Project Report

Building Information Modeling

in

Disaster Mitigation and Green Auditing

By
Devarsh Shah (22020344051)

Sheetal Mishra (22020344052)

Under the guidance of

Dr. Rahul Hiremath

Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development

Pune - 411057
INTRODUCTION

With the continuous increase in the number of buildings, the phenomenon of excessively high
energy consumption becomes more and more serious. It is particularly important to reduce the
energy consumption during the operation of the whole life cycle of the building. Building
Information Modeling (BIM) technology is based on the relevant parameters of construction
projects,and uses digital information simulation to establish building information models. It is
one of the technical means of building energy consumption analysis and energy saving
management that can be explained as the main reason for stakeholders to guide energy and
efficiency changes of the driving factor in buildings.

This report focuses on the digital technology innovations through the lens of the landscape and
the exploration of how such tools could contribute to the form of planning and landscape design.
It aims to lay a critical review of the impact of BIM on the landscape with insightfully pointing
out evolutions, shortfalls and future opportunities.

The report adopts a hybrid approach that includes a systematic selection of research papers
focusing on landscape with particular emphasis on climate change, planning and urban design.
Findings suggest that, with relation to BIM’s impact on the landscape, most efforts have focused
on planning and the small residential scale. Findings also showed that there are limited efforts to
investigate landscape design and urbanism and the ways in which digitalization can support
sustainable development in open spaces. The area of climate change is significantly overlooked
within BIM, raising concerns on the lack of current research on such a critical topic. Using the
knowledge from BIM technology, the study provided evidence on the correlation with the
landscape and climate change. Evidence demonstrates there is limited connection between BIM
and landscape and therefore the study discusses how such tools can improve the understanding of
the landscape idea as well as support the creation and visualization of environmentally friendly
landscape designs. Future work includes looking into many of the highlighted trends as a result
of the study with further investigation on the role that stakeholders can play as part of the digital
transformation on landscape. BIM is now being increasingly used as an emerging technology to
assist in conceiving, designing, construction and operating the building in many countries. It is
recognized as a new management technology that provides an integrated solution to operate
businesses while improving the client satisfaction with time, cost, safety, quality and
functionality of construction projects. Meanwhile, there is a great diversity in ideas about
definitions on Quality of Life (QOL). Some perceive it as the environment we live in, the house
and the air we breathe, while others describe it as safety and security, health, wealth
(employment), transport infrastructures, adequate buildings for housing, schooling and
recreation.

Adoption of digital information tools in the construction sector provides fertile ground for the
birth and growth of companies that specialize in applications of technologies to design and
construction. While some of the technologies are new, many implement ideas proposed in
construction research decades ago that were impractical without a sound digital building
information foundation. Building Information Modeling (BIM) itself can be traced to a landmark
paper from 1975; ideas for artificially intelligent design and code checking tools date from the
mid-1980s; and construction robots have labored in research labs for decades. Yet only within
the past five years has venture capital actively sought startup companies in the ‘Construction
Tech’ sector. Following a set of digital construction innovations through their known past and
their uncertain present, we review their increasingly optimistic future, all through the lens of
their dependence on digital information. The review identifies new challenges, yielding a set of
research topics with the potential to unlock a range of future applications that apply artificial
intelligence.
FACTORS IN BIM-INVOLVED PROCESS MANAGEMENT

The topmost five success factors for BIM implementation in order of importance are:
● standard platforms for integration and communication;
● cost of development;
● education and training;
● standardization (product and process);
● clear definition and understanding of users’ requirements.

LIFE-CYCLE MANAGEMENT (LCM)

Life-Cycle Management (LCM) is a business approach for managing the entire life cycle of
products and services. For many years, LCM has been used in the management of construction
projects to reduce total life cost, time, and risk, as well as to improve owner service.
Building-related information should be captured and reused throughout the entire building
life-cycle. Furthermore, the importance of information has been emphasized for improving
communication, so that efficient construction information management has emerged as an
element determining the success of a project involving many stakeholders. However, owing to a
lack of effective information-sharing platforms, traditional approaches scatter the information in
multiple products through the building life-cycle. As a result, the LCM of construction projects is
not used effectively in the construction industry.

