Proposal of a GIS and BIM based structured database for bridge management digitalization

• Published in: Procedia Structural Integrity 2024, Vol.62, p.268-275
• Main Authors: Pallante, Luigi, Meriggi, Pietro, D’Amico, Fabrizio, Napolitano, Antonio, Gagliardi, Valerio, Paolacci, Fabrizio, Quinci, Gianluca, De Felice, Gianmarco
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: BIM; Bridge Management System; GIS; Relational Database
• ISSN: 2452-3216; 2452-3216
• DOI: 10.1016/j.prostr.2024.09.042

Structured databases are an established and widely used tool in all areas of work to properly store and manage information in daily work. In the search for methods to digitize the existing heritage most effectively, it was found that a good organization of the information in a digital archive combined with a structured database facilitates the transition to more innovative tools such as Geographical Information System (GIS) and even more Building Information Modeling (BIM). The role of structured databases in digitizing information with innovative tools such as GIS or BIM is to accelerate the digitization of existing extensive heritage. Structured databases are widespread and, in the last years, they have been increasingly included by much of the management world. In the context of infrastructures and road operators, information is often rarely collected in structured databases, but this is an opportunity in the context of applying the proposed research and methodology, as it is versatile, widespread, and influential. Therefore, this research highlights how a structured database can be a good starting point for defining a more modern BIM model. Starting from a limited amount of information on specific elements, it is possible to digitize, georeference and create BIM models of a large number of objects. In this paper, the digitalization process of the data concerning bridges of the regional road network is highlighted and the relative advantages are shown. In particular, a database, developed within the MLAZIO project, has been designed to collect information on about 400 bridges in the Lazio region. The whole information contained in this database allows on one side to visualize all the data in a geo-referenced system (GIS), on the other side the automatic realization of BIM models of the bridges.