a game changer.

Orthorectification

Oracle is providing support for orthorectification embedded directly in the database.  This will have important implications for the industry.   Up to now, you had to pull the image out of where ever it was stored, transfer it over the network to someone's application often from an image processing company to orthorectify it, and then transfer it back to store the image or stream it to the end user.  With 12c you will be able to orthorectify images in the database.  This is in line with Oracle's objective of bringing processing to the data, rather than the data to processing.

Raster algebra

Oracle 12c will also have support for raster algebra, again in the database.  For example, you will be able to average in the database12 months of national temperature data stored in monthly raster files.

GDAL and PDAL support

Oracle supports the open source GDAL raster libraries, the industry standard developed by Frank Warmerdam (now with Google) and used by just about everyone for accessing raster images including ESRI.  PDAL is a similar type of open source library for point clouds developed by Howard Butler and Michael Gerlek.

3D

Oracle supports three types of 3D data.  3D vectors, point clouds and terrain (surfaces).  Oracle 12c will provide full support for 3D geodetic data, lon lat and elevation in meters or feet.

Performance

Oracle has developed a new engine for handling massive point clouds.  Dan Geringer showed impressive results for a 2.8 billion point point cloud (286 gigabyte file). 

Processing vector geospatial data is reported to be 50 to 100 times faster in 12c than in 11g. 

Raster operations have been parallelized which can dramatically reduce the time it takes for these operations.

Engineered Database

Since acquiring Sun, Oracle has become a hardware and software company and is offering integrated hardware and software solutions that offer extremely good performance characteristics.  For example, processing LiDAR data benefits from hardware acceleration on engineered machines such as Exadata boxes.

Bundled data

Oracle is planning to bundle vector data from Nokia (Navteq), TomTom and others.

Oracle Spatial and Graph

The name of the product is changing to Oracle Spatial and Graph partly because it has had graph capabilities (network and RDF semantic) already for several years.  But probably more importantly because the demand for graph capabilities is accelerating, especially RDF semantic graphs for linked data, text mining, and for social media analytics, according to Xavier Lopez.  Even Oracle's NOSQL database (aka BerkeleyDB) is apparently getting graph capabilities.

Integrating geospatial into construction: the challenge

I spent most of last week at the Geospatial World Forum 2013 (GWF 2013) in Rotterdam, which was an amazing event, because of its focus on monetizing geospatial value in vertical industries,  Industries for which there were symposia at GWF 2013 include construction and infrastructure, electic power and gas, mining and exploration, water as a resource, water distribution management, and agriculture in addition to more traditional sectors such as land management, photogrammetry and the environment.

I spent most of my time in Construction and Infrastructure sessions.  There were many absolutely fascinating pesentation on the applicaton of geospatial technology in this sector.  Among the most far-reaching in terms of potential impacts were three or four talks that explicitly addressed the challenge of finding a practical way to integrate geospatial into construction processes.

Value of geospatial information

To put this in context, there is a strong drive in the Netherlands to integrate geospatial information into govenrment organizations.  Geonovum is leading the charge in this area.   By way of motivation there is a very interesting cost-benefit analysis in the context of the European INSPIRE initiaive by Ecorys and Grontmij in November 2009.  The scope of study was the cost and benefits of the collection, maintenance and dissimilation of geographic information, but just within governmental organizations in the Netherlands.  The study did not attempt to estimate the value of geospatial information to society as a whole.  It concluded that over 15 years, the total net benefit to government organizations in the Netherlands would be € 34 million (Ralf Duinmeijer, Joulz ICT private communication).

Cost of poor interoperability

To put this in the context of interoperability and what poor interoperability costs the economy and individual firms, in 2004 in a remarkable study the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) attempted to identify and estimate the efficiency losses in the U.S. capital facilities industry resulting from inadequate interoperability.  The NIST study focussed on interoperability problems attributed to the highly fragmented nature of the industry, the industry’s continued paperbased business practices, a lack of standardization, and inconsistent technology adoption among stakeholders.  It concluded that inadequate interoperability cost the U.S. capital facilities industry $15.8 billion in annually in 2002, but qualified the conclusion by saying that this is likely a conservative figure because there were additional significant inefficiency and lost opportunity costs associated with interoperability problems that were beyond the scope of NIST analysis.

