Between the Poles

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: Turning the construction process on its head

At SPAR 2013 I had the opportunity to hear a very forward looking presentation by Ron Singh, Chief of Surveys/Geometronics Manager at the Oregon Department of Transportation.  It was even more impressive because Ron's background is surveying.  His primary objective is speeding up the project development process.

Ron first looked at the project development process that has been used in the transportaion over the past 25 years.  It starts off with a complete survey of the project terrain to create a basemap - existing as-builts are rarely consulted.  Design of the new project is then conducted based on the basemap produced by the surveyors.  The result is paper drawings which are used by construction contractors to build the project.  After construction is complete construction as-builts are submitted, but they are almost an afterthought.  They are often as-designed rather than as-constructed, and most importantly they are not "sealed", meaning nobody signs off on them putting their professional reputation behind their accuracy and reliability.  Practically what this means is that in the transporation industry, as-builts are treated as unreliable information.

What Ron Singh is proposing is to stand this process on its head by making the post-construction survey the critical source of reliable asset information in the form of a 3D intelligent model. 

Then when a new project is initiated 80-90% of the necessary information is already available in the as-built database making a complete resurvey unnecessary.  All that is required before design can begin is minimal due diligence to validate the as-builts. 

It also implies that there is a reliable asset database that is maintained thoughout the operations and maintenance phase of the lifecycle.

Geospatial World Forum: Unlocking quality asset information at Heathrow

Airports are like cities.  They have all the infrastructure that cities have plus some.  Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe with on average 181,000 passengers passing through it each day.  Heathrow has 13 different types of infrastructure, some of which are unique to the airport environment.  To provide some idea of the magnitude of the infrastructure at Heathrow, there are more than 45 000 man holes, 72 miles of high pressure fire water mains, 81 miles of aviation fuel pipelines, and power cables carry voltages ranging from 9V up to 400 kV.

That is a lot of infrastructure to manage.  The challenge is made more difficult because it is an environment where even a minor accident carries the risk of serious consequences.  (At last year's Autodesk University, Shashi Verma gave a talk about asset management at Heathrow called Flying High: Multi-Utility and Infrastructure Project Implementation at Heathrow Airport.)

At the Geospatial World Forum, Nigel Stroud, Geometry Information Manager with the British Airports Authority (BAA) at Heathrow gave a fascinating talk about the Heathrow Map Live system which provides web-based access to high quality information about Heathrow's infrastructure.  The primary reason that access to quality information is important is for safety reasons, but there are also legal and contractual requirements, such as CDM (Construction Design Management) regulations. And there is an important efficiency dimension to this as well.

Single point of truth

To enable interoperability and open access to various types of data, Heathow has defined a Common Data Environment (CDE), the objective of which is basically a single point of truth.  The objective of CDE is to cultivate a culture where data is created once only and used many times.  Another way to put this is that each data element has a single owner and is shared across the organization.  Implementing this is much more difficult than it sounds.  In many organizations, different groups independently capture and maintain  information about the same assets.  For example, in a study of a single utility Gartner found that nine different groups were independently capturing and maintaining similar data about power poles. At Heathrow CDE means that standards,  guidelines, and work processes are designed to support a single point of truth.  The important business benefit from a cost perspective is that having a common data environment minimizes rework, increases re-use of designs and provides for efficient handover from design and construction to operations.

Data quality

Because safety is Heathrow's first concern, data quality is a top priority. Reliable data about infrastructure is required to respond effectively to an emergency as well as to provide information about the location of existing infrastructure to the more than a thousand contractors working at Heathrow at any given time.  In 2002 40% of Heathrow's underground facilities were mapped to within half a meter. Now 72% of the underground facilities are mapped to half a meter. 

In my view, the most important thing that Heathrow has done is designing business processes to optimize data quality.  For example, contractors at Heathrow are contractually obligated to progressively deliver as-builts over the lifetime of construction projects.  In other words, as-builts are not only required at the end of the project, but during the progress of construction, so that they can reviewed by BAA as work proceeds.

Heathrow has had an effective asset management system for capturing and maintaining information about infrastructure including infrastructure and building models, drawings, operations and maintenance reference manuals, and asset maintenance reports for many years, but has found it a challenge to provide access to this information across the business.  This is what the Heathrow Map Live system accomplishes, a single, simple web-based tool based on an Oracle database that allows everyone within the business to query, retrieve and view information about Heathrow's infrastructure.

Avoiding underground infrastructure during excavation

One of the major hazards of all construction activity is inadvertently hitting underground infrastructure.  To give some idea of how frequent this occurs, in the US in 2010 there were 112,917 incidents where underground utility facilities were hit during excavation.

