With some notable exceptions accurately recording the location of subsurface infrastructure including oil, gas, electric power and other energy infrastructure is ignored - perhaps this is a case of out-of-sight is indeed out-of-mind. I thought it would be worth while to include here a talk I gave at GEOGRAPHY 2050 Powering Our Future Planet at Columbia University in New York about the importance of accurate location information about underground infrastructure for the future development of the energy grid.
Now we are beginning to see data from real world projects that offer evidence for the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach for construction projects.
Similarly there has been only anecdotal support for an integrated BIM and geospatial approach for design, build, operate and maintain projects. While the UK government has said that ".we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle", until recently there has not been hard data to support this conjecture. A growing number of countries are mandating BIM for public projects. Growing evidence of the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach to constructionīuilding information modeling (BIM) has been applied to design-build construction projects for many years.There are successful examples around the world where municipal and regional governments have helped enable a shared underground utility network database. But this information is rarely shared and the location of underground infrastructure is recaptured over and over again. Every construction project requiring excavation involves significant efforts in locating underground utilities prior to and during construction to reduce the risk of injuries and unexpected project delays.
devotes an estimated $10 billion annually to locating underground infrastructure. Sharing information about the location of underground utilities.There are proven measures that an administration, owner, or municipal government responsible for an airport, university, industrial or commercial campus, or town can undertake to reduce the risk of underground utility damage, the associated disruptions to operations and business and the danger for workers and the public. Proven guidelines for reducing underground infrastructure damage at airports, university, industrial, and commercial campuses, and towns.
OSGeo was created to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software and promote its widespread use