EXPERIENCES ON CONVERTING INTERPRETATIVE REGULATIONS INTO COMPUTABLE RULES

The intention with this paper is to explore methods for increasing the number of regulatory statements that can be implemented into BIM-based model checking software in a valid and reliable way. The case is based on ISO 21542:2011 Building construction -- Accessibility and usability of the built environment. The methodology is based on classification of the structure of regulatory statements into three main categories: Transcribe, Transform and Transfer. The criteria for each category are founded on the capacity to respectively establish a direct, indirect or non-existing link between the qualitative goal/intention in the regulatory statement and the discrete quantitative metric required in computable rules. The challenge is to the increase implementation of statements classified as transformed. These types of statements are frequently used in performance based regulations. An ontology based method called “Test Indicator Objectives” is developed for bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative expressions. Used methods identify a significant increase in number implementable rules. The results also indicate that interpretative statements, e.g. in performance based regulations, can be implemented in automatic or semi-automatic BIM-based model checking software. Used methods support large scale converting of regulations into computable rules.