At an airport this is particularly hazardous because not only are there gas mains and electricity distribution cables, but also aviation fuel lines and very high voltage power lines.   This is one of the biggest benefits of the Heathrow Map LIve system.  At Heathrow statistics show that the proportion of events where underground facilities were hit during excavation as a result of inaccurate information decreased by a factor of 6x from 2002 to 2011, primarily as a result of access to high quality information including location about underground infrastructure provided by Heathrow Map Live.

Geospatial World Forum: How GDF Suez built a gas distribution asset management system in 10 months

At the Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam, Radu Negoita, GIS Manager at GDF Suez Energy Romania, gave a fascinating overview of how GDF Suez has built a location aware asset management system in 10 months.  Natural gas is a rapidly growing source of energy that is cleaner from an emissions perspective than traditional energy sources such as coal.

GDF SUEZ Energy România has over 1.3 million customers and is a leader in the gas distribution and delivery market.  Its main buiness is the distribution of gas to consumers. The total gas distribution network managed by GDF Suez  is 16,000 km.  Natural gas distribution is a regulated activity to ensure the safe operation of the network which is comprised of  pipes, residential connections, regulator stations, sensors/measurement systems, and other types of assets.

Data acquisition

In 2007 GDF Suez initiated a data acquisition project to capture information including location about all their network assets.  It is an ongoing effort using using internal resources.  GDF Suez relies on GPS and total stations to capture accurate locations for their assets.

Asset management system

The objective of the asset management system is to improve the productivity of gas distribution operations by automating manual asset management processes.  The core is an asset management system that manages the assets in a centralized database (Oracle Spatial) and provides desktop (AutoCAD Map 3D) and web based tools (Autodesk Infrastructure Map Server) for optimizing data quality and providing secure access to the information across the organization. The core database relies on data versioning (long transactions) to manage asset updates safely in a production environment.  It relies on an open architecture to enable integration with SAP plant maintenance, SynerGEE network analysis, and other enterprise systems.  It supports design sketches and redlining of design drawings and provides multi-criteria analysis for investment planning.

Project development

The project lifetime was ten months which, based on my experience with similar asset management systems in a range of utilities, I find quite remarkable in terms of how fast the production system was delivered.  This involved a full project lifecycle including business requirements analysis, development of the hardware and software architecture, installation of Oracle Spatial database and configuring the gas network model, configuration and installation of the application, data migration and testing and training.  The solution was deployed and in production in 2010 and currently supports 600 active users.

The system provides automated data capture from field measurement systems, multi-user editing of asset location and properties, creation and editing of network topology, generation of job estimates, tabular and graphical reporting, and provides an operations dashboard for monitoring progress and the status of the network.

The desktop client is used for field data acquisition, creation of the new assets; geometry, attribute and topology editing and network state analysis.

The web client, which is used by the majority of the users, provides a viewer for attributes and geometry of the network; navigation and searching of maps, and report generation.

Plant maintenance

Plant maintenance is based on a maintenance plan for all assets of the network including pipes, residential connections, valves, regulator stations, and so on.  The master system which manages the assets is the geospatial asset management system. SAP- PM manages maintenance network assets in terms of preventive and corrective maintenance.  It also handles exceptions and other operations events on the network.

Future developoment

GDF Suez' future development plans include integration of the asset management system with the SCADA, SAP asset accounting, and workforce management enterprise systems.  They also intend to develop a crew routing and dispatch module and a mobile client for field staff.

AutoCAD WS 1.4 includes GPS support

AutoCAD WS is a cloud application that allows you to view, edit, and share drawings through a web browser or a mobile device including iOS and Android phones and tablets. 

The latest version AutoCAD WS 1.4 supports GPS. It also supports viewing of 3D drawings and remote plotting using any web-connected HP ePrinter.

Autodesk DevCamps in June

Autodesk has announced that two DevCamps will be held in June.  DevCamps are for folks who want to learn how to use the APIs of Civil 3D/Map 3D, Inventor, Revit and new Autodesk web services and mobile technologies to develop custom applications or to integrate with other applications.  DevCamps offer training for both beginners and experts on the APIs. Probably the best thing about DevCamps is that the engineers who developed the APIs and the product managers responsible for them will be there so you have the opportunity to talk to them directly.

There is also a Business Development track for folks responsible for strategic direction and investments as well as Autodesk specific sales and marketing topics.

Two DevCamps are being held in June 2012.

AEC
When: June 6-7, with a DevLab on June 8
Where: Boston, Massachusetts -- near Autodesk’s AEC Division headquarters

Manufacturing
When: June 13-14, with a DevLab on June 15
Where: Portland, Oregon -- near Autodesk’s Manufacturing Division headquarters

Following each DevCamp theer will be a day long DevLab. The DevLab has no specific agenda and is designed for interactive coding and problem solving.  You should bring your laptop and expect to work on your code as you do in your own office.  There will be a team of developers available to review your code, answer your questions, and make suggestions. 

