Introduction

The IFC for GIS project (also known as IFG) was initiated by the Norwegian Strate Planning Authority (Statens Bygningstekniske Etat). The aim of the project was to be able to provide geographic information created using GIS systems within the framework of the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema defined by the International Alliance for Interoperability.

The reason for this was to support a growing set of business requirements emerging with Statens Bygningstekniske Etat (better known in Norway as BE). These included:

• Consistent storage of both geographic and building information within a consistent data structure (enabled by a facility for communication between GIS and AEC/FM systems and vice versa)
• Support for the development of planning and building code compliance checking systems (using a similar approach to that applied in the Singapore ePlanchecking project)

IFC for GIS development focussed on support for making the zoning plan and building plan submission process more efficient. Key to this was the integration of GIS information in a central building and property registry with AEC/FM information about the individual buildings that are registered. For a building that is to be dsesigned and constructed, information is taken from the registry to provide location map data including property data, utility services, zoning and more. By doing this, the following scenario is supported as in the scope (see diagram).

For a building that is to be developed, information can be taken from the registry to provide information about:

• Location map data
• Property data
• Utility services
• Zoning
• Risk factors
• ... more

The project is recently completed and its results and implications are described here.