BIM plays a key role in all aspects of energy management across the BLC. The W3C Data Activity makes use of Linked Data, which is a structured form of data storage, distributed across the web, and which is supported by tools to easily query that data. By integrating BIM into...
BIM plays a key role in all aspects of energy management across the BLC. The W3C Data Activity makes use of Linked Data, which is a structured form of data storage, distributed across the web, and which is supported by tools to easily query that data. By integrating BIM into the wider web of data, building information can be queried alongside all other Linked Open Data (LOD) sources, which include data on materials and systems (e.g. sensor and state of building devices data) which make up the building, profiles of occupants, and information about weather patterns and regional and global energy prices. Therefore, by using BIM and LOD technologies EeB projects will be better able to exploit their results beyond their own particular stage in the BLC and as a result benefit from greater overall impact with resulting improvements in energy efficiency.
To support use of BIM and LOD in EeB projects, SWIMing developed a methodology for capturing data requirements and assessing existing standards, in particular Linked Data standards, for their applicability in EU projects and industry. SWIMing organized EU projects under clusters categorized by which stages of the BLC the developed solution addresses, as well as the particular domains within those stages. This process facilitates knowledge sharing and therefore increases the impact of project results. The overarching objective of the SWIMing project has been the creation of a cluster around the use of LOD for BIM that supports Building Life Cycle Energy Management (BLCEM) tasks, overcoming the barriers set by multiple stakeholders, different scopes and conflicting needs. By achieving this goal, SWIMing has impacted on the ease and efficiency with which existing EeB Projects can exploit their processes based on BLCEM services.
To achieve this, SWIMing addressed 3 key objectives:
1. Clustering of existing Seventh Framework Programme and H2020 projects which have been funded under the area of Energy Efficient Buildings.
2. Organization of workshops which addressed stages within the Building Life Cycle Energy Management (BLCEM) of particular relevance in EU projects, inviting the relevant project partners to share and highlight their project outcomes.
3. Alignment of project models with LD standards, thus enabling them to be published through any dedicated information space following established EU Data Management and W3C guidelines.
SWIMing outcomes have been:
â— An open and sustainable global community of stakeholders in industry, research and standards, interested in the use of free, interlinked, and semantically interoperable BIM resources for BLCEM.
â— A set of guidelines and best practices for integrating BIM resources into the LD cloud, as well as generating and exploiting LD-based BIM resources for BLCEM.
During the 24 months of the project, all tasks were performed as described in the description of work. The tasks can be grouped as follows:
Industry Use Cases activities
In the period we have 47 members signed up to the LBD community group, with active participation from those members towards the development of use cases (35 projects) and towards the development of the Linked Building Data Working Group. We have also through our communication with the appropriate project partners and analysis of project deliverables, extracted 49 high level use cases for 35 EeB projects, comparing 53 EeB projects. Further to this, a classification of these use cases into several core areas of relevance to EeB projects, has been accomplished. These results can be found on the Linked Building Data (LBD) community group wiki and also in deliverables D1.1, D1.2, D2.2 and D2.3.
Guidelines, and best practices activities
WP2 has built upon the use case development in WP1 by identifying a methodology for capturing use cases, identifying their data requirements, aligning these with existing ontologies, linking these to new or existing ontologies, and publishing this data on the web. Data requirements have also been extracted from project use cases, and the community has been supported in specifying these, in particular, the NewTrend and OptEEmal projects. Using this methodology, and the BIM*Q tool developed by AEC3, we explored 30 use cases, 11 in greater detail, and reported on our findings on the Linked Building Data (LBD) community group wiki and in deliverables D2.3, D2.2 and D1.2. During the course of SWIMing the Linked Data Working Group (LDWG) has also been created in buildingSMART to oversee the standardization of ifcOWL, its alignment with other efforts within buildingSMART and further use case specifications.
Cluster building activities
SWIMing topics has been raised in a broad range of academic fora, including the LBD community, the LDAC workshop (2015 & 2016) and conferences, Ready4SmartCities (R4SC) Summer School (27 students), the Sustainable Places workshop, VoCamps, the EC hosted EeB Impact Workshop, an expert’s workshop hosted by our sister CSA, EEBERs, through participation in the CIB World Building Congress, BIM World and BAU17. (6) Cluster SWIMing workshops were organised, reports are available in D3.7-D3.12. Other activities, including VoCamps, and shared booths were also organised. Through the clustering activities, SWIMing went through more than 100 EeB projects and generated clusters (one of which in cooperation with the ECTP group) that revealed interesting results regarding the use of ontologies, BIM and LD in EeB projects. More results can be found in D3.5 and D3.6.
SWIMing establishes a long-term vision towards a broad ecosystem in which a community of interested users, industry, and academia will be supported for the development of Building Information Modelling Linked Open Data for Building Life Cycle Energy Management.
By enabling an ecosystem for BIM-LD-based BLCEM, the project has resulted in the following direct impacts:
• Raised awareness of experts in academia and industry towards the benefits of using free, open and interoperable resources and Linked Open Data for BLCEM.
• Established a network of interested peers from industry and academia that are stakeholders in data provision and technology development. This network is aiding in the adoption of Semantic Web standards to increase data interoperability between the various stakeholders’ information systems and applications, and allow for a sustainable maintenance of free, open and interoperable data sets and services that are relevant for BLCEM.
• Successful demonstration of an existing standard methodology (IDM), adapted to meet the specific needs of BLCEM to the development of use cases in the form of a comprehensive set of guidelines.
• A central repository (the ReqCap tool) for use cases and data requirements, for quick and easy access to data on other projects use cases and data requirements.
The SWIMing community continues to grow, with new members joingin the Linked Building Data on teh Web group, and the continuation of dedicated meetings towards the goals of SWIMing. To be informed and to contribute BIM-LD data and the SWIMing project has established:
• W3C Community Group on “Linked Building Data†https://www.w3.org/community/lbd/
• Project website http://www.swiming-project.eu/
• Social media presence via E2BA-CSAs LinkedIn group - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/3744557
More info: http://www.swiming-project.eu.