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International Journal of Construction Management

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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and

Future Research Directions
a
V. K. Bansal
a
Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology
(NIT), Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA-177 005, E. Mail: .
Published online: 10 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: V. K. Bansal (2012) Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Directions,
International Journal of Construction Management, 12:4, 17-36, DOI: 10.1080/15623599.2012.10773198

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 The International Journal of Construction Management (2012) Vol. 12 No.4, 17-36

APPLICATION AREAS OF GIS IN CONSTRUCTION

PROJECTS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

V. K. BANSAL

Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology

(NIT), Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, INDIA-177 005, E. Mail: vkb@nith.ac.in.

Abstract
Geographic Information System (GIS) is being utilized to meet construction project’s
various requirements in different stages. Literature shows that GIS is an indispensable
technology in supplementing the already existing capabilities of the construction
industry in which widely used construction planning and management tools are
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lacking, even then, GIS is not being linked with the construction industry. To bring
GIS as a huge opportunity for the construction industry, construction industry
professionals must stay informed about GIS issues and advancements in the
application of GIS technologies in construction. The primary objective of this paper is
to explore potential application areas of GIS technology for the construction industry
for wider use and implementation in real life projects. Literature shows that full
potential of GIS for the construction industry still is yet to be discovered. Hence,
several research areas worthy of further investigation have also been highlighted.

Keywords
GIS; Construction; Construction Industry; Construction Management.

INTRODUCTION
Construction is about making the world work by creating infrastructure to support
society and the nation. The construction of buildings, roads, dams, bridges, public
utilities, and other forms of infrastructure are the significant components in the
development of the nation. Construction involves all aspects of problem solving, from
problem recognition to the implementation of a fully operational solution.
Construction companies/contractors are generally assumed to take the responsibilities
of completing projects in a specified time, cost, and quality. In doing so, they accept
legal, financial, and managerial obligations (Abudayyeh et al., 2004). Therefore,
efficient construction management becomes an important aspect of any construction
work.

The construction industry is essentially a service industry where management

revolves around the close follow up of laid down procedures. It is quite complex and
highly individualistic in character. Works in the construction industry are defined by
design drawings, layouts, routes, blueprints, execution schedules, cost estimates,
specifications, etc. which are maintained separately by various team members.
Professionals working in the construction industry have to go through such
information which is difficult to bridge together. Architects, engineers, contractors,
owners, and operators face challenges due to varieties of information formats used to
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Bansal

represent construction graphical and non-graphical information. In 2004, United

States’ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) studied the efficiency
losses in planning, design, and construction of United States commercial and
institutional buildings and industrial facilities. NIST found that, in 2002 only, the
annual cost associated with inadequate interoperability among Computer Aided
Design (CAD), engineering and software systems in the United States was $15.8
billion, which is about 30% of overall cost (Gallaher et al, 2004).

If both, graphical and non-graphical information are maintained in a single

environment and changes made to this information are made at one place only,
drawings, schedules, cost estimates, layouts, and specifications of a construction
project will be consistent with each other. Building Information Modeling (BIM)
provides capabilities to solve this problem which involve the integration and analysis
of a large volume of both construction graphical and non-graphical information. It
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provides strong premises to overcome the existing fragmented nature of the

construction industry.

Compared to CAD, BIM is a different kind of representation; it defines three

dimensional (3D) geometry, attribute information regarding geometry and spatial
relationships, and semantics. BIM is an effort from the construction industry for
information sharing and integration for building life cycle. It is facilitating
information exchange and interoperability during the entire building lifecycle. In BIM
the main focus is on indoor planning tasks. Indoor space analysis is useful in relation
to space use and energy consumption like: heating, ventilation, or air conditioning.
While GIS on the other hand facilitates mainly planning of outdoor tasks such as: site
selection, jobsite planning, delivery of goods and services, emergency evacuation
operations, etc. BIM’s main emphasis is on interactive 3D graphical modeling to
serve the needs of automated drafting and attribute linking with features. Building
elements contain a rich set of semantic information in BIM. On the other hand GIS
has less emphasis on drafting and more on digital terrain modeling that facilitates
spatial analyses related to relief including slope, aspect, height zone, visibility, cut and
fill volume, surface area, 3D visualization of a surface, and its perspective view.
There are certain functional overlaps between GIS and BIM technologies in the area
of spatial information analysis, on the other hand, there are many differences. (Bansal,
2011b).

BIM lacks capability in geospatial analyses like: route planning, site selection,
planning for delivery of construction material, assure construction safety, and site
layout planning. Therefore, the geospatial capability provided by GIS has its own
strength for the construction industry (Miles and Ho, 1999). For example, in the
construction sequence simulation and schedule review of projects like gravity dams
where topography plays a major role could not be done with commercially available
construction planning tools because they lack in the geospatial capabilities provided
by GIS (Bowman, 1998). The data interoperability among CAD/BIM and GIS is still
a problem. Therefore, even after the invention of BIM, the construction industry is
looking for geospatial analysis capabilities available in GIS.