Contribution of the construction industry to disaster resilience

“Building the resilience of construction organizations is a key part of any overall resilience
policy because of their role in restoration and reconstruction project delivery post-disaster… A
resilient construction sector is responsive, adaptable and able to lead in a disaster... Loss of
functionality of the construction sector leads to slow, uncoordinated recoveries.”

Construction companies must strengthen their resilience and invest in pre-disaster risk reduction
at the company level during the pre-disaster phase, as construction companies are expected to
recover their own business functionality and contribute to post-disaster recovery and
reconstruction during the post-disaster phase. Technical and organizational resilience are both
critical for increasing overall resilience.
Construction industry resilience can be increased in the pre-disaster phase by educating
construction professionals. Professionals in the built environment must be equipped with the
necessary skills and knowledge to deal with the needs of the pre- and post-disaster phases.
Construction professionals can influence the technical resilience of buildings. Improved building
and infrastructure engineering can reduce the magnitude of disasters' impacts, thereby
minimizing their consequences.

During the post-disaster phase, the construction industry must mobilise quickly and easily to
carry out damage assessment, waste removal and disposal, infrastructure repair and
rehabilitation, emergency sheltering, temporary sheltering, and temporary housing, as well as
restore public services and enable reconstruction. Disaster recovery necessitates disaster
restoration and reconstruction of the built environment as needed.
Furthermore, construction professionals must deal with post-disaster challenges in order to
improve the recovery process. Built environment professionals must be strong leaders with the
ability to manage vulnerabilities and adapt to changes. They must be able to manage the
boom-bust cycles caused by disasters, as the construction industry must adapt to changing and
suddenly increasing workloads in the post-disaster phase. Furthermore, built environment
professionals must have the skills and knowledge to perform the following tasks: project
management and technical construction expertise; ability to work with BIM-based construction;
and ability to assess building damage and safety. They must be capable of leading post-disaster
restoration projects.

Phases

Pre-disaster phase Design phase Enabling of assessment of

design options to reduce
waste
 Facilitating the design team's
involvement far sooner in the
process, and with more
impact, thus designing out
environmental inefficiencies

Minimizing construction
waste in their design projects

Enabling deconstruct ability

analysis

Enabling simulations on
structural performance and
resilience of the constructions

Design and construction Enhancing occupational

phases health and safety performance

Construction phase Improving the work-fl ow

and enhancing the lean
performance

Enhancing SC’s resilience

Evacuation and rescue phase Enabling rapid evacuation

Assessing evacuees behavior

in the evacuation phase

Controlling the evacuation

regulation compliance of
BIM data
 Post-disaster phase Providing accurate
information contributing to
the building disaster
management

Guiding the evacuees to the

right and nearest exit

Reducing indoor travel times

in case of indoor disasters

Evacuation and rescue phase Enhancing fire safety

management

Recovery and reconstruction Enhancing quality

phases management and adaptation
of the construction process to
the change orders through 4D
BIM

