Requirements, Development, and Evaluation of A National Building Standard—A Swedish Case Study

Tim Johansson,Maria Andersson,Per-Ola Olsson,Jakob Engvall,Helen Eriksson,Lars Harrie,Isak Hast

doi:10.3390/ijgi9020078

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a proposal for a national building standard in Sweden. We define requirements for the proposed standard, e.g., it should support development of 3D city models, connect to building information models (BIM) and national registers and be based on a national classification system for the urban environment. Based on these requirements we develop an Application Domain Extension (ADE) of the building model in the proposed CityGML 3.0 standard denoted CityGML Sve-Test. CityGML 3.0 includes several new features of interest, e.g., the space concept, enhanced possibilities to convert data, and to link to other standards. In our study we create test data according to CityGML Sve-Test and evaluate it against the requirements. It is shown that BIM models (in Industry Foundation Classes, IFC, format) can be converted to CityGML Sve-Test and that a classification system facilitates this conversion. The CityGML Sve-Test dataset can be used to increase the automation level in building permissions checking and a related study shows that CityGML 3.0 has capabilities to link to legal information and be a base for 3D cadastral index maps. Based on our experience, we suggest that the national building standard should conform to international standards and, if possible, include a classification system. The exchange format (GML, JSON etc.) might change, but to be based on a standardized data model ensures harmonized structures and concepts.

Highlights

Building information has been collected and maintained on regional and national level for centuries
The building standard CityGML Sve-Test is based on the building model in CityGML 3.0 and is developed as an Application Domain Extension (ADE) that includes all additional information from the Swedish building specification [36], together with information from new requirements that have emerged
These requirements were compared with information that is currently available in the Swedish building specification and in CityGML 3.0

Summary

Introduction

Building information has been collected and maintained on regional and national level for centuries. Reasons for creating 3D city models vary, earlier the models were mainly used for visualization, but they are used for other purposes as well, such as urban planning, decision making, analyses, and to replace the 2D base maps in urban areas, which requires that the city models have connections to e.g., cadastral registers. To support these new requirements on the 3D city models, there is a need for new national standards to obtain a more uniform management of the building information. Some countries have recognized this need and have created national 3D building or city model standards, for example the Netherlands [4] and Germany [5]

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