Where the landscape meets infrastructure

In digital environments that visualize infrastructure in the landscape, we have great opportunities to communicate and analyze infrastructure projects for citizens, politicians, and community builders. However, to realize the creation of such environments, extensive knowledge gathering remains. The purpose of this project is therefore to map existing conditions and identify opportunities for a platform that visualizes infrastructure projects through the integration of GIS and BIM. The project also aims to explore the possibilities for collaboration between municipality and state in terms of visualization in infrastructure projects.

The aim for the pre-study was to gain knowledge and to write a report including:

1. A review of existing knowledge about, and the use of, visualization in infrastructure projects where the landscape meets infrastructure.
2. Increased knowledge of needs for relevant target groups, as well as their technical and organizational prerequisites in relation to visualization in infrastructure projects.
3. Mapping of technical possibilities for a visualization platform in infrastructure projects.
4. Compilation of technical, organizational, legal, and user-related conditions and possibilities for a visualization platform in infrastructure projects.

Insights from the pre-study

Based on the mapping, prototype development and user tests in the pre-study, a vision for a future platform for visualization is clearer. Focus on further development should be on the operational parts of infrastructure projects. The common need identified shows there is no need for a tool with different forms of possibilities for analysis, instead a future tool should aim to be more user friendly and easy to overview. The tool should be developed with the vision to 1. create better conditions for increased quality through better coordination and review of digital models and 2. create conditions for communication between the project and its various stakeholders.

Four primary user groups were established to advanced user, standard user, advanced recipient, and standard recipient. A future tool should be easy to use and display information based on a developed coordination model (samordningsmodell) with a combination of 2D and 3D information. Via established “views”, it should be easy to obtain the information that the objects contain depending on the type of user group and which project phase a specific model is in; in principle from idea/planning to the model being handed over to management. The ambition is that a future tool/platform should be based on open standards such as IFC and BCF. With support for these formats, the software will be able to live long without any need for external management. The software that is to be developed also needs support to be able to handle database connections and connections to GIS. We also see in front of us a platform that is created with open-source code where anyone should be able to continue the development and develop their own applications based on needs and interests.

The project consortium consisted of RISE, Norrköping Municipality's Community Planning Office, and The Swedish Transport Administration with funding from their research- and innovation portfolio Bygga. The feasibility study is a prerequisite for a follow-up project application, which intends to continue the feasibility study's work towards an actual realization of the visualization platform and its organization.