Location, Location, Location: BIM, BIM, BIM

The internet has changed everything . Layering maps with restaurant locations, real-time weather, real-time airline information, bus and train schedules on a computer or phone are now common place. GIS data has been around for a long time and initially was reserved to be used by those with technical backgrounds. The internet and easy access to GIS data has now made it ubiquitous to the point that users don’t even know they’re accessing GIS data. What if the building industry took this location functionality and merged it with building information modeling (BIM)? Imagine BIM and geographic information systems (GIS) in a simple environment providing real-time building and GIS data. Why connect GIS to BIM? Both are complex systems describing the built environment and can help us to visualize more intelligent decisions. We would all benefit hugely from new knowledge gained by linking the data in these two key systems,