Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

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    A BIM-based framework for property dispute minimization - A case study for Victoria, Australia
    Shin, J ; Rajabifard, A ; Kalantari, M ; Atazadeh, B (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2022-08)
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    Data lifecycle of underground land administration: a systematic literature review
    Saeidian, B ; Rajabifard, A ; Atazadeh, B ; Kalantari, M (Taylor and Francis Group, 2022)
    Underground Land Administration (ULA) plays a paramount role in recording, registering and managing underground ownership boundaries and rights, restrictions and responsibilities associated with underground assets. 3D digital models provide a great potential to modernise ULA as it is evident in research studies. Several steps, from data acquisition to the use of underground land data have been considered by studies to support 3D ULA. These steps form the ULA data lifecycle. This paper provides an overview of methods, techniques and tools used in different steps of the ULA data lifecycle and identifies research gaps, challenges, and potential opportunities for future studies.
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    Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Australia: A Research Agenda
    Han, D ; Kalantari, M ; Rajabifard, A (MDPI, 2021-12)
    Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) contribute to approximately 30% of the total waste generation worldwide, by which heterogeneous ecological impacts, such as resource depletion, global warming, and land degradation, are engendered. Despite ongoing research efforts to minimize construction waste via the Building Information Modeling (BIM)-aided design, there is a paucity of research on integrating BIM in demolition waste management (DWM). This study investigates prominent barriers and future research directions toward the wider adoption of BIM in C&DWM by conducting a systematic literature review. First, this study identifies the barriers that hinder the implementation of C&DWM in Australia; then, it explores the benefits and challenges of leveraging BIM applications for C&DWM. The findings suggest that, for existing buildings without up-to-date design drawings, it is imperative to improve the accuracy of data capturing and object recognition techniques to overcome the bottlenecks of BIM-DWM integration. Moreover, the development of regional-oriented material banks and their harmonization with life cycle assessment databases can extend the potential of BIM-based sustainability analysis, making it applicable to the DWM domain. This study proposes a research agenda on tackling these challenges to realize BIM’s full potential in facilitating DWM.
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    Formative and Summative Validation of Building Information Model-Based Cadastral Data
    Asghari, A ; Kalantari, M ; Rajabifard, A (MDPI, 2021-08)
    Among 3D models, Building Information Models (BIM) can potentially support the integrated management of buildings’ physical and legal aspects in cadastres. However, there is not a systematic approach to author the cadastral information into the BIM models. Moreover, the common approaches for data validation only check the final cadastral output, and they ignore the data generation steps as potential avenues for validation. Therefore, this study aims to develop the criteria and standards to check the spatial consistency and integrity of BIM-based cadastral data in the process of generating the data. The paper utilises a case study approach as its methodology to investigate the requirements of generating a BIM-based cadastral model and identify the issues within the process. The results include a formative assessment (i.e., multistep validation approach during the data generation) alongside a summative assessment (i.e., one-step validation approach at the end of data generation). This study found the summative assessment alone insufficient for 3D cadastral data validation. The paper concludes that a formative and summative assessment together can improve the validity of the data. The results will potentially bring more efficiency to modern land administration processes by avoiding the accumulation of errors in 3D cadastral data generation.
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    Underground Land Administration from 2D to 3D: Critical Challenges and Future Research Directions
    Saeidian, B ; Rajabifard, A ; Atazadeh, B ; Kalantari, M (MDPI, 2021-10)
    The development and use of underground space is a necessity for most cities in response to rapid urbanisation. Effective underground land administration is critical for sustainable urban development. From a land administration perspective, the ownership extent of underground assets is essential for planning and managing underground areas. In some jurisdictions, physical structures (e.g., walls, ceilings, and utilities) are also necessary to delineate the ownership extent of underground assets. The current practice of underground land administration focuses on the ownership of underground space and mostly relies on 2D survey plans. This inefficient and fragmented 2D-based underground data management and communication results in several issues including boundary disputes, underground strikes, delays and disruptions in projects, economic losses, and urban planning issues. This study provides a review of underground land administration from three common aspects: legal, institutional, and technical. A range of important challenges have been identified based on the current research and practice. To address these challenges, the authors of this study propose a new framework for 3D underground land administration. The proposed framework outlines the future research directions to upgrade underground land administration using integrated 3D digital approaches.
