Geotechnical Property Modeling and Construction Safety Zoning Based on GIS and BIM Integration

The increase in population and urbanization needs attention towards intense construction activities to meet the social and economic needs. Soil excavation is a primary step in every construction project that needs proper surface and subsurface information modeling since it is vulnerable to construction hazards. Geographic information system (GIS) provides significant information about the existing contextual surface information while building information modeling (BIM) gives information about the asset in a great detail that has been integrated into the construction industry for many applications. However, the integration of BIM and GIS for the subsurface geotechnical property modeling and classification into zones has been rarely explored. This paper presents the integration of BIM and GIS for modeling geotechnical properties and safe construction zones based on soil type. The use of open standard IFC classes such as IfcBorehole, IfcGeoslice, and IfcGeomodel enhances the collaboration and allows the exchange of geotechnical information among different stakeholders. The method has been applied to the in-situ and laboratory test dataset of the Peshawar, region, to validate the proof of concept. The results demonstrate that the proposed method successfully integrates BIM and GIS providing a three-dimensional surface and subsurface model. The 3D digital geotechnical model has excellent potential to provide information about soil type, properties, depth, and volume of each available soil layer that can be used by construction planners and managers to identify best construction practices and plan for safe construction.