Due to continuous increase in the world’s population, sustainable construction is an

important issue for sustainable development. Construction professionals and
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

architects play an important role in sustainable development, for this they need a tool
to evaluate environmental impacts of a construction project on urban microclimate
and outdoor comfort before final approval (Pham et al., 2007). GIS is a tool for
sustainable construction planning and makes it possible to have a better understanding
of the urban environment. It also helps urban designers to simulate and evaluate
environmental impacts of their project. Recognizing the importance of GIS for the
construction industry, this paper has been developed to stimulate the innovative
thinking of construction professionals about GIS application areas and to identify
most promising areas. Therefore, to keep construction professionals and research
community informed about GIS issues and advancements the following objectives
were framed:

• To review potential application areas of GIS technology in construction

projects,
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• To highlight future research areas worthy for further investigation.

METHODOLOGY
With the objective of fostering and directing further research on the application areas
of GIS technologies in the construction industry, this review was aimed at bringing
together two strands. First, to survey the state-of-art on the application areas of GIS.
The scope of this survey was to cover articles in the leading international journals
(including, but not limited to: Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering; Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management; Automation in Construction;
International Journal of Project Management; International Journal of Construction
Management; Construction Innovation, and Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering)
and reputed conferences from the last twenty years. At the end of first strand potential
application areas that had benefited from the adaptation of GIS technology were
classified according to design-bid-build type contract (Fig. 1).

The second strand was focused on future research directions which have been outlined
briefly at the end of paper. This strand finds that construction professionals need
education and training on the use of GIS with respect to the construction projects.

CURRENT STATE OF GIS APPLICATIONS IN THE

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Construction Planning Stage
The ability of GIS to access and process information quickly allows the construction
industry to improve planning and decision making and promote better organizational
integration and knowledge management. GIS is not only used for technical evaluation
of a project but also in the study of sociological and economical feasibility of different
proposals in design/planning phase (Jeljeli et al., 1993).
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Bansal
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Figure 1: Application Areas of GIS in Civil Engineering Construction

The application areas of GIS reported in the construction planning stage are:

Database Management in Construction

Information required for planning and design in the construction industry is stored in
the form of drawings, specifications, tables, and charts. During the planning process, a
planner has to repetitively reorganize and interpret such information collected from
various resources in different formats. This makes the process quite tedious and
prone to errors (Cheng and Yang, 2001). GIS improves construction planning by
integrating locational and thematic information in a single environment. Its capability
to store a large database may be utilized to maintain construction data in digital form.
A construction database available in digital form provides a wide range of information
to the construction industry with a mechanism for rapid retrieval and manipulation
capabilities (Oloufa et al., 1992).

Camp and Brown (1993) and Parsons and Frost (2000) suggested the use of database
management capabilities of GIS to develop sub-surface profiles from well-log data.
In the study by Camp and Brown (1993), a well-log database was developed from a
series of borehole data obtained from field investigations and GIS based procedure
was used to create a 3D sub-surface profile for future use.

Construction site investigation is an important step for estimating and planning new
projects. Oloufa et al. (1994) suggested the use of a GIS based methodology to
develop a database for foundation analysis, design, construction planning, and design-
construction integration. The surface and sub-surface conditions influence
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

construction methods and choice of equipment that affect cost and schedule of the
projects. Oloufa et al. (1994) used a database to store descriptive soil data in the GIS
environment that was linked to corresponding locations of boreholes. A graphical user
interface was used to facilitate input, query, and output data.

Sun and Hasell (2002) suggests the suitability of automated acquisition and storage of
data to support project management in the GIS environment. They suggested that
instant spatial data capture provides fast and accurate visual information on site
progress. Study suggested that integration of spatial database with project
management functions provides a powerful and effective management control system.

Site Topography Visualization

Construction process simulation in 3D has proved to be an effective tool for planning
and improving the performance of the construction process in many successful
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studies. However, simulation tools lack the capabilities to represent explicit

geographic information in the simulated construction process. Zhong et al. (2004)
suggested that GIS could be utilized to overcome this limitation. They suggested use
of 3D spatial data that have physical dimensions to represent elements in 3D GIS. By
considering time as an attribute, GIS had been used to depict simulated operations
dynamically in a 3D environment. A tool called GIS-based visual simulation system
(GVSS) developed by Zhong et al. (2004) offers powerful planning, visualizing, and
querying capabilities as well as facilitating detection of logical errors in the simulation
model. This process of visualization was found helpful in detecting performance
inconsistencies and obtaining insight into simulated construction operations.

GIS provides visualization and animation features for geo objects by embedding a
visualization system using object-oriented techniques. The concepts along with geo
visualization and animation which provides extensible object-oriented technology for
the development of visualization of components in two and three dimensions (2D),
(3D), and time-varying data have been described by Dollner and Hinrichs (2000).
Sonmez and Uysal (2008) also developed a GIS based geographical visualization for
planning and monitoring of construction progress which is repetitive in nature. The
advantages of visualization of geographical conditions and their impact on the
progress control have also been explored by using time-lapse simulation.

