Ontologies for Knowledge modeling in construction planning

From Firenze University Press Book

Vito Getuli, University of Florence

Nowadays, there is an increasing recognition of the value of effective information and knowledge management (KM) in the construction projects. Infact, Knowledge-based Process modelling is used in many fields and even in construction to support various simulation tasks. In this field, ontology-based semantic modelling is seen as an important means of addressing this problem to construct robust knowledge-based systems. In parallel, the advancement of information technology in the AEC industry makes available in a construction project a richness of design information offered by Building Information Modelling (BIM) IFC-based.

The development of an ontological version of the IFC schema has been largely promoted and now the ifcOWL Ontology is available in the sector. But, in the construction planning and scheduling task, BIM has progressively shown limits in terms of semantic representation and efficiency of supporting scheduling processes and systems. Moreover, when we think of a process in any given domain, we generally figure it out as a series of actions that leads to a certain outcome. For a construction project, when it comes the execution phase, the process of site planning and activity scheduling can be assumed as what the planner does in the search for the solution of a complex and faceted problem whose variables are numerous (building design, site characteristics, boundary conditions, technology, materials, labor, etc.) and most of the times, if not unknow, at least highly uncertain.

As a matter of facts, the planner deals with this problem (process) on the base of his experience or, in other words, of the knowledge he owns about the problem. Furthermore, in the construction sector the overall project performance is strongly dependent on the site management activity. In this regard, process planning is well-known to play a crucial role and, despite the long-lasting efforts, most of the related issues still need to be fully addressed. In fact, project control is based on a specific project schedule determined considering beforehand numerous constraints such as resource availability, completion deadlines for tasks and budget limitations. Cost increases or delays can easily result from poor estimates, schedules or decisions related to tasks decomposition and choice of construction technologies. The planner, in turn, generally identifies constraints, evaluates interactions and solves the related conflicts on the base of the experience he acquired from previous projects.

This means that having available models and tools able to support construction managers and designers in the task of construction activities planning and scheduling strictly depends to make available a Knowledge Base which maps in a formal way and in machine readable way the construction planning and scheduling domain.

DOI: 10.36253/978–88–5518–184–6

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