Costs and Benefits Data Mapping of BIM Laser Scan Integration: A Case Study in Australia

Abstract

Building information modelling (BIM) has been increasingly popular in the utility industry due to substantial benefits of cost and time savings, and improved performance and asset management during the operations and maintenance (O&M) phase. With the recent addition of point cloud from laser scanning, the level of details opted BIM 3D models from 'as-designed' to 'asconstructed' which paves the way for more benefits to other stakeholders during the O&M phase. This research identified and developed the cost benefit elements of the laser-scan integrated BIM as part of a case study research project of a water treatment plant (WTP) in Queensland, Australia. The costs elements from stakeholder's perspective are predominantly BIM supporting software, hardware, labour and training. Whereas, the benefits are categorised based on communication, asset, data and risk management elements for the WTP stakeholders. This research evaluated the costs and benefits through 3D modelling, including asset input, of a WTP study section, site surveys and interviews. The research developed an association mapping between all costs and benefits elements for the WTP case selected.

Digitisation of Existing Water Facilities: A Framework for Realising the Value of Scan-to-BIM

“…Within the water sector, a typical asset such as water or wastewater treatment plant or a pumping station is a complex system of engineering structures required to manage multiple processes concerning fluid mechanics, microbiology and chemistry [6,10]. Conventional water treatment processes include coagulation, flocculation and clarification, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection.…”

“…Moreover, the required information must be identified for each specific BIM application before asset data and LiDAR scan data are collected for existing assets [15]. According to Suprun et al [37] and Mostafa et al [6], different BIM applications require additional information sets to be accumulated. It is unnecessary to model all data for all assets to the highest degree.…”

“…Within the digital world, BIM can be defined as 'a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility creating a shared knowledge resource for information about it forming a reliable basis for decisions during its life cycle, from earliest conception to demolition' [5]. In contrast to the traditional method of file-based information organisation, the BIM process represents an object-based organisation of knowledge that enables the production of a model as an assembly of digital information and facilitates collaboration and information exchange among AEC professionals and other stakeholders such as contractors and suppliers [6,7]. BIM delivers Sustainability 2022, 14, 6142 2 of 20 value, efficiency and safety while recognising the whole life of asset knowledge and better business information management [8,9].…”

Automatic construction of structural meshes from photographic and laser surveys

“…The rising of the BIM environments for executive design has made interoperability among models a central step. Indeed, within a BIM environment, the models intended as geometrical mesh must have a high degree of interoperability and must preserve the required LOD (Level Of Detail) [4]. It is therefore necessary to correctly work on the meshes to ensure high values of their main quality indicators (such as: aspect ratio, skewness and so on).…”