On the suitability of a unified GIS-BIM-HBIM framework for cataloguing and assessing vulnerability in Historic Urban Landscapes: a critical review

ABSTRACT

The use of digital representations of physical objects allows to simulate phenomena and predict behaviours. The representativeness of a model is based on the congruency between the code, the survey and the modelling strategies. In terms of physical space, two important approaches are the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM). GIS approach is intended to code environmental information based on geographical references. BIM approach is intended to code buildings in terms of their components, generating parametric descriptions. For historic buildings, BIM extends to the so-called Historical BIM models (HBIM). Together, these strategies allow coding territorial-scale entities, such as historical centres. An application for these models would be the simulation of risk situations, leading to vulnerability analysis. Despite the existence of GIS-BIM-HBIM integration examples, most of their procedures are designed to fit with a specific case study, which questions the suitability of a general coding framework. This paper presents a vision of state-of-the-art technologies and strategies for coding, surveying and model historical centres, with emphases on the analysis of urban vulnerability and risk. Finally, we propose a general comprehensive framework on the convergences of GIS-BIM-HBIM technologies and successful practices.

KEYWORDS:

• GIS
• BIM
• HBIM
• building vulnerability
• risk assessment

Data and code availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created nor analyzed in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnología), grant number PD/BD/150385/2019.

Notes on contributors

Rafael Ramírez Eudave

Rafael Ramírez Eudave is a PhD candidate at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho. His research interests include mitigation of seismic risk in cultural heritage, urban risk management and rehabilitation of historical and cultural architecture.

Tiago Miguel Ferreira

Tiago Miguel Ferreira is currently a Researcher at the School of Engineering of the University of Minho and an invited Assistant Professor at the University of Coimbra. His research domains include the evaluation and mitigation of multi-hazard risk in urban areas, and the structural rehabilitation and retrofit of existing structures.