Literature Review

This section focuses on key themes to set the scene for concepts relevant to the research, and to
identify where this paper can contribute. It discusses the ideas of landscape, climate change and
urban design as well as current challenges in relation to digitalization. Aiming to explore links
between landscape and BIM technology, this section discusses the concepts of landscape, climate
change as well as some of the current challenges to date. The concepts of urban design and
planning sit under the umbrella of landscape while climate change is one of the most imminent
threats of our land and lives. While the research is set out to identify connections between digital
tools such as BIM and the landscape, that would be less effective if the three key themes were
not examined in details. This paper does not have a focus on definitions, but sets the scene on
how landscape is perceived in the professional and artistic field, as the authors recognize the
necessity of giving some background information on the origin of the term. Dealing with
landscape and digitalization, it is significant to understand landscape from a broader perspective
if we are to explore how digital tools and media can depict this.It can be stated that the
transformation of the AECO industry (Architecture, Engineering, Constructions and Operations
industry) from the traditional ways of working to a BIM-enabled modus operandi has led to BIM
adoption throughout the lifecycle of a BIM project (BIM United, 2020). BIM can broadly be
described as an approach to digitalise the virtual model of buildings using common data
environment so that different stakeholders can input, exchange and share information
collaboratively . BIM can be applied to different stages of the whole life cycle of a construction
project including pre-planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance. BIM-enabled
projects entail the ability of collaborative working mechanisms through exchanging and sharing
data using a variety of file formats . Amongst the variety of file formats, Industry Foundation
Classes (IFC) is recognised as the commonly used in data exchange between different
stakeholders. This has indeed enabled a more effective coordination and collaboration for the
stakeholders involved in working on an integrated model. More importantly, this allowed all
team members to interact during the lifecycle of the project creating information with consistent
control of workflows and information detail. Therefore, Software companies are continually
improving the limitations of IFC data-exchange files in order to make the collaboration easier
and more efficient. In 2018, and to standardise the implementation of BIM, ISO19650 standards
were introduced so that it supports the collaborative process between different stakeholders .
Over the years, research showed that BIM has supported enabling better information
management by enhancing collaboration and communications between teams . With the adoption
of BIM, all information is updated on a single data base which can be accessed by all
stakeholders involved. This will benefit all phases of a project lifecycle, such as information
management in construction sites, which commonly faces issues with managing the exchange of
information, (e.g. daily safety reports), generated from various sources, that might contain
overlapping information. In a recent study by Wen et al. (2021), it was found that BIM adoption
and implementation have varied over the years, and the way it is perceived played a major
impact on both research and practice. For instance, from 2012, the focus has gone beyond
technology-related complexities such as interoperability, to focus on BIM informatisation
(reliance on information embedded in the BIM Model) and data sharing between stakeholders. In
fact, developments in BIM in the last few years began to focus on the practical application of
BIM on specific areas to solidify the implementation roadmap and have more tangible measures
toward its role in a project.

USE OF BIM TO CREATE MORE DISASTER-RESILIENT PRACTICES

1. AI and BIM for Designing More Resilient Buildings

Using building information modeling, architects and construction companies can design new
structures from the ground up for disaster resilience.
When combined with BIM models, simulation technology, for example, can help designers
predict how the building will fare in a real disaster. Existing technology enables designers to
simulate the spread of a fire, estimate earthquake damage, and predict how flooding will affect a
structure.
Material choices, HVAC system design, and building layout can all be tweaked based on
simulation results, allowing designers to test and redesign buildings until they’re ready for a
disaster

2. BIM to Improve Disaster Response

When rescue teams, fire departments, and other disaster response teams need to gain access to a
building during a crisis, they may be forced to rely on analogue reference materials such as
blueprints or two-dimensional CAD diagrams.
However, the information available in these representations is frequently out-of-date and lacks
the level of detail that responders require, making them of limited use during an emergency.
BIMs, on the other hand, store three-dimensional indoor geometry and exit information, making
them a valuable tool for disaster responders who require accurate, detailed, and up-to-date
information on the structure and contents of a building.
3. BIM for Building Disaster Management and Response

Building information modeling (BIM) software can also be a powerful risk management tool for
building owners looking to develop more effective disaster response plans or even automated
building systems that can help keep occupants safe in the event of a disaster.
BIM tools, for example, can help owners more effectively plan rescue and evacuation routes for
fires or other similar emergencies. By utilizing fire dynamics simulation, agent-based crowd
simulation, and BIM models, owners can create evacuation routes that consider both how people
move in an emergency and how fire and smoke will spread through the building. Routes created
with this method can help keep building occupants safer than routes created with a more
conventional method.

4. BIM Automation for Informal Housing Retrofits

The world is becoming more urbanized, and population growth in cities sometimes outpaces
available housing. More than a billion people worldwide live in informal and marginal housing
as a result of population growth and internal migration in developing countries. Informal housing
residents may not have easy access to basic necessities such as water, electricity, and plumbing.
Because the structure and material choices in informal housing are frequently subpar, occupants
are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the literature search and data studied, it can be deduced that three vital determining
factors in adopting BIM at the national level are:
● Regulation, Policy & Industry standards;
● Benefit, competitive advantage & championship;
● Economic demand in the AEC industry within the perceptions of perceived usefulness
and ease-of use.
To ensure the acceptance of BIM by the Government is the fundamental gap that exists at this
level.

Meanwhile five vital determining factors captured in adopting and implementing BIM at the
organizational level are:
● Clarity of the project;
● Fidelity and continuity across project lifecycle;
● Business agility;
● Training and support; and
● Cost of implementation within the perceptions of perceived usefulness and ease-of-use.
Once again the acceptance or rejection by public and private organizations is the essential gap at
this level.