geoSpatial BIM: About the Project

Relevant Documents

Increasingly, graduates from Landscape Architecture, Architectural Engineering, and Architecture are challenged by the promise and demands of sustainable or 'green design'. And while the Green Building Council, LEED, and others provide guidelines, we recognize that thoughtful and successful sustainable design requires collaborative efforts that link the systems of buildings and built form to the living social and natural systems within which they are embedded. For decades, each of our disciplines have addressed this need; however, each have utilized independent computing platforms and/or programs to manage, analyze, model, and communicate quantitative information about embedded systems. Landscape architects, for example, first designed Geographic Information Systems so that their planning and site designs were embedded within layers of soil, vegetation, demographics, and transportation networks. Architects and architectural engineers rely increasingly on Building Information modeling. We are certain that the information within each of these 'systems' is compatible; however, it is not traditionally linked with a single relational database so that all of us can effectively integrate our ideas in a common platform. Attempts by CAD have been useful for collaborative drafting, however to truly integrate systems information, we must bridge the gap between BIM and GIS thereby constructing a 3-D visual relational database.

The objectives for this collaborative project are:

SPECIFIC PROJECT TASKS

1. Develop a Core Geospatial Database within GIS. Each of the specific tasks below are largely related to data transfer, organization, and management.

a. Develop a core topographic database of the State College Borough/West Campus Region. Using local LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data as a base we will construct a detailed topographic database for the State College borough. LIDAR data provides highly accurate and well categorized topographic and reflectance information, allowing researchers to develop a detailed 3-D model of the Earth's surface as well as natural and cultural features above the surface.

b. Develop a core set of ecological data for the State College Borough/ West Campus Region. This database will include core variables such as soil type (and DCNR soil analyses), Landcover, Vegetative Cover, etc.

c. Develop a core set of local cultural systems data for State College Borough/ West Campus. This database will include transportation networks, parcels, zoning information, and building footprints.

d. Develop a core set of high-resolution aerial photos within the database. This simply involves mosaic-ing several recently acquired digital images from PASDA.

2. Integrate these data with 3-D detailed building information.

	a. Develop individual models of the Borough/ West Campus Building. Primarily our efforts will target the borough area between Beaver Avenue and College Avenue from University to Corl Street and West Campus, including the newly sold OW Houts site. It is possible we will expand this focus, time permitting.

3. Publish these data as part of a partially public access database via the web. Using a variety of universal program platforms such as KLM in Google Earth, we will publish the data with the expectation that other faculty will utilize it as part of their studio and implementation courses.

4. Utilize these data withina a collaborative methods course or studio. We will offer the use of this database within a design studio or within a technical methods course.

1. Bowers Proposal

2. Hamer Proposal