At GWF 2013 it was reported that Rijkswaterstaat, responsible for public works and water management as part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure, has estimated that poor interoperability costs it € 800 million per year.

Barriers to integrating BIM and geospatial

Bram Mommers, who is with ARCADIS Netherlands, set the stage by looking at what the barriers are that are hindering the integration of geospatial into the constrcution process.  (ARCADIS is a large international company that provides consultancy, design, engineering and management services in the fields of infrastructure, water, environment and buildings.)

Traditionally the challenge has been that civil engineering on one hand and geospatial on the other have been different cultures.  The way Carl Steinitz put is that they work at different scales.  Geospatial scientists deal with the universal, engineers with the very specific. 

Bram gave some examples of these parallel worlds. Geospatial folks make maps, engineers and architects make drawings.  Engineers and architects use CAD or BIM design tools.  Geospatial folks use GIS.  The geospatial standard for buildings and infrastructure is CityGML.  The AEC standard for BIM models is Industry Foundation Classes (IFC).

ARCADIS has been involved in projects that integrated geospatial into the desing process.  On the HOV Nijmegen project it was found that integrating geospatial and engineering design in a single database resulted in a single copy of each data element and multiple use.  It simplified communication and increased the quality of the final design.  It also enabled automated analysis of the consequences of design choices with the result that the planning cycle was shorter.   Bram mentioned several other projects that benefitted from the integration of geospatial with the construction process.

Based on their experience with these projects, Bram and his colleagues concluded that there are three main barriers to the integration of civll engineering and geospatial.

• Semantics - for example, different terms used for the me things by geospatial analysts and civil engineers and designers
• Different topology - examples,  (1) geospatial uses point, lines, and polygons; CAD/BIM uses splines, nurbs, and other parametric curves and treats polygons in a different way from geospatial topology; (2) features with location vs objects with location as an attribute
• Data formats - for example, geospatial data is stored in shape files, GML, and CityCML; CAD/BIM uses DWG, DGN, RVT files, and IFC

Mapping semantics

To address the first issue of semantics, a Dutch initiative called Concept Library (CB-NL) sponsored by the Dutch Council on Building Information (BIR), a joint government and industry initiative, has been created with the objective of developed an open, on-line system to map between the terminologies used in different domains.  The goal is a single integrated model for construction (buildings and infrastructure) that would allow design, construction, maintenance and operations to share the same data.  The concept library would be extended to include geospatial.  The overall goal as Bram stated it is

• Ontology for the build environment - multiple sets of domain terminologies mapped on to it
• One language
• Combines geospatial and construction

The impacts of this appproach that Bram sees are

• Store once, use multiple times - avoid redundant data
• Integrated information management - based on data custodians
• Geolocation as a property of an object - in additon to features

Bram listed a number of organizations in the private construction sector that are supporting this initiative.

SPAR 2013: Developing an intelligent 3D model of above and below ground infrastructure for the City of Las Vegas

At SPAR 2013 Keith Warren, BIM/3D SUE Manager at VTN Consulting gave a fascinating presentation on the 3D above and below ground model of city infrastructure including roads, utilities, telecom, and buildings that VTN has developed with the City of Las Vegas.  Keith believes that at the present time Las Vegas' 3D city infrastructure model is unique in North America.

This model also represents a classic example of the benefits of convergence, the integration of engineering design data including building information models (BIM), geospatial data including digital terrain models, high resolution photogrammetry, and point clouds derived from laser scanning, together with 3D visualization technology.

Education

About five years ago the City of Las Vegas approached VTN because they saw some potential value in 3D modeling.  At that time the city had had little experience with 3D modeling.  VTN has a broad range of in-house capabilities spannng engineering (traffic, public works, and 3D subsurface utility engineering), survey including laser scanning, GIS, building information modeling, and visualization.  Over the next two years VTN focused on education, working with the city and other utility agencies to introduce them to 3D modeling and visualization technology.  VTN organized workshops with the city, local utiltiies including the water district, and other public agencies to educate them in some of the capabilities of the new technology.  At the same time they worked with the city and other public agencies to understand the problems they were facing.