Site Selection
In the construction industry site selection is usually done manually based upon
experience, however, various tasks in this process require a high level and amount of
integrated geospatial information (Isikdag et al., 2008). Literature review suggests
several studies on the use of GIS for site selection. Site selection is critical in a real
estate construction projects. Li et al. (2005a) presented a site selection approach for
real estate projects that makes use of GIS technology and incorporates the Data
Envelopment Analysis method. Another study by Cheng et al. (2007) used GIS-based
electronic mapping technology in producing interactive multi-layered maps so that
queries are set to find optimal solutions for shopping mall location selection.

The selection of a bridge site and type is difficult because of a variety of factors
involved in decision making. The process of road alignment selection including
bridge site selection following the process of bridge type selection is done fully by
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Bansal

human experts, computers have not been used effectively. Hammad et al. (1993)
showed that integration of GIS with an expert systems helps in the analysis of spatial
and non spatial information required in bridge site and type selection.

Scheduling Construction Activities

Commercially available scheduling tools such as Primavera and Microsoft Project
provide execution schedules, but activities in such schedules have no direct link with
corresponding components. Hence, research suggests the use of Four Dimensional
(4D) modeling or Building Information Modeling (BIM) to create graphical
simulation of construction process by linking execution schedule with 3D model. 4D
technologies allow planners to generate a graphical simulation of the execution
sequence, but they lack in topography modeling and geospatial analyses which are
now a requirement of the construction industry. Despite a lot of research in the field
of 4D technologies, their use is not very common in the construction industry. These
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tools are somewhat difficult to use and the visualization provided by them is not
easily customizable. Existing 4D systems are unable to aggregate and distribute
information between spatial and non-spatial databases.

A program in the GIS environment for Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling and
linking its activities to the corresponding components of a 3D model had been
developed by Bansal and Pal (2011). This allows planners to understand schedule
quickly. A GIS based methodology suggested by Bansal and Pal (2008) integrates
construction the schedule with corresponding spatial details to make project sequence
easier to understand. It allows 4D visualization of the construction sequence as well as
helps in detecting logical errors in the schedule. GIS also allows planners to generate
and manipulate the schedule and 3D components within a single environment, which
in turn facilitates the rapid generation of construction alternatives (Bansal and Pal,
2008).

Hegazy (2005) developed a GIS supported scheduling model for optimizing

infrastructure maintenance programs involving multiple distributed sites. GIS was
used to store site specific information and calculate distances and travel times among
distributed sites considering shortest travel routes. Based on distances, GIS calculates
travel time from each site to any other to determine time and cost to transport
resources from one site to another. During the planning stage, the developed model
stores user-input data of available resources, construction methods, and
time/cost/other constraints. The scheduling engine then runs a Genetic Algorithm to
optimize the number of crews to be used, site order, and construction methods. Based
on optimized schedule, GIS generates information containing activities’ start and
finish dates for various sites along with assigned crews.

Construction Labor Market Planning

The construction labor market includes many players such as employers,
organizations, government, and trade unions, all playing distinctive and varying roles
in the development and future planning of the market. It is crucial that planning for
the future for the labor market is as accurate as possible to ensure that shortages that
might occur in the future are taken into consideration. Various planning methods used
for construction labor market projections posses a number of limitations. GIS
provides opportunity to better understand geographical influences on labor market
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

issues and facilitates policies for the future to be tailored to suit the individual needs
of a region. Anumba et al., (2008) discussed a method for labor market planning for
the construction industry based around the use of GIS. It allows integration and
manipulation of diverse datasets to give a clearer understanding of geographical
trends.

Construction Safety Planning

Execution schedules and 2D drawings are generally used for hazards identification in
the construction safety planning process. The planner visualizes 2D drawings into a
3D model and mentally links its components with the respective activities defined in
the schedule to understand the execution sequence in safety planning. Sequence
interpretation and accordingly hazards identified vary with the level of experience,
knowledge, and individual perspective of the safety planner. Therefore, researchers
suggest the use of 4D modeling or BIM to create the simulation of the construction
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process. GIS facilitates 4D modeling, geospatial analyses, and topography modeling

in the development of a safe execution sequence, both a 3D model along with its
surrounding topography and schedule are developed and linked together within the
same environment (Bansal, 2011a). During the safety review process if a planned
sequence results a hazard situation, it may be corrected within the GIS itself before
actual implementation. 4D modeling along with topographical conditions and safety
database in a single environment assist safety planners in examining what safety
measures are required when, where, and why (Bansal, 2011a).

Miscellaneous Applications
The planning process for road construction involves a large amount of information on
design, construction methods, quantities, unit costs, production rates, and site
conditions. Therefore, it is very important to acquire, manage, and process necessary
information efficiently to produce a rigorous construction plan (Seo and Kang, 2006).
GIS is a very effective tool for integrating and managing various types of information,
including spatial and non-spatial, required for road construction planning. Seo and
Kang (2006) proposed a GIS-based system for improving road construction planning
with its interactive space scheduling and operation level planning functions which
were supported by the integration of various data required for planning. The system
enables planners to review the construction plans intuitively and immediately by
querying graphical objects. GIS also provides application specific functionality which
includes the calculation of area, volume, and perimeter as well as different tools for
cut and fill volume study.

