Abstract
Information mined from building information models as well as associated geographical data and Geographic Information System (GIS) analyses can increase the success of construction processes and asset management, including buildings, roads, and public facilities. The integration of information from both domains requires high expertise in both spheres. The existing B.Sc and M.Sc. programs linked to the built environment at the Technical University of Munich offer courses for the Building Information Model (BIM) and GIS that are distributed among study programs in Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Geomatics. Students graduating as professionals in one of these domains rarely know how to solve pre-defined technical problems associated with the integration of information from BIM and GIS. Students in such programs seldom practice skills needed for the integration of information from BIM and GIS at a level that is needed in working life. Conversely, the technologies in both domains create artificial boundaries that do not exist in reality—for example, water and electricity would not be of use if the utilities terminated in front of buildings. To bring a change and bridge the gap between BIM and GIS, a change in the teaching methods of BIM/GIS needs to be considered. The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed a master’s course (M.Sc. course) for students in Geoinformatics which focuses on competencies required to achieve BIM/GIS integration. This paper describes the course development process and provides a unique perspective on the curriculum and subjects. It also presents the course objective, course development, the selection and development of learning materials, and the assessment of the intended learning outcome of the course. The developed course is validated through a questionnaire, and feedback is provided by participants of the BIM/GIS integration workshop representing a panel of experts in the domain.
Highlights
Growing industry demand requires the integration of data and tools from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the 3D Urban Information Model (UIM)/Geospatial domains
This situation is reflected by the status quo in university-level teaching at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) where BIM courses are mainly assigned to study programs in civil engineering and architecture, whereas UIM expertise is taught in study programs related to the geospatial domain, such as geodesy, geomatics, or geoinformatics
It would be more appropriate to discuss “BIM/UIM integration” in cases where the authors mean the integration of the two methods, or “computer-aided design (CAD)/Geographic Information System (GIS) integration” in cases where the authors mean the integration of software tools, in most of the literature, the term “BIM/GIS integration” is used
Summary
Growing industry demand requires the integration of data and tools from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the 3D Urban Information Model (UIM)/Geospatial domains. Executing a project using BIM and UIM technologies/systems and data requires a high level of expertise in the two disciplines—BIM and UIM—with the proficiency typically being distributed among BIM experts from the fields of civil engineering and architecture, and UIM experts from the geospatial domain. Our aim was to investigate the challenges of BIM resources in a geoinformatics teaching setting—especially regarding ways to develop and utilize appropriate BIM models that best assist the intended learning outcomes (LOs) To this end, this research proposes both a recommended course outline and content of lectures and learning materials, where their instructive and conditional properties may be of assistance when developing a curriculum for geoinformatics students. These can be divided into two main parts: 1. Integration mechanism: different methods have been developed to try and achieve integration between BIM and urban information modeling (UIM), none of them can be described as seamless integration
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