Challenge: subsurface utility engineering (SUE)

One of the problems that was identified repeatedly in these workshops, not only at the City but also at the utilities, was hitting underground infrastructure during excavations.  According to national statistics, in the United States an underground utility line is hit on average every 60 seconds.  The total cost to the national economy is estimated to be in the billions of dollars.  The problems is that in most municipalities in North America, for years underground utility lines have been put in the ground not according to plan but wherever it has been easiest and cheapest to build them.  In addition 2D as-builts of underground infrastructure are unreliable.  The result is that in most municipalities the location of underground utiltiies is very poorly known.  This was the situation in Las Vegas.

Since the city had been educated on 3D modeling technology by VTN, they decided that this technology could provide a solution for the problem of locating underground utilities.  The City decided to go ahead with a project to model one and half miles of Main Street in the older part of Las Vegas.  The project was intended to model below and above ground facilities including roadways, utilities and telecommunications, and buildings.

The project also specified implementation of a new low distortion geospatial coordinate system to make it possible to support engineering grade accuracy for geolocating infrastructure.

Reality capture

Buildings were modeled in several ways, including extruding a building footprint from a GIS, using building models from the Sketchup 3D Warehouse, laser scanning existing structures, and complete BIM models for newer buildings provided by architects. 

A variety of techniques were used for reality capture of underground utilities and other infrastucture includng GIS, survey, design records, test holes, and ground penetrating radar (GPR).  Above ground utilities were captured by combining GIS data with mobile laser scanning. 

In the future to improve data quality for underground infrastructure, since the City owns most of the right of ways within Las Vegas proper (some is owned by the Nevada DOT), it has mandated that in the future contractors are required to use open trenching for utiities and all work has to be surveyed before the trench is closed. 

Intelligent city infrastructure model

The deliverable was a set of 3D models of all the underground and aboveground infrastructure and buildings for the one and a half mile corridor of Main Street in old Las Vegas.   Engineering design and other data was combined with the City's geoimagery, digital terrain models and other GIS data. The models were designed to run with the software that Las Vegas already had including Civil 3D, Navisworks, ESRI ArcGIS and Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler (Infraworks).

Augmented reality

Working with a partner VTN developed an application for the iPad that allowed underground facilities to be viewed virtually under the actual roadway.

Map-21 and Every Day Counts

Map-21 and Every Day Counts are Federal Highway Authority (FHWA) initiatives that are designed to encourage the adoption of 3D modeling.  MAP-21 (Moving ahead for progress in the 21st Century) requires 3D modeling and virtual construction and visualization technology for all eligible projects.  The Federal government will provide matching funding on projects using intelligent 3D modeling and visualization of up to 5% fo project costs.  The Map-21 initiative was announced last July, but it turns out that what Las Vegas has done is in Keith's estimation 80-90% compliant with Map-21 guidelines.

Every Day Counts is another FHWA initiative that encourages 3D modeling.  According to the FHWA 3D modeling in transportation construction allows for faster, more accurate and more efficient planning and construction. The FHWA foresees that as the benefits are more widely recognized, many in the U.S. highway industry will transition to 3D modeling over the traditional two-dimensional (2D) design process.

Benefits of the intelligent 3D city infrastructure model

One of the major benefits that Las Vegas has experienced as a result of developing the intelligent 3D city infrastructure model is increased safety because of the reduced risk of unexpectedly hitting underground utilities especially hazardous ones like gas mains. 

The benefits of being able to accurately locate existing underground infrastructure are immense.  They include automated clash detection to identify potential problems when plannng, designing and constructing new undergound infrastructure.  Also there are reduced operating costs because of reduced truck rolls for cable/pipe locate operations. 

Overall the City has found that the 3D model approach provides more information per dollar invested, in other words more capabilities at lower cost.

SPAR 2013: Integrated geospatial, LiDAR and design datasets for large infrastructure construction projects

Kevin Gilson, of the Project Visualization group at Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), gave an overview of how PB manages 3D+ datasets in support of design and construction for large infrastructure projects such as the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the I-95 New Haven Harbour Crossing /Q-Bridge reconstrcution, and the Alaskan Way viaduct project.  He showed how the project visualization team leverages geospatial data, LiDAR data, design data and construction planning data together in large integrated datasets that concurrently support visualization, stakeholder communication, design, construction planning and site logistics.

PB has more than 30 staff dedicated to project visualization.  That included folks who do 3D modeling, design visualization, web design, and programming.  3D technologies include building information modeling (BIM), 3D design, virtual desgin and construction (VDC) and laser scanning (LiDAR).