The construction industry benefits greatly if 3D geotechnical subsurface information

is accessable at any time using the internet. Storing of digital information in a
relational database, rather than as images, not only allow the distribution of borelogs
over the internet, but also provides opportunity to explore the geotechnical database.
Kunapo (2005) developed a web-based geotechnical information system in GIS that
performs online spatial queries, generation of borelogs as well as vertical cross
sections of soil profiles along an arbitrary line, and performs various other
geotechnical analyses. It provides easy-to-use functions to locate boreholes using
search and geotechnical spatial queries to get valuable information that has immense
value in the construction planning stage.
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Bansal

In public works within municipal governments across the country, several

engineering, construction, and management tasks related to urban infrastructure may
be automated using GIS (Venigalla and Baik, 2007). In urban areas, obstacles such as
existing public utility lines, railways, canals, and roads influence route plans
significantly due to the availability of a limited number of feasible crossings (Adams,
1994). Cheng and Chang (2001) discussed the development of a GIS based system to
automate the process of routing and design of an underground power supply system.

Bidding Phase
In the bidding phase owners are interested in identifying contractors based on a set of
specific criteria, on the other hand, contractors are interested in the total project cost
along with a high profit margin. To decide bid price and cost a few reported areas
include:
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Quantity Takeoffs
With the availability of several commercial software, manual approaches for quantity
surveying are becoming outdated. Cheng and Yang (2001) and Bansal and Pal (2007)
suggested the use of GIS for quantity takeoffs. The developed approaches were found
helpful in increasing the productivity of the quantity estimator by reducing manual
work. For GIS based quantity takeoffs architectural drawing was divided into
different layers which were classified according to the basic design components in an
architectural design. The data layers used for quantity takeoffs include: columns,
beams, interior and exterior walls, and slabs. In GIS based quantity takeoffs area and
perimeter were used as basic parameters. Therefore, data layers were created as
polygons in AutoCAD and transferred to GIS in the form of geometric coverage.
Spatial operation coverage overlay was used to find geometric dimensions of
graphical features.

Construction Cost Estimate

The construction cost estimates prepared without detailed engineering data of an
organization itself are found less accurate (Bansal and Pal, 2007). To increase the
accuracy of estimates one needs well-defined engineering data related to the
organization itself. Estimates produced from organizational data usually give better
estimates than any published data as it takes groups of tasks into consideration such as
downtime, cleanup times, lunch, and tea breaks which vary from industry to industry.
GIS technology has been utilized to maintain the construction resource database. GIS
based construction cost estimating uses data in the resource tables developed for an
organization itself which may be updated on the basis of past practices. The accuracy
of cost estimation entirely depends on the correctness of data in the database and
dimensions of different components in the data layers. The data required for cost
estimation consists of locational and thematic information. Locational information
includes spatial parameters such as coordinates, area, perimeter, and spatial
relationship, which are derived from the coverage itself. Thematic information,
entered manually, includes identification (ID) code, beam number, floor number, etc.
Locational and thematic information are integrated by identifying one-to-one, one-to-
many, and many-to-many relationships using Open Database Connectivity (Cheng
and Yang, 2001). The Structured Query Language (SQL) was used to retrieve data for
cost estimation from the database.
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

Conceptual cost estimates are fundamental to the success of construction projects.

These are commonly prepared through the aid of historical data and later adjusted to
take into account specific project characteristics such as location. The common
practice of adjusting estimates for location is to use sets of location cost factors. When
a location is not represented in the chosen data set, the nearest location factor is
usually interpolated (Migliaccio et al., 2009). The validity of this interpolation
method has not been substantiated. GIS techniques had been developed to conduct
spatial analysis of RSMeans’ City Cost Index (CCI) national reference data
(Migliaccio et al., 2009). Spatial auto-correlation of CCI values had been tested to
determine validity of the nearest neighbor interpolation method at both the national
and state levels.

Contractor Prequalification
A large volume of qualitative, subjective, and imprecise information are typically
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involved in contractor prequalification (Jeljeli et al., 1993). Numerous models have

been developed to rationally structure and formalize this process, however, no
attention was given to the spatial aspect of the contractor evaluation problem. The
study by Jeljeli et al. (1993) explored the use of GIS to consider spatial aspects to
screen out contractors in order to determine their competence to complete a
construction work at a particular location.

Construction Stage
Construction activities have a high level of complexity which needs to be scheduled
with respect to daily life activities of people being affected by their construction. GIS
integrates construction information to resolve complexity of large-scale construction
projects. Integrating information such as project schedules, drawings, specifications,
and project documents during construction allows a visual understanding of the
construction process. The application areas of GIS reported in the construction stage
are:

E-Commerce Applications
In the construction industry material trading involves: buyers, suppliers, and agents as
three major players. Agents help buyers and suppliers to complete transactions. The
buyers and suppliers are required in all trading activities while agents exist only in
certain trading situations. The links among them may be organized in three ways: (1)
buyers and suppliers form direct connections, (2) buyers and suppliers form
connections through agents, and (3) buyers and suppliers form connections through
electronic markets (Li et al., 2003).

