GIS-BIM Data Integration Towards a Smart Campus

Abstract

Smart cities are the key information for many purposes such as improvement of the educational environment, emergency response, and facilities management. Smart cities require the development of a digital system that can manage, visualize, share and exchange the attribute data and spatial data in a user-friendly environment. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) are widely used as the modeling sources of smart cities. In this paper, GIS and BIM data were integrated to implement applications that help in the creation of a smart campus for the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt. Campus data of various objects such as buildings, roads, trees, etc. were acquired using satellite remote sensing images, terrestrial images, and traditional surveying techniques (e.g., GPS and total station), as well as field visits. The acquired data were integrated and presented in two formats; (i) 2D interactive map of the campus on the web that represents information of various objects with geographic coordinates in real-time and (ii) smart building cellphone application that uses quick response (QR) codes to display building attributes from stored geodatabase upon scanning. The presented applications have proved that the smart campus implementation can be achievable and meet management requirements at universities level.