21st. Century Cities: Building Infrastructure 101

Jeff Thurston, GIS Expert

The notion that we can see smart places only within smaller geographic spaces is simply wrong. Not only that, but legislation pertaining to building information management, construction practices, product applications and people safety and construction often transcends small and big places as well. There are bottlenecks where GIS and BIM are intended to be used.

Infrastructure is a common need today. We often think about smart or digital cities in the context of large cities with many inhabitants and lots of activity associated with big cities. However, small places need infrastructure too. Factor in the fact that not all political boundaries end at the local line, but also extend services to provincial, regional and national governments and it suddenly becomes clear - infrastructure is a clear boundary violator, by necessity.

The technologies have long surpassed the boundary lines, but the politics and administration of GIS and BIM have been held back from achieving their highest order of use and effect.

We often used to call this vertical barriers or stovepiping. Earliest GIS and BIM applications were deeply entrenched in localized areas, in the worst cases those holding the data ruled the project and did not venture out into the wider world too far for fear of loss of control. Fortunately this has changed a lot - and not for the most

logical reasons one might think. Contrary to the notion that people would identify these localized GIS and BIM sharing obstacles and choose to share, other factors can be seen that drive the change. These include:

1) The shift to Cloud-based software and applications has resulted in an ‘ease of use’ that stumbles across boundaries and provides everyone with a glimpse of what can be used. There are far fewer data stores held tightly, and computation applications are optimized to build and connect data. This in turn has led to more integrated thinking, and shared project development has become much more robust and arguably more resilient.

2) Mobility has truly generated a connection between field and office applications. Suddenly a person at 60 degrees latitude can share data and connect with high level data systems with another person at 10 degrees latitude - no problem. Mobile data tends to shift and arc around people obstacles, supporting the team and wider network.

3) It can be argued that early infrastructure projects using BIM and GIS got too involved comparing one technology against the other. Those kind of arguments standing on the earlier desktop platform approach strangled the life out of creative thinkers and doers, those seeking to chase trends and new approaches and often referred to as project leaders innovation changers. Fact is, the infrastructure of today is not only built upon GIS and BIM, but man other technological changes and innovations. The goal today is to incorporate them, seeking to identify where and how they might be used and if they bring greater performance and efficiency. These are a few of the reasons why and how GIS and BIM technologies are now reaching to higher levels of success.

On the horizon there is a whole world of artificial intelligence (AI) awaiting that aims to include GIS and BIM into the mix for infrastructure designers, builders, operator and organizations seeking to maintain infrastructure. It sometimes seems that AI is propelled so far forward into these discussions that it appears magical in nature and tone. Yet, speaking to AI professionals one can often hear that the impacts of AI are largely oriented toward understanding uncertainty.

AI can provide solutions and its aim is often articulated in terms of infrastructure performance - improved performance. Yet, its goal is largely to reduce uncertainty, thereby increasing performance.

Just like GPS has helped to increase the use of location in many applications, it cannot tell you, for example, that the route you are taking will absolutely find you arriving at your destination within one minute. Much uncertainty remains in GPS applications, even though we know where we are. Similarly, in terms of construction sites, AI will see a delay in materials, strike actions or poor weather. Using climate change variables, who knows whether or not water availability will change, wind for wind generation will rise or subside or even if wave generation might be the most widely used generation of energy even in local lakes.

The point is - GIS and BIM have had steady and continuing growth for decades. Over this time much we have known and grown accustomed to has changed and will continue to change. Smart cities and digital infrastructure are entering, it seems, into a phase where more knowledge is being achieved. The network of participants within infrastructure development and operations is widening at the same time. We will continually need to take a critical view of infrastructure gauging activities uncertainty, evaluating it more widely and to begin developing tools that not only describe and consider what we need for performance, but also what can be understood through what we don’t know about a given project. This is sort of like understanding the role of spatial versus aspatial data.

In any event, keep in mind that smart cities and digital twins are not just for the big achievers in cities, but also those in smaller places - like the places where food comes from and where trains, planes and automobiles often travel to. It would be interesting to know how many infrastructure professionals today live outside of big cities - wouldn’t it?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Thurston is a Canadian GIS professional and previous Editor of geospatial publications in Europe. He is based in Berlin, Germany.