Li et al. (2003) presented an internet-based GIS model for e-commerce business

based on the type (3) trading situation. The e-commerce system, called Construction
Materials Exchange (COME) can be used for on-line ordering and off-line delivery of
different construction materials. The electronic market in type (3) provides a platform
for suppliers to provide online information about their products. Buyers can easily
search and compare products of different suppliers through an online system and
contact the suppliers directly (Li et al., 2003). If required, buyers can also invite
agents to undertake certain tasks required in order to complete a transaction. Type (3)
linking is the most flexible in supporting all trading situations encountered in
construction material trading but does not support bargaining and bidding trading
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Bansal

situations. Li et al. (2003) suggested that in all kinds of construction, transportation

cost is involved which has critical consideration in e-commerce. Thus, internet-based
GIS provides an ideal solution to manage costs of transportation and market analysis
in overall e-commercial activities (Li et al., 2003). The costs of transporting
construction materials not only depends on distance but involves, some other
variables such as locations of local distributors that can reduce shipping cost by
combining shipments to various buyers in the same area.

Construction Route-Planning
The conventional approach of route planning requires information to be stored in
various forms, planners have to repeatedly retrieve such information from different
sources. Thus, a significant portion of effort is wasted for information retrieval and
integration. This makes the route planning process time consuming and prone to
errors. Varghese and O’Connor (1995) developed a GIS based system to integrate
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information required for route planning. They successfully demonstrated the use of an
expert GIS for automating the tedious and repetitive route-planning tasks for large
vehicles within the construction site. Varghese and O’Connor (1995) used two
systems: GIS and expert systems. The expert system models the human reasoning
process through a set of predefined rules and GIS system which provides data display
capabilities.

Osegueda et al. (1999) developed an automated GIS based procedure for routing of
overweight vehicles carrying load, using dimensional and load clearance for bridge
crossings on a highway network. It automatically identifies all bridges on a specified
route and evaluates their adequacy to pass the load as well as vertical and horizontal
clearance requirements for a given vehicle. However, with continuous increases in
road congestion there is a need to model many uncertainties and identify areas of risk
on the potential routes approaching a construction site.

Construction Site Layout

The conventional approach of laying out Temporary Facilities (TFs) involves
designing a site layout using sketches, templates, and 2D physical models. Such
layouts are based on incomplete information which does not yield adequate or
descriptive results (Cheng and O’Connor, 1994). TFs should be located close to their
supporting activities to reduce travel time, Cheng and O’Connor (1996) explored use
of GIS and developed an automated site layout system, ArcSite, for laying out TFs.
ArcSite consists of GIS integrated with Database Management System (DBMS) to
integrate information required to find suitable locations for TFs and perform a series
of complicated spatial operations and database queries to identify an optimal location.

Layout for Construction Materials

Material layout is critical in construction planning. Poor material layout causes site
congestion and the inaccessibility of certain materials, leading to project delays and
cost overruns. Su et al. (2012a) proposed a material accessibility grade (MAG), to
quantify material accessibility throughout project duration. A material layout
evaluation model (MLEM) was developed based on MAG. The system was
developed and implemented on a GIS platform to automate tasks like: reading user
inputs, generating lists of material demand and supply, calculating grades for pick-up
convenience, delivery convenience, shortest path, and calculating overall MAGs for
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

site layout plans (Su et al., 2012a). The dynamic nature of material layout was
obtained by linking construction schedule to material demand, and linking material
schedule to material supply. The system, firstly, detects space conflicts and generates
conflict free plans. Secondly, it calculates MAGs for all conflict-free plans.

MaterialPlan, a GIS based tool developed by Cheng and Yang (2001) integrates GIS
based cost estimates with material layout planning. The system uses rules of thumb
and experience to decide the size of material storage areas and placement of materials.
It assists the planner in quantity takeoffs as well as in material layout design.
MaterialPlan integrates cost estimates with construction schedule to generate
dynamic materials requirements. The system was designed to pass on information
dynamically to site for material planning. Based on information regarding quantities
and locations of materials required in a project, the methodology identifies suitable
locations to store construction materials.
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Construction Space Conflicts

Space on construction sites is a limited resource. Space conflicts hinder the
performance of interfering activities. Different tools have been reported in various
research to detect conflicts among various site objects, but space-solid and space-
space overlaps have not been well supported, especially for objects with complex
shapes. Su et al. (2012b) presented a study on buffering workspaces of arbitrary
shapes and detected space-solid and space-space overlaps in 4D using GIS as a
platform. The buffering approach was based on a Uniformly-Distributed Points
method to examine distance between each point and a solid geometry with an
arbitrary shape. It enables fast detection of space-time conflicts, and has great
potential to extend for detecting space-time relationships also.

Construction activities need space on a jobsite for their execution. Different workers,
equipment, materials, TFs, and structures to be developed share a limited space on the
jobsite during the construction period. 4D modeling and BIM simulate the
construction process by linking the execution schedule with a 3D model to visualize
the construction sequence in space planning. However, both still lack in features like
topography modeling and geospatial analysis, which affect space planning. 4D GIS
had been utilized for space planning that facilitates topography modeling, different
types of geospatial analyses, and database management capabilities (Bansal, 2011b).
GIS was also used to generate multiple types of spaces corresponding to various
activities. A Feature Attribute Table associated with each space describes when,
where, and how long that space will be required on a jobsite.

