Ontology-Based Representation and Reasoning in Building Construction Cost Estimation in China

Abstract

Cost estimation is one of the most critical tasks for building construction project management. The existing building construction cost estimation methods of many countries, including China, require information from several sources, including material, labor, and equipment, and tend to be manual, time-consuming, and error-prone. To solve these problems, a building construction cost estimation model based on ontology representation and reasoning is established, which includes three major components, i.e., concept model ontology, work item ontology, and construction condition ontology. Using this model, the cost estimation information is modeled into OWL axioms and SWRL rules that leverage the semantically rich ontology representation to reason about cost estimation. Based on OWL axioms and SWRL rules, the cost estimation information can be translated into a set of concept models, work items, and construction conditions associated with the specific construction conditions. The proposed method is demonstrated in Protégé 3.4.8 through case studies based on the Measurement Specifications of Building Construction and Decoration Engineering taken from GB 50500-2013 (the Chinese national mandatory specifications). Finally, this research discusses the limitations of the proposed method and future research directions. The proposed method can help a building construction cost estimator extract information more easily and quickly.

E‐maintenance platform design for public infrastructure maintenance based on IFC ontology and Semantic Web services

“…In addition, expert knowledge is involved in using ontology representation, providing maintenance suggestions for users. The IFC-based domain ontology is created following the method proposed by Lee et al 34 and Liu et al 35 Protégé and OntoGraph are used to edit the ontology and generate graphs, respectively.…”

“…34 Liu et al established a cost estimation model based on ontology representation and reasoning rules to generate specific construction conditions and work items. 35 Under the Chinese context specifically, Ma et al created a discrimination model for Bill of Quantity items generation based on Chinese standards. 36 These research studies provided some technical bases for the e-maintenance implementation, but they mainly focused on work items generation without consideration of maintenance strategies.…”