Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

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    The Feasibility of a BIM-Driven Approach to Support Building Subdivision Workflows-Case Study of Victoria, Australia
    Olfat, H ; Atazadeh, B ; Shojaei, D ; Rajabifard, A (MDPI, 2019-11)
    Cities are facing dramatic challenges due to population growth and the massive development of high-rises and complex structures, both above and below the ground surface. Decision-makers require access to an efficient land and property information system, which is digital, three-dimensional (3D), spatially accurate, and dynamic containing interests in land (rights, restrictions and responsibilities—RRRs) to manage the legal and physical complexities of urban environments. However, at present, building subdivision workflows only support the two-dimensional (2D) building subdivision plans in PDF or image formats. These workflows result in a number of issues, such as the plan preparation being complex, the examination process being labor intensive and requiring technical expertise, information not being easily reusable by all subdivision stakeholders, queries, analyses, and decision-making being inefficient, and the RRRs interpretation being difficult. The aim of this research is to explore the potential of using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and its open standards to support the building subdivision workflows. The research that is presented in this paper proposes a BIM-driven building subdivision workflow, evaluated through a case study in the state of Victoria, Australia. The results of the study confirmed that the proposed workflow could provide a feasible integrated mechanism for stakeholders to share, document, visualize, analyze, interpret, and reuse 3D digital cadastral data over the lifespan of a building subdivision project.
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    Tackling the challenges of visualising digital cadastral plans: The Victorian cadastre experience
    Olfat, H ; Jani, A ; Shojaei, D ; Darvill, A ; Briffa, M ; Rajabifard, A ; Badiee, F (Elsevier, 2019-04-01)
    ePlan, as a digital cadastral data initiative, is a collaborative program between the land authorities and the surveying industry which aims to replace paper and PDF cadastral plans and surveys with digital data in LandXML format. ePlan has been adopted by Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. ePlan has been operational in the State of Victoria for 2D plans since 2013. The ePlan files are automatically converted into PDF plans by the ePlan visualisation service within the Victorian state’s digital lodgement portal, namely Surveying and Planning through Electronic Applications and Referral (SPEAR). Cadastral plan in PDF format forms part of the legal title in Victoria. Presently, ePlan, in terms of development, has limitations in visualising detailed, complex and large scaled 2D plans. The visualised plan from the LandXML file must comply with accepted Victorian survey drawing standards as the plan is a source for plan certification by council, forms part of a contract of sale, and when the plan is registered by the State of Victoria land authority, Land Use Victoria (LUV), it becomes the title diagram. In addition, through significant engagement with the Victorian Surveying industry, LUV has received feedback from surveyors that they would like to have the ability to enhance the presentation of visualised plans to create enlargements, define additional sheets, exaggerate the position of lines, and move the placement of visualised labels. These enhancement provisions would provide greater scope to ensuring plans complied with the aforementioned drawing standards. A Licensed Surveyor, the creator of the LandXML file is also duty bound to sign the visualised plan. In addressing the abovementioned problem, a research methodology, including the conceptual, choice of technology, development and evaluation phases has been defined and implemented at LUV. The ‘conceptual’ phase considered the business and technical requirements for developing a tool to support surveyors to enhance the presentation of the visualised ePlans. The ‘choice of technology’ phase focused on defining the most suitable technologies for developing the tool. In the ‘development’ phase, the tool was implemented within SPEAR. The surveyors’ feedback on the tool usability was collected as part of the ‘evaluation’ phase. The main outcome of this research has been the ePlan Visualisation Enhancement Tool (VET) developed within SPEAR based on OpenLayers technology, which enables surveyors to improve the presentation of auto-generated cadastral plans. The evaluation phase showed that end users were generally satisfied by the usability of VET and identified the areas that need further improvement. This paper first provides an overview of the ePlan project in Victoria with a focus on the research problem and objective. The relevant interstate and international experiences are then reviewed. Next, the paper discusses the research methodology including the above four phases in detail. The outcomes of the evaluation phase are then discussed. The paper concludes with some discussions around the approach taken for this research, the surveyors’ feedback and the future directions.
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    Utilizing a Building Information Modelling Environment to Communicate the Legal Ownership of Internet of Things-Generated Data in Multi-Owned Buildings
    Atazadeh, B ; Olfat, H ; Rismanchi, B ; Shojaei, D ; Rajabifard, A (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute ( M D P I AG), 2019-11-01)
    In multi-owned buildings, a community of residents live in their private properties while they use and share communal spaces and facilities. Proper management of multi-owned buildings is underpinned by rules related to health, safety, and security of the residents and visitors. Utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) devices to collect information about the livable space has become a significant trend since the introduction of first smart home appliances back in 2000. The question about who owns the IoT generated data and under what terms it can be shared with others is still unclear. IoT devices, such as security camera and occupancy sensors, can provide safety for their owners, while these devices may capture private data from the neighborhood. In fact, the residents are sometimes not aware of regulations that can prevent them from installing and collecting data from shared spaces that could breach other individuals’ privacy. On the other hand, Building Information Modelling (BIM) provides a rich 3D digital data environment to manage the physical, functional, and ownership aspects of buildings over their entire lifecycle. This study aims to propose a methodology to utilize BIM for defining the legal ownership of the IoT generated data. A case study has been used to discuss key challenges related to the ownership of IoT data in a multi-owned building. This study confirmed that BIM environment can facilitate the understanding of legal ownership of IoT datasets and supports the interpretation of who has the entitlement to use the IoT datasets in multi-owned buildings