Real-Time Schedule Monitoring

Li et al. (2005b) integrated the Global Position System (GPS) and GIS technologies to
reduce construction waste. A prototype was developed using automatic data capture,
barcodes for construction Material and on site Equipment Management (M&E), and
integrated GPS and GIS technology to the M&E based on a Wide Area Network
(WAN). The system was developed in such a way that managers from headquarters
and construction sites got real-time information to control cargos enroute to sites, so
as to reduce waste generation on sites. Site managers used accurate arrival time of
construction M&E to deal with limitations of M&E storage on site and to finish the
construction project in time with a minimum generation of waste. Li et al. (2005b)
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suggested that the GPS and GIS integrated solution improved construction efficiency
by increasing effective working hours of construction equipment, thus, reducing
construction duration and cost of workforce.

Cheng and Chen (2002) developed an automated schedule monitoring system to

control the erection process for precast building construction by using GIS. ArcSched,
a GIS based system that assists construction managers to control and monitor the
lifting process of precast components, was developed. A case study was taken where
structural elements were prefabricated in a manufacturing plant and transported to a
construction site for installation. Erection of prefabricated components was
considered a major critical activity for precast construction. The schedule for
prefabrication and transport of components to a site had been developed based on the
installation schedule. The study suggested that use of GIS improves the real time
schedule monitoring system, construction process, and efficiency. The barcode system
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combined with wireless radio technology was used to collect and transmit site data to
control centre automatically. Construction integration was achieved by applying an
automated barcode identification system in three phases (design, manufacturing, and
erection) of the precast construction life cycle. Through the application of a barcode
system, data integrity and consistency between different phases was ensured (Cheng
and Chen, 2002).

GIS in Construction Progress Control

Traditional scheduling and progress control techniques such as bar charts and CPM
fail to provide information pertaining to spatial aspects of a construction project. Poku
and Arditi (2006) developed a GIS based system to represent construction progress
not only in terms of a CPM schedule but also in terms of construction graphics
synchronized with the execution schedule. The architectural drawings were created in
AutoCAD whereas the construction schedule was generated using Primavera. The
design and schedule information (including percent complete) were plugged into a
GIS environment. After updating the developed system, a CPM-generated bar chart
alongside a 3D rendering of the progress of project is produced which communicate
the schedule/progress information to the involved parties.

Miscellaneous
A well organized response operation is required to mitigate chaotic situations.
Efficient allocation of resources such as construction equipment is critical to perform
disaster response operations. Chen et al. (2011) used GIS technologies to facilitate
construction equipment allocation in response to disasters. Its use has also been
explored in the selection of particular equipment under specific work conditions on a
construction site. Historically, emergency management has been focused on
immediate and urgent aspects of a disaster, response, and post-disaster recovery. It
involves not just crisis reactive responses to emergencies, but also finding ways to
avoid problems in the first place and preparing for those that undoubtedly may occur
(Gunes and Kovel, 2000). Database in GIS helps emergency management officers in
decision making, focusing on preparedness, mitigation, and response efforts. It
enables emergency management officers to make better decisions before, during, and
after a disaster.
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

EMERGING RESEARCH INITIATIVES

3D Modeling and Analysis Capabilities
Three dimensional (3D) GIS has not been developed to the extent like 3D modeling
capabilities available in BIM/CAD systems which are widely used in the construction
industry. Commercially available GIS tools generally apply 2.5D approach to
represent objects in 3D. Very few GIS tools offer 3D formats for the modeling of
building components, but incapable to calculate surface area and volume. This
generates the strong need for new user-friendly approaches to model and analyze
complex 3D objects in GIS. This will facilitate construction simulation along with
surrounding topography to make the planning and construction processes more
realistic.

Most of the commercially available GIS tools offer spatial analyses in 2D, very little
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in 3D space. The main reason behind this is that DBMS used in GIS like: Oracle,
IBM, DB2, PostGIS, and MySQL do not support 3D data types as these work with
points, lines, and polygons. Therefore, research is needed to develop functionality for
3D spatial analysis. It would enable spatial analysis during building planning and
extraction of partial models that fulfill 3D spatial constraints. As mentioned earlier,
most of the GIS analyses are 2D, therefore, works done in the areas of developing site
layout, materials layout, and space covered by equipment at site are based on 2D
analyses. Hence, we need to develop good user-friendly 3D analysis capabilities.
Further improvements are also needed in GIS based site layout planning to include
permanent facilities in 3D, existing electric/water/sewer networks, and equipment
positions which have not been considered in the earlier studies.

Topology is a major advantage of using GIS over existing BIM/CAD systems. Most
of the GIS tools construct 2D topological models. If we move from 2D to 3D, the
complexity of the topological relationships increases, thus requiring new approaches
or rules for 3D topological representations in GIS. Because of topology, GIS enables
us to understand relationships and perform analyses such as what component is next
to another, what component is within another, and which building components
intersect each another.

