Extending BIM to Urban Semantic Context for Data-driven Crisis Preparedness

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is set to revolutionize not only the planning and construction of buildings, but the entire process of urban planning and facilitation. This paper addresses the effective use of BIM in urban context based on the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for training, planning and utilizing crisis management activities. The proposed solution integrates the domain ontologies associated with BIM and GIS at building and urban level to filter the useful data and use that filtered data to increase the public awareness for better crisis and disaster preparedness by interactive gaming. The proposed proof of concept study presents an IoT-enabled Virtual Reality (VR) environment that relies on the visual data obtained from the BIM and GIS and also sensory inputs accumulated from the building or urban layout. Such visual layouts of buildings and their surrounding areas are presented in a layered format, considering the security and privacy concerns, to identify the safe and dangerous zones on the evacuation route starting from a person’s private residential area, e.g. home, and ends at a crisis gathering point (e.g. Points of Interest, PoI). The use case presented in this study simulates an earthquake and fire scenario in a VR environment.