3D modeling for design and construction

Some of the reasons that designers and construction firms are adopting 3D technology are the serious limitations of 2D sheet sets, still legally required fro s-builting but very unreliable, the design efficiencies of 3D parametric models, and the limitations of siloed project data.  PB has adopted the concept of project information models or PIMs, that integrate information about all aspects of the design and build process and that potentially can flow data through for operations and maintenance.

3D modeling and model-based design are used by PB for design validation, clash detection, and parameteric modeling, civil integration management, 4D modeling (time+3D), 5D (cost+time+3D), and design visualization.  Model-based design involves integrating CAD, GIS, survey, analytics, BIM and associated databases, and 3D visualization typically in a vitual gaming environment.

Construction firms in particular see tremendous advantages in 4D models that integrate design and gespatial data and allow the construction team to virtually build the project so that they can check staging and construction sequencing and site logistics virtually.  5D and higher dimensions allow them to add additional metrics including cost, resources, materials, and equipment.

The benefits that PB realize by this integrated approach based on 3D+ dataest include finding and fixing conflicts between different design groups (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, structural, and so on) during the design phase rather than during construction when clashes are much more expensive to fix.  Another benefit is being able to quantify things using analytics, so  that decisions are data-driven rather than subjective.

A major benefit is less re-work is required reducing the risk of cost and schedule overruns.  A big advantage is improved communication and coordination between all project stakeholders, and especially with non-technical decision makers.  Being able to see photorealistic visualizations of what the project is going to look like makes a huge difference in communicating with politicians and the public.  PB uses gaming technology making it possible to experience a project before a shovel has gone into the ground.  For example, on highway projects, PB's visualization makes it possible to drive the highway and even the detours required during construction in a virtual environment so that the public can experience the changes and be prepared for them before they actually happen.

Another important benefit that Kevin sees from a project approach that includes visualization is that "sexy deliverables" get peoples attention, within the project team as well as with external stakeholders.  Several other speakers at SPAR 2013 also emphasized the importance of the "sexiness" factor.

Laser scanning in construction

Kevin described a number of applications of laser scanning (LiDAR) as part of the 3D constrcution process.  A major application of LiDAR is contruction monitoring, capturing construction progress as well as being able to automate the process of checking for divergence from design when contractors for a variety of reasons don't build what is designed. 

Another important Laser scanning application is accurate and reliable as-builts.  At SPAR 2013, speaker after speaker in different sectors of the construction industry reiterated that current 2D as-builts, still legally required, are unreliable and rarely looked at by anyone post-construction.  Marco Vidali Castillo at ICA which is responsible for the Autopista Urbana Sur project in Mexico City  gave an example of how trying to use 2D as-builts can lead to problems necessitating major re-engineering.  LiDAR scans of a completed project can provide the reliability that 2D as-built sheet sets lack.  On the Autopista Urbana Sur project Marco says that ICA intends to deliver LiDAR scans as well as the legally required 2D as-built sheet sets.

3D modeling and sustainability

There are also benefits from the perspective of sustainability to PBs project approach. Collaboration typically has relied on the exchange of paper documents which on a large project can involve many thousands of paper documents.  Collaborating in a virtual environment can dramatically reduce paper flow while improving the quality of communication.  It can also improve traffic flow and resource management during construction, thereby reducing emissions. A life-cycle approach to data management during design and construction, with data being reused for operations and maintenenace can reduce rework resulting in significant efficiencies.  

Selecting software tools

The PB project visualization team takes a best of breed approach in selecting software for 3D modeling and visualization. An important criterion in selecting tools is interoperability between the different technologies.  Currently the software stack that PB relies on includes

Geospatial

• ESRI
• Global Mapper
• Infraworks (Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler)

CADD

• Microstation InRoads
• AutoCAD/Civil 3D
• Solidworks

Visualization

• 3ds Max
• Sketchup
• Realtime - UDK, Unity

Collaboration/4D

• Navisworks

SPAR 2013: BIM + GIS based facilities management at Denver International Airport

At SPAR 2013 Dennis Rodriguez, Project Manager at Denver International Airport (DIA), and Daniel Stonecipher of Immersiv, gave a fascinating presentation on how they combined a BIM-based design and construction process with GIS  to create a facilities and operations management (FM/OM) solution for managing DIA's infrastructure.