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    A Proposal for a User-Oriented Spatial Metadata Profile
    Kalantari, M ; Syahrudin, S ; Rajabifard, A ; Hubbard, H (MDPI, 2021-06)
    Spatial metadata profiles have been designed and evolved by data custodians to manage, share, discover, and use spatial data. The end-users of spatial data often do not have much input in designing the profiles. The spatial data infrastructure literature reveals that they question the usability of spatial metadata. This paper analyzes the usability of metadata profiles by engaging end-users and clarifying their requirements in response to this problem. Over 60 users from 18 countries were engaged using an online survey based on a purposive sampling method. The results show that the most widely used metadata standard, ISO 19115, provides metadata elements to accommodate most user requirements for searches. However, an extension to the standard is necessary to assist users in discovery and selection. Two new metadata elements are proposed as part of the extension. The extension also involves changing the obligation type of existing elements to improve data discovery.
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    Synchronising Spatial Metadata Records and Interfaces to Improve the Usability of Metadata Systems
    Kalantari, M ; Syahrudin, S ; Rajabifard, A ; Hubbard, H (MDPI, 2021-06)
    The spatial data infrastructure literature reveals significant gaps in metadata systems concerning their efficiency and effectiveness for end-users. The literature proposes improvements to make the metadata systems more user-friendly. These improvements include new metadata elements and user interfaces that are in concert with each other. In this paper, we implement the proposed improvements in a prototype system and engage with end-users to assess if the proposals help users’ expectations. The prototype is evaluated by conducting think-aloud protocol (TAP) usability testing and semi-structured interviews with end-users. The result demonstrates an increased level of satisfaction about existing systems and some more areas to improve. We conclude that a synchronised development approach for the spatial metadata and the user interface will increase the usability of the metadata for data discovery and selection.
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    Identification of Property Boundaries Using an IFC-Based Cadastral Database
    Barzegar, M ; Rajabifard, A ; Kalantari, M ; Atazadeh, B (MDPI, 2021-03)
    Property boundaries have a significant importance in cadaster as they define the legal extent of the ownership rights. Among 3D data models, Industry Foundation Class (IFC) provides the potential capabilities for modelling property boundaries in a 3D environment. In some jurisdictions, such as Victoria, Australia, some property boundaries are assigned to the faces of building elements which are modelled as solids in IFC. In order to retrieve these property boundaries, boundary identification analysis should be performed, and faces of building elements should be extracted. However, extracting faces of solids from an IFC file is not possible as faces of solids are not considered as a separate object-type. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a spatial query approach for the identification of property boundaries using 3D spatial operators of a database to address this problem. The viability of the developed approach is tested using an IFC-based 3D cadastral database with two real datasets and one test dataset. The proposed methodology not only supports vertical walls and horizontal roofs but can also be used for detecting boundaries in properties surrounded by complex building structures such as oblique and curved walls and roofs.
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    Applying BIM to support dispute avoidance in managing multi-owned buildings
    Shin, J ; Rajabifard, A ; Kalantari, M ; Atazadeh, B (Elsevier, 2020-12-01)
    With the growth of high-density living, disputes experienced by residents in multi-owned buildings (MOBs) have become an ongoing challenge in urban areas. A significant number of the disputations have found their root cause in the issues concerning improper use and management of MOBs by residents. It stems from their inaccurate understanding of ownership rights that are inherently 3D but using 2D cadastral survey plans, authoritative documents of ownership. This research explores the ability of building information modeling (BIM) to address required information for improving the perception of ownership rights that affect resident behaviors in managing MOBs. An open data model of BIM is extended to accommodate the necessary information for preventing resident misbehaviors that led to dispute cases in Victoria state, Australia. In this study, we implement BIM data of an MOB where a real dispute happened to demonstrate the validity of the enriched data model on the information delivery and an enhanced understanding of ownership rights. It is confirmed that the use of BIM facilitates the alleviation of the misbehaviors by informing residents with accurate communication of ownership rights and could support the avoidance of disputes in MOBs.
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    Linking Land Administration Domain Model and BIM environment for 3D digital cadastre in multi-storey buildings
    Atazadeh, B ; Olfat, H ; Rajabifard, A ; Kalantari, M ; Shojaei, D ; Marjani, AM (Elsevier BV, 2021-05-01)
    3D digital cadastral systems intend to provide a fully-integrated 3D view of legal boundaries and rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRR) in multi-storey properties, which is aligned with the physical reality. Our cognitive understanding of legal boundaries and RRR information is more communicable when we link it to our visual perception of the real world. However, there is a knowledge gap in logical relationships between legal and physical views as most of the existing approaches that integrate 3D legal and physical dimensions have been mainly proposed on a conceptual level. The main argument of this study is that the multi-dimensional nature of BIM provides the ability to extend this environment with concepts defined in Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) for the purpose of 3D digital cadastre in buildings. Therefore, this study investigated how an open BIM-based data model, known as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), can be extended with LADM data elements to support integration of legal and physical views. This will create a linkage between LADM and BIM environment, which would subsequently provide a better cognitive understanding of legal spaces.