If you want to be informed of regular updates on these events, including agenda information, when registration opens, and early bird registration discounts, please send an email to Melrose Ross at email address melrose.ross@autodesk.com giving your full name and company name.

AutoCAD isometrics in the cloud

I've blogged previously about AutoCAD in the cloud, also known as AutoCAD WS, which allows you to do AutoCAD design with a browser or an iOS or Android device.  Now there is an AutoCAD Isometrics WS technology preview available free on Autodesk Labs that is an Autodesk Cloud service for creating, storing, viewing, and sharing isometric drawings. You can design and collaborate on isometrics across multiple platforms - desktop, web, and mobile devices - with full DWG compatibility.  To do this upload PCF files from AutoCAD Plant 3D, Autodesk Inventor, or 3rd party applications, and then generate isometric drawings on cloud servers. You can share and view the resulting isometrics through the AutoCAD WS web and mobile applications.  There is a video introduction to AutoCAD Isometrics WS.

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 PNW: Standardizing as-built data management for municipal governments

Last year about this time I blogged about the Master Municipal Construction Documents Association (MMCDA) which maintains a set of templates for tendering and contract administration for municipal infrastructure projects that is geared toward government, consultants, contractors, and owners.  The documents are appropriate for municipal works projects, both underground and street level, and have been widely adopted in British Columbia.  The MMCD have been specifically designed for use in projects that can be characterized as municipal works (underground to street level), involving unit prices for the majority of tender items, and where the laws of British Columbia apply.

The documents include MMCD Templates for AutoCad Civil 3D for construction and record drawings that provide a common CAD standard that is is expected to enable comparability and consistency of presentation across the province.  The Civil 3D template project is focused on "internal drawing structure, external drawing presentation, and post construction GIS submissions".

Standarding Asset Data Management

At the GITA PNW conference this week Andrew Walther and Jonathan McIntyre outlined a new MMCDA project, the Asset Management Data Repository (AMDR) project, that is intended to assist local governments in meeting the requirements of PSAB 3150 (similar to GASB 34 in the US) by defining a standard data model and a process for managing as-builts from engineering design to records management.

Under PSAB 3150 municipalities are required to manage infrastructure assets under a set of standard accounting rules.  For most municipalities, existing infrastructure records are incomplete, out of date, and often not accounted for financially, according to accounting standards.  As a result of PSAB 3150, municipalities are actively engaging in developing an accurate and uptodate record of assets.

The AMDR project is designed to assist local governments in BC to adopt a standard approach for asset management including as-builts.

• Identify attributes required for financial management, condition assessment, performance monitoring, risk management and demand management, as well as replacement and renewal decision support
• Define a data model for a standardized asset management relational database, so that it can be utilized by a variety of software vendors and local governments in implementing product development and strategic information plans
• Identify best practices for the collection of infrastructure data
• Conduct a risk assessment for local government assets using BC Emergency Planning templates
• Recommend standards and processes for post construction record submissions
• Produce standardized reports, aggregated at the local, regional and provincial level, based on agencies subscribing to a standard asset management register

Autodesk Cloud announced

Autodesk has announced Autodesk Cloud, a collection of web-based capabilities, products and services.  Autodesk began providing cloud-based applications for the design industry more than a decade ago with Autodesk Buzzsaw.  Autodesk Cloud enables users to begin using the cloud to access and store their work; to view their work through web browsers or mobile devices; and to share their work with other users, I've blogged previously about AutoCAD WS which allows users to perform CAD design with a browser or with a mobile iOS or Android device.

Autodesk cloud is provided through partnerships with multiple partners, including Amazon and Citrix. Amazon Web Services for more than three years has hosted applications such as Autodesk Homestyler software and Autodesk Seek web service using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Store (EBS).

Additional cloud services provided by Autodesk include;

• Rendering ― server-based rendering to better visualize designs, increase the number of renderings they can create and reduce hardware investments.

• Simulation ― cloud-based simulation tool to test multiple design options in the cloud, and to create more sustainable designs and higher-quality products while reducing material, transportation and energy costs.

• Conceptual energy analysis ― cloud-based energy analysis to determine energy consumption and building energy costs of early design concepts from within the design application.

• Green Building Studio ― efficient cloud-based energy analysis to help designers, architects, engineers and building energy analysts perform faster, more accurate energy analysis of multiple building design iterations, optimize energy efficiency and design for carbon neutrality early in the design process.

• Buzzsaw - cloud-based document, data and design management solutions for AEC firms and owner-operators to centralize information and improve team collaboration.

Autodesk Cloud services are available now worldwide in English and will be available soon in other languages including Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.