DIA is a small city and managing its infrastructure involves many of the same probelms that utilities and municipal governments have to deal with.  As-builts are unreliable or not existent,  which meant that DIA really didn't know reliably where their assets were.   DIA has nine million CAD files which meant a major data management problem.  Their maintenance program  was dysfunctional because they didn't have the information they required to rationalize it with a data-driven process.  They had a lot of redundant data because of silos of information in different departments using different applications.  The most important impact of all of this was subjective decision making during the budget planning process, characterized by the so-called HiPPO (highest paid person's opinion) problem.

Their ultimate goal was data driven processes that supported predictive maintenance and objective metrics for decision making especially in prioritizing projects during the budgeting process.

The way they addressed this was by a combination of data normalization and business process rationalization.  The swiitched to an integrated building information management (BIM) design and construction process that produced a normalized data stream.  During design and construction the data that was required for facilities management and operations (FM/OM) was collected.  This involved collecting and validation existing data and developing continuous data and process management.  The result was FM/OM ready BIMs (both horizontal and vertical) and current relational data structures.

A critical aspect of their solution was that all data including BIM models was geolocated, which  made it possible to load all the data into a GIS linked to Maximo.  Geolocating all their facilities made it easy for them to organize maintenance work on different types of infrastructure concurrently, so that they could excavate once for multiple utilities rather than different crews reexcavating at the same location multiple times.

Dennis and Daniel said that a number of airports are interested in DIA's solution.  I would expect that universities, municipal governments,  and anyone who needs to manage infrastructure in a campus or municipal environment would find DIA's solution worthwhile investigating.

SPAR 2013: Digital highways require integrated engineering and geospatial data

At SPAR 2013 I had the opportunity to hear very forward looking presentations by Ron Singh, Chief of Surveys/Geometronics Manager at the Oregon Department of Transportation.  What Ron sees in the future and what motivates a lot of what Don sees needs to change in the highway construction process is autonomous vehicles, which will provide a major motivation for what Ron refers to as digital highways.

Automation over the last 25 years

If you look at the last 25 years there has been quite a lot of automation in the form of survey automation such as electronic data collection, GPS, and basic 3D laser scanning;  design automation such as computer aided design and drafting, and a bit of construction automation.  The primary focus has been on speeding up the project development process, but the end goal remains  2D paper construction documents.  Some people have been using what is called 2..5 D, a 3D roadbed prism with 2D objects on it.  In Ron's view the current way of designing and building highways has reached the end of it's lifetime and a complete transformation to a new paradigm is required.  The way Ron refers to this is standing the current process on its head and I blogged about it yesterday.  Fundamentally it involves intelligent 3D models replacing the current as-builts and a process that speeds up project development because it leverages existing engineering data rather that requiring a complete resurvey at the beginning of every project..

A new paradigm for intelligent highways

The objective is intelligent highways that will support autonomous and partially autonomous vehicles.  The new paradigm needs to be data-centric and real-time.  It will involve automated construction.   From a data management perspective it will require highway infrastructure lifecycle management, which will involve a very different approach to the survey/design/construct/maintain process that is currently used for highway projects in North America.

First of all, it will involve geospatially enabled 3D digital data. A key requirement is a low distortion geospatial coordinate system that will provide the foundation for geolocatiig all infrastructure including utilities.  It will require interoperability using industry standards for data exchange. Most importantly it will support a construction process that uses post-construction surveys to replace as-built plans with a full 3D engineered model that supports GIS/engineering data integration. 

It will require geospatially-enabled enterprise data management including version control and the ability to search for things geospatially.  It will provide tools for geospatially enabled asset management.  It will provide a framework for developing and maintaining engineering and geospatial data including 3D engineered models as well as scanned data for existiing structures for the entire life cycle of a highway.

Using BIM techniques to transform highway and road construction

A very interesting article by engineers from Sundt Construction, Tempe, Arizona, about applying some of the techniques used in vertical construction (tall buildings) to horizontal construction (highways, roads bridges). It's particulary interesting because it is another example of the convergence of BIM and geospatial technology.