The author also feels the need for operational level visualization in GIS to fully
explore construction plans for better and effective planning. It provides keys to
significant savings in project time, costs, and reduction of several unwanted problems.
To visualize construction at operational level in GIS it is necessary to show
equipment, workers, materials, TFs, and topography in addition to building
components. Viewing the interaction among different crews and/or equipment must
be part of the operational level visualization which is an important factor in meeting
project schedule. Therefore, we need to have more research on construction operation
simulation in GIS.

Construction Planning and Scheduling

Without considering space and topography, an execution schedule cannot be finalized.
The execution schedule generated in widely used planning tools such as
Primavera/Microsoft Project dose not consider available space. The planner’s ability
to mentally visualize space and topography and develop an execution schedule is
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variant depending upon level of experience, knowledge, and individual perspective.

Hence, effectiveness in planning also varies from planner to planner. GIS provides in-
build animation modules to demonstrate site condition, surrounding topography,
transportation routes, etc. This facilitates rapid generation of conflict free schedules.
Spatial editing, modeling spatial relationships and constraints, generating and
updating of execution schedules, geospatial analysis capabilities, and visualization of
surrounding topography in a single GIS environment improves effectiveness of
construction planning.

Construction schedules generated in Primavera/Microsoft Project may be used in GIS

but cannot be corrected or updated. The capabilities of the scheduling tool developed
in GIS are not comparable to the functionality available in Primavera/Microsoft
Project and a few of the BIM tools (Bansal and Pal, 2008). Therefore, either we have
to develop full scheduling functionality in GIS or we need application level
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integration of commercially available scheduling tools with GIS. Bansal and Pal
(2011) proposed a GIS based scheduling tool for Activity-On-Node (AON)
representation in which activity splitting had not been considered, therefore, it needs
further investigation. Furthermore, automated techniques for linking the execution
schedule to 3D components of a building model in GIS are required.

Integration of CAD/BIM and GIS

New construction in a locality does not exist in isolation. It is closely related to other
existing infrastructure or surrounding topography. Construction, big, small, or
complex becomes one component of a locality. Such an addition creates a vast
amount of locational information and attributes such information just by its existence
in a locality. A new addition should not be designed as an isolated entity.
Consideration must be given to its context within a locality as well as the wider
environment. This generates the need of seamless integration among CAD/BIM and
GIS.

CAD/BIM should be put in a larger geospatial information context, because buildings

cannot be isolated from the context of their locality. Geo-spatial related decision-
making now-a-days can hardly be done without GIS. However, CAD/BIM and GIS
communities are living their separate lives, however, both, cannot completely replace
one another. Both would benefit if they communicated with each other without any
information loss. The main difficulty behind this integration is the differences
between data types and file formats which make information exchange a difficult
process. An object represented with various primitives in CAD/BIM is represented by
point, lines, and polygons in GIS. GIS does not support all primitives of CAD/BIM,
therefore, loss of geometry may occur during data export from CAD to GIS.
Similarly, during data transfer from GIS to CAD, lose of semantic information takes
place, as CAD systems do not deal with semantic information. Therefore, more
research is required to integrate these technologies together.

Interoperability
Throughout various stages of a construction project, different types and formats of
information are gathered, documented, and shared. In current practices, information
and documentation remain highly fragmented. Information gathered or generated in
one stage of the project or within one team does not transfer seamlessly to other
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

stages or to other teams due to the lack of interoperability. Interoperability refers to

the integration of systems and applications, combining or linking two or more systems
to greatly increase analysis and decision making capabilities. It involves exchange of
information that has different semantic representations, spatial and temporal scales,
formats, and geospatial references (different projections, reference ellipsoids, datum,
etc.).

Planners and construction professionals depend on each other to execute their work.
GIS provides capabilities to view spatial information and planned construction
projects which spread over large areas. The availability of information in different
data formats makes it difficult to share the digital content between planners and
construction professionals. Hence, there is a need for seamless integration of multiple
digital data from different sources. The mission of the Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC), for example, is to deliver interface specifications for geographically
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referenced data. OGC specifications apply to generic spatial entities such as points,
lines, and areas and need to be contextualized before they can be used for a particular
application. OGC have developed several specifications to describe, encode, and
transport information pertaining to spatial entities. On the other hand, Industry
Foundation Classes (IFC) is a common building information model developed for the
construction industry by the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI). OGC
and IFC are living their separate lives, making their integration one of the important
research areas. Through interactions with industries which use GIS, researchers and
software developers may become aware of how industries perceive their data,
difficulties, and interoperability problems that need to be addressed and resolved. It
will also be important for the construction industry to begin to understand their own
interoperability problems.

Information Exchange Standards

Information sharing in many areas needs to be seamless between planners, designers,
environmentalists, ecologist, etc.; this is interoperability across product, process, and
enterprise. This requires different information models and modeling capabilities
together. To meet such requirements more detail research is needed in assessing the
suitability of particular data models (vectors, raster, or some other) in GIS. The
object-oriented modeling in GIS could be an alternative to represent spatial objects in
construction. There is no single software that supports the wide range of applications
that are necessary to meet the need of the construction industry. The IFC data model
is an object-based file format developed by building SMART (IAI) to facilitate
interoperability in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, and is a
commonly used format for BIM. The IFC model specification is open and available. It
is a neutral and open specification that is not controlled by a single vendor or group of
vendors.

