Map Asia 2009: What Governments Can Do to Facilitate Digital Cities

After Dan Campbell's presentation at Map Asia yesterday, there was a lively discussion moderated by Sank-Ki Hong of Anyang University in Korea.

Lies, Damn Lies and Visualizations

One of Dan Campbell's main points was that 3D could dramatically improve communications with the non-technical public and politicians, for example, about the impacts of a proposed project or a new zoning by-law.  However, he cautioned that it could also be misused. To make his point he paraphrased Benjamin Disraeli, there are lies, damn lies, and visualizations.  Jon Fairall of Asian Surveying and Mapping carried this one step further and, not entirely tongue in cheek I suspect, asked Dan to help him better understand how to lie with visualizations.

Government Regulation and Digital Cities

Digital signatures

In the discussion one of the things that came up was what is government's role in the development of digital city models.  To put this context it is important to know what the Government of Singapore has done in this regard, because Singapore is leading the world in making the building permitting process more efficient.  I am beholden to Ho Chow Jin for much of this information.

Digital signatures are legal in Sinagpore.  In many jurisidictions around the world, engineering and architectural drawings submitted to a muncipal government require a signature or signatures of a licensed professional engineer (P.E.), in ink on a piece of paper.  Making digital signatures legal requires government legislation.

Electronic submissions

Digital submissions are mandatory in Singapore.  Singapore's e-submission system means that when making a submission for a building permit, you have to submit DWG, DGN, DXF, DWF, or PDF files.  Adrian Patrick Lim of the Urban Redevelopment Authority explained that the process of moving to electronic submissions began a decade ago and took about four years to complete. 

The organization responsible for building permits in Singapore is the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).  When a submission is received, it is reviewed by 16 government agencies, but BCA has the final authority to grant or reject the submission or ask for clarifications or modification.

BIM

Currently, e-submission requires 2D drawings with layers defined according to a BCA standard.  Underway is support for e-submission of building information models (BIM).  Right now I believe that you can submit architectural BIMs.  Support for submitting structural BIMs is in progress, while e-submission of MEP BIMs will be starting later in the year.

In the case of Singapore the objective of mandatory e-submission appears to be  efficiency, reducing the time and effort required to review submissions.  In fact, Singapore has been aiming for some time to automate as much as possible the review process and seems to be optimistic that BIM will help make automation practical.

Governments need to follow Singapore's lead and 1) support e-submission and 2) encourage the submission of model-based designs such as BIMs.  I have come across jurisdictions in North America that are encouraging e-submissions by promising faster response times for digital submissions.