Technology is driving building design in everything from consumer products to smart homes, but urban planning is one area that hasn't made much progress. the advent of building information modeling (BIM) has radically changed the way we think about individual buildings, but a holistic, data-driven approach to the broader scope of urban planning is still lagging behind.
Euan Mills, head of urban design and planning at Future Cities Catapult, a UK smart city hub, said: "We've seen over the last 15 or 20 years how information and communication technologies have impacted the way we live in cities."
"There are over 40 billion connected devices in the world. we're collecting more data than ever before, and with all this data and processing power, we have incredibly smart computers, but despite all this amazing new technology, the way we plan cities is still stuck in the 20th century."
city information modeling, or CIM, has the potential to change all of this.
What is city information modeling?
In 1989, Maxis released SimCity, an open-ended city-building video game that allowed players to design and develop the ultimate city from scratch. The game was a huge success, spawning numerous sequels and spinoffs, including the best-selling and more people-centric franchise, The Sims. But the appeal of SimCity games never waned. Many gamers enjoyed mapping out development zones, planning infrastructure, and transforming undeveloped land into thriving, high-tech metropolises.
Urban information modeling essentially brings the same concept to life, providing a highly sophisticated platform for architects, planners, and other professionals to collaborate on citywide projects and designs.
Relationship between BIM and CIM
The relationship between building information modeling and extended CIM is still very much evolving, as the construction industry still has some understanding of BIM. However, while adoption has been slow in some quarters, most people in the industry recognize that BIM will play a much larger role in the future.
According to a recent report published by Zion Market Research, the BIM market is expected to nearly triple between 2016 and 2022, reaching a value of $10.36 billion. the UK leads the world in BIM adoption thanks to a mandate to provide collaborative 3D BIM for all central government-funded projects, but other markets are slowly catching up.
BIM utilizes 3D modeling, of course, but it goes far beyond traditional CAD capabilities to integrate data and information about all parts of a building project. the fact that it can connect so many different aspects collaboratively gives it the potential to scale to connect multiple individual buildings to a larger overall project. extending this further, individual BIM files can be connected to much larger city-scale platforms. CIM can go beyond the limitations of most BIM models and files, providing links to infrastructure, public services, and even modeling how people move and interact with the city.
The rise of smart cities
With everything from security alarms to thermostats to smart toasters connected in increasingly complex IoT-powered home environments, many people are becoming familiar with the concept of the smart home, where personal assistants help simplify everyday life. connected devices are now moving out of the home and being integrated into roads and transit systems, commercial buildings, and energy monitoring and waste management platforms. smart homes are forming the building blocks of increasingly smart cities, collecting their own data and using it to improve efficiency.
Implementing smart technology at scale isn't all plain sailing, especially when it comes to issues like data and privacy.
But smart cities also bring enormous potential benefits. Amsterdam is one of the most data-driven cities in the world, and the Amsterdam Smart City initiative has spawned dozens of projects, including autonomous ships that reduce pollution, smart streetlights that adjust to light and weather, and thousands of sensors across the city that improve traffic flow and parking allocation.
In the UK, the CityVibe Smart City Open Innovation Challenge in Manchester, led by Cisco and the Manchester Science Partnership, called for small and medium-sized businesses to propose innovative solutions to solve problems in healthcare, transportation, and energy.
"Without collaboration, any effort to solve the challenges facing society today fails at the first hurdle. no organization can truly go it alone - the answer lies in co-innovation, and this approach is fundamental to the Open Innovation Challenge," says Nick Chrissos, Director of European Innovation at Cisco.
How can CIM help me?
Collaboration is one of the core and defining elements of BIM, and the same potential for collaboration and co-innovation clearly applies to city information modeling. Not only can CIM leverage data collected from IoT and smart cities, but it can also bring together disparate systems and stakeholders.
Steven Webb, project lead at the Future Cities Catapult, said: "We're already seeing how some companies are allowing citizens to preview new buildings before they're built, and we think there's also potential for people to chat with planning applications for new buildings to understand how much affordable housing they'll provide and how much green space they'll provide.
"We're also working with the Center for Advanced Spatial Analytics to understand what combinations of data are most valuable to city planners, citizens, and those who operate parks and open spaces."
Interestingly, CIM continues to utilize elements of the SimCity game and combine it with BIM to create something we haven't seen before, but will see a lot of in the future. improbable Worlds Ltd. is a gaming company that has built a simulation of an entire UK city, incorporating everything from communications networks to transportation, power grids, sewer systems, and housing demographics.
All of these elements can be accessed and interacted with in real time, and this type of model allows planners to test developments and changes before implementing them.
CIM is still in its infancy, but there's no doubt that it will play a huge role in designing and operating the cities of the future.
How could data design change the planning system in 2050? according to Euan Mills, in the future, "we can actually start to measure health, well-being, and happiness."
