3D BIM-enabled spatial query for retrieving property boundaries: a case study in Victoria, Australia

ABSTRACT

In the cadastral system of Victoria, the legal extent of properties is defined by a wide range of property boundaries referencing physical objects. These boundary types are typically represented in 2D plans. However, to address the challenges of 2D plans in complex buildings, there has been a growing trend towards the adoption of 3D models. These 3D models have been mainly used for visualization purposes, with no spatial query developed for identifying property boundaries in 3D models. Among 3D models, the Building Information Modelling (BIM) environment provides the potential capabilities for modelling property boundaries. In this paper, a spatial query approach predicated on topological relationships between a legal space and physical objects is developed to identify four types of property boundaries. A BIM model based on a case study in Victoria is used for implementation of the developed approach and the retrieved boundaries related to several properties with different levels of structural complexities are represented. In addition, various challenges during this process such as the impact of different design methods, and issues related to balconies and doors are discussed. The importance of this study is highlighted by a common scenario related to querying property boundaries.

KEYWORDS:

• Property boundary
• building information model
• spatial query
• topology
• cadastre

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support of project partners: Land Use Victoria, Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) and City of Melbourne. The authors emphasise that the views expressed in this article are the authors’ alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by Australian Research Council, grant number [LP160100292].

Notes on contributors

Maryam Barzegar

Maryam Barzegar is a PhD candidate in urban land administration at the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures & Land Administration(CSDILA) at The University of Melbourne. Her research is focused on 3D query and analysis for urban land administration. She has published several articles in the domains of transportation and spatial analysis.

Abbas Rajabifard

Abbas Rajabifard is a professor in Geomatics Engineering and director of the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures & Land Administration(CSDILA) at The University of Melbourne. He is also Chair of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management(UN-GGIM) Academic Network, which is a research and training strategic arm of UN-GGIM. Prof.Rajabifard has an active research interest in the areas of urban land administration, building information modeling, spatial enablement, 3D cadastre, and urban data analytics to support SDGs, resilience, and smart cities. He has spent his career researching, developing, applying, and teaching SDI, land administration, and spatial enablement to deliver benefits to governments,industry and wider society. He has widely consulted and published in these areas.

Mohsen Kalantari

Mohsen Kalantari is a senior lecturer in Geomatics Engineering and associate Director at the Centre for SDIs and Land Administration at The University of Melbourne. He has experience in developing successful research grant applications,engaging with the industry and profession, building strong research teams,and conducting research in Australia and overseas.His areas of research include land administration, cadastre, spatial data infrastructures, 3D GIS, and building information modeling.

Behnam Atazadeh

Behnam Atazadeh is a research fellow in urban land administration at the University of Melbourne. He co-authored a new book titled 'BIM and Urban Land Administration' published by CRC Press, which provides the fundamental theory and practicality of intersecting BIM and land administration domains. He is a committee member of Standards Australia where he is involved in the development of building information modelling ISO standards.