Title
Semantic Web for Asset Management in Higher Education Facilities
Abstract
In 2016, Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level-2 was made mandated for all public projects as part of the UK Government Construction Strategy, and technology has become widely adopted in the AEC-FM industry as companies derive significant benefits from its use for design and construction phases. Despite many benefits offered by BIM, its use for facility operations remains significantly limited. Some of the primary reasons of this limitation has been reported as owners are unaware of the complete set of facility management information to support asset management, and they are often unsure about how to require information in a BIM. Identification of information requirements has been found as a key factor contributing successful implementation of BIM in the operations phase, and many attempts in the form of frameworks, models, and tools have been put forward to assist in identifying those requirements. However, identifying and formalising clients’ information requirements to support asset management is still one of the main barriers preventing potentials of BIM in operations phase.
UK Government published guidelines, standards and specifications in order to support BIM implementation. In 2018, ISO 19650-2 standard has been accepted as an international standard for managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using BIM. It introduced information management relationship framework, and highlighted provision of full and clear asset information requirements (AIR) defining data and information requirements of the organization in relation to the assets it is responsible. Currently there are limited examples reported in the academic literature that focus on the development of specific elements of this framework.
Application of semantic web (SW) and linked data (LD) technologies in the AEC-FM domain is a research topic gaining momentum during the last decade. These technologies have significantly facilitated linking product data models and other relevant information with BIM models. The aim of this study is to investigate asset information requirements of higher education facilities and to show how SW technologies can be used to create a domain knowledge on BIM standards to assist facility mangers in asset management practices. To achieve this aim, research will focus particularly on asset information requirements of higher education facilities. It will analyse current applications of SW and LD technologies in the AEC-FM industry, and will provide an overview of national and international BIM standards, specifications, guidelines used to support BIM-enabled asset management. Based on selected building typology, a number of taxonomies will be generated. Using protégé ontology editor, an ontological framework will be developed and tested to demonstrate how it can support facility managers by improving decision making process.