One of the efficiencies that is gained in the construction of tall buildings is that with the exception of one or two ground level floors, the foundation and top floors, floor designs are identical.  Horizontal construction is more complex than vertical construction because of ground topography and existing infrastructure.  Because of this complexity Sundt says that horizontal construction could benefit more than buildings from building information modeling (BIM). Sundt uses the term "virtual design and construction technology (VDC)" for BIM for horizontal construction, others use "BIM for infrastructure".  Sundt has been working to transfer lessons learned in vertical BIM to highways and bridges.

A VDC project begins with a site model built on a 3D laser scan, typcially accurate to within a millimeter. Horizontal projects have to be very concerned with existing underground infrastructure.  The clash detection technology used in vertical projects to detect interferences between water, HVAC, structural and other subsystems can be used in a VDC project to avoid clashes with water, wastewater, electric power, telecommunications, and other underground infrastructure.  This highlights the importance of having an accurate 3D geospatial model of underground infrastructure, which is still lacking in many jurisdictions.

One of the ways VDC projects can achieve a degree of repeatability is through "subassemblies" which are used to parametrically model features, road surfaces, retaining walls, typical road details, bridges, grading standards, rail tracks, and utilities. With a digital terrain model (DTM) a VDC model can be used to calculate every foot of trench from exact existing elevations and exact trench depths and apply a slope formula to figure out the exact amount of excavation required.  And VDC models can be provided directtly to construction subcontractors enabling them to more easily add schedules (4D); and budget (5D) to the 3D model.

Sundt says that VDC is an improved process for collaboration between all players in the construction process including owners, surveyors, designers and engineers, and construction contractors.  In the future Sundt plans to create construction-ready VDC models for horizontal projects because they have the potential to transform the construction process, from surveying to paving to recording as-built information.

CE NEWS in the August print edition will be also be publishing an article that will include some of Sundt's BIM for infrastructure projects in the U.S.

BIM for Infrastructure: Infrastructure Modeler available in more languages

Earlier this year, Autodesk announced new software for conceptual design as part of its BIM for Infrastructure portfolio. Infrastructure Modeler represents the convergence of design, GIS and 3D visualization and is intended to help users create models that represent the existing natural and built environment using GIS, digital terrain models, CAD, BIM, and a variety of imagery data; sketch and evaluate multiple alternative conceptual designs for projects; and use 3D visualization technology to communicate what these design alternatives will look like to stakeholders.

Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is now available in French, German, and Simplified Chinese versions. Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese versions are expected soon.

GITA ANZ 2011: "Sydney Down Under" compiles comprehensive digital model of urban infrastructure

The presentation that won the Best Presentation Award at the GITA ANZ Geospatial Solutions Conference was given by John Moore, Manager Building and Infrastructure Project, Emergency Information Coordination Unit (EICU) of the Land and Property Information Department of the Government of New South Wales.

The remarkable Sydney Down Under project brings together into a single database, utility infrastructure including water, wastewater, telecommunications, electric power, rail and subways, and roads and highways, together with buildings (above and below ground) including interior spaces and occupants. It integrates 3D BIM and geospatial and 2D data.  I don't know of any other comparable comprehensive compilation of digital urban infrastructure for a city of this size anywhere in the world. 

To me the most impressive aspect of this project is managing to get 200 organizations including local and state governments, utilities and the telecommunications company to cooperate in providing the data.  As John Moore said in response to a question from the audience of how this was achieved, having emergency in the organization's name helped.  Some of the data comes from the Emergency Services Spatial Information Library (ESSIL) database.  The project has been underway for over five years, but only recently achieved the critical mass required to find broad application.  John said that the data is refreshed every six months from the source organizations.  The buildings data comes from the City of Sydney (geometry) and occupants from another source.

The project is focussed on emergency and disaster management, but as you would expect, the database has realized other benefits as well, including planning, critical infrastructure protection, event management, and access and communications.  Since the information is intended for emergency response applications, its availability is restricted.

BIM for Infrastructure: Autodesk Announces New Conceptual Design Software

Autodesk has announced new software for conceptual design as part of its BIM for Infrastructure portfolio.  Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is designed for GIS, planning, and civil engineering professionals to help evaluate future infrastructure designs.  Infrastructure Modeler is intended to help users create models that represent the existing natural and built environment using GIS, digital terrain models, CAD, BIM, and a variety of imagery data; sketch and evaluate multiple alternative conceptual designs for projects; and use 3D visualization technology to communicate what these design alternatives will look like to stakeholders.

You can find videos here.