The OGC with other standards organizations and industry associations develops open
standards to support productivity across the supply chains of building design, physical
infrastructure, capital project, and facilities management industries. The lack of a
common digital "language" of open software interface and information encoding
standards, tens of billions of dollars (in the US alone) are spent converting, recreating,
and searching for building-related data (OGS, 2012). The OGC launched 3D
Portrayal Interoperability Experiment to advance best practice for implementing
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standards for publishing and streaming 3D geospatial assets related to urban planning
and landscape visualization. Standards are written for an interface structure between
software components. An interface specification is considered to be at the
implementation level of detail, if, when implemented by two different software
engineers in ignorance of each other, the resulting components plug and play with
each other at that interface (OGS, 2012). Therefore, to improve communication
among project participants, suitability of data exchange standards need to be
investigated up to the implementation level.

Web/Server Based GIS in Construction

Fragmentation is an inherent characteristic of the construction industry. It becomes a
serious obstacle in communication and collaboration among various project
participants. Collaboration is essential to generate and exchange project information
and timely sharing of the updated information for successful project completion.
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Web/server based GIS technology has made it much easier for the construction
industry practitioners to collect project information in a central repository and share it
over the Internet regardless of their physical locations (Wu et al., 2002). This is one of
the fastest-growing areas for planning, design, construction, and operation of all
infrastructure projects which are constructed on land. An essential element of Internet
GIS for infrastructure projects is engineering information management, a powerful
project-control structure that provides the right information to the right person at the
right time. Web based 4D construction visualization is expected to improve the
process of collaborative construction planning, scheduling, and conflict resolution in
the execution schedule. Therefore, multiple project participants working over large
projects need to be provided user friendly server/web based GIS.

Sustainable Construction
This process has not been explored much so far because of the large volume of
information needed and the complicated interaction between many involved factors.
Geography plays an important role in the planning of sustainable construction and
many humanitarian affairs. Planning and implementation of sustainable construction
often require complex spatial analysis. Although, construction of environmentally
sustainable structures might include the use of innovative construction materials,
recycling, and pre-construction consultation with ecologists and environmentalists an
understanding of the interaction between natural ecosystems and the facility to be
developed is essential. Newly added structures do not exist in isolation, surrounding
environment has a significant impact on their performance. This area has not been
deeply studied, however, various considerations are given to this in the codes of
different countries (Brandon and Kocaturk, 2008). Even a well-planned structure does
not function properly if integrated in an uncontrolled city plan. The use of GIS in this
area may be a real revolution which needs to be explored further. In the future the
urban growth rate is expected to be very high, particularly in the developing countries
which highlight the importance of social and environmental feasibility analyses of
new construction proposals in which the use of GIS needs to be explored. Planning in
GIS provides a medium to interact with relevant real life data so that experts and non-
experts are able to assess the environmental consequences of big construction
projects.
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Application Areas of GIS in Construction Projects and Future Research Direction

CONCLUSIONS
Construction projects are described by several graphical (drawings, layouts, charts,
blueprints, etc.) and non-graphical (schedule, specifications, cost estimates, safety and
quality control recommendations, etc.) documents. GIS handles both, graphical and
non-graphical documents, which make it easier to collect construction project
information in a central repository. Various graphical operations on graphical and
non-graphical operations on non-graphical information in GIS improve and speed up
construction planning as well as ensure data integrity and accuracy. Reported works
suggest that GIS is supporting the construction industry in several areas where most
of the commercially available construction management tools are lacking. GIS brings
spatial analysis in a real-world spatial reference so that any construction can be
understood along with its participation in the surrounding landscape keeping in view
the space constraints.
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Efforts to use GIS in the construction industry have not embraced the issues
associated with its implementation in the construction practices. Several GIS based
tools have been suggested in the literature and their applicability on construction
projects have been demonstrated through case studies. Their implementation on real
life projects has not been often seen. Future implementation of the developed tools in
practice still needs further considerations. Therefore, construction professionals need
education and training on the use of GIS technologies with respect to construction
projects. The research community, software developers, and construction
professionals together may bring GIS as a huge opportunity for the construction
industry.

Education level, experience, cultural issues, computer skill, and age of construction
professionals have a relationship to the implementation of such new technology in the
construction industry. By understanding how an individual resists GIS, his/her
resistance needs to be accommodated. This in turn will enhance global
competitiveness and enable researchers and practitioners to understand how GIS
should be introduced in the construction industry. To stay competitive for a long run,
such evolutionary changes must be introduced in the construction industry. This paper
demonstrates reported application areas, however, their successful implementations in
real life construction projects will depend upon future research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author acknowledges Dr. Mahesh Pal (Department of Civil Engineering, NIT
Kurukshetra, Haryana, INDIA) for his priceless guidance and sharing his valuable
time over the last several years. In addition the author is also thankful to the
Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, for arranging
financial support.

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