This research explores the automation of compliance checks in the early stages ofspatial planning by integrating Industry Foundation Classes (ISO 16739) withthe Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) Part 5: Spatial Plan Information (ISO 19152-5). Traditional planning processes rely on manual assessments,making them time-consuming, prone to errors, and inefficient. While recentresearch has focused primarily on automating the permitting phase, this studyaddresses an earlier step: verifying spatial plans against regulatoryframeworks. By introducing a standardized approach, the research aims toenhance data management, improve interoperability, and ensure adherence tointernational standards. Automating early compliance checks – such as verifyingbuilding height restrictions or required distances between structures – helpsstreamline the planning process, ensuring that only plans meeting regulatoryrequirements advance to the design approval phase. Estonia is selected as acase study due to its highly developed digital infrastructure and commitment toimproving e-government services. ... Read more

The need for 3D Land Administration Systems (LAS) is growing. In this respect, research is carried out in the field of 3D LAS with respect to data sources, registration of 3D Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities and dissemination services. Within this context, BIM/IFC models are considered promising sources for 3D LAS, even though the reuse of such models from practice has not yet been examined adequately. Evaluating BIM/IFC-models from practice is crucial, since they are created for different purposes, fulfilling various design criteria. This paper investigates the technical challenges encountered when using real-world BIM/IFC-models for apartment rights’ registration in a 3D LAS. It addresses the validation of five Dutch real-world BIM/IFC-models against four technical criteria, namely: existence of IfcSpace; geometric validity; no overlap and georeferencing. The results of the validation show that the collected BIM/IFC-models lack georeference, IfcSpace and a reference to attributes related to the respective legal units in the Dutch 3D LAS. After validation the models are stored in a 3D LAS Database management system (DBMS), in which the legal spaces are enriched with information of the Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities (RRR’s) in line with the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM - ISO 19152:2012). The contents of the 3D LAS DBMS are visualised in a web viewer. Additionally, the design for a webservice is introduced, aiming to automate the process of validation, conversion and visualisation. The paper concludes with recommendations and guidelines for creators of BIM/IFC-models based on the outcome of the validation, as well as challenges and recommendations for implementing a validation webservice. ... Read more

This research explores the integration of IFC with LADM Part 5 Spatial Plan Information (ISO DIS 19152-5) to standardize BIM-based permit checking processes, focusing on a case study from Estonia. Land Administration Systems (LAS) are crucial in spatial development, managing land-related information. Rapid urbanization necessitates efficient space management, promoting the adoption of digital technologies in the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector. The integration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) presents opportunities for enhanced collaboration and data management. The main aim is to enhance efficiency, interoperability, and standardization in the compliance checks between different plan levels (e.g., Detailed Plan vs Mater Plan) by incorporating LADM Part 5 into digital frameworks. Traditional permit processes are often manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors. By integrating LADM Part 5 with IFC data, this research aims to create a standardized approach that not only improves data management and facilitates seamless information exchange but also maximizes industry and technical support to ensure compliance with international standards.

The methodology involves several key steps. First, a country profile for Estonia using LADM Part 5 is developed, tailored to the specific needs of the Estonian LAS. This profile integrates with PLANK, the Estonian spatial plan database, incorporating how Estonia acquires, stores, and requires data in their spatial plans. Next, a PostgreSQL database is created to store this profile. Pilot Detailed Plan datasets encoded in IFC format are then imported into the database using FME scripts, mapping the data to relevant sections. This integrated database supports digital permitting processes, specifically plan compliance checks between different levels of spatial plans. Throughout the research, the country profile is refined based on the optimizations of the database, driven by the specific requirements of the input data processed through FME scripts. Given that LADM is a standardized model, the database enforces specific data structures, ensuring processed data is valuable and relevant. The FME scripts facilitate this process, ensuring the data extracted from the database is standardized and user-friendly. Constraints such as maximum building height restrictions are pre-processed and stored within the database, enabling users to access this information without manually reviewing raw plan data. Later, the database was sampled using pilot datasets, with the tools and scripts made available on the research’s GitHub repository. After storing the spatial plan data in the database, data can be directly accessed by scripts designed to execute compliance checks between Detailed Plans and Master Plans, as shown in the Estonia case study. Although developing these specific checks is beyond this research's scope, the work was structured to integrate smoothly with the processes used in the Estonia case study.

Preliminary findings show that combining LADM with IFC improves data representation, enhances interoperability, and establishes a consistent standard for compliance checks between Master and Detailed Plans. This research contributes to developing standardized, reliable, and efficient permit checking systems, with important implications for urban planning and land management. ... Read more

Τhe built environment has a vast and ever-growing number of complex and multi-layered buildings and other structures. The number of those is growing because of the increasing pressure on the limited space in cities. It is important to note that different professional sectors are involved in the realization of a new building. These sectors are mainly the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Owner Operator (AECOO), and land administration, which covers the cadastral registration, spatial or zoning plans, as well as property valuation. Noteworthy to mention at this point is, that today the subdivision plans regarding apartment rights in buildings are to be provided on the floor plans as submitted with the building/construction permit request. These plans show the apartment boundaries as twodimensional (2D) representations, which are insufficient to clearly and completely describe the ownership rights in multi-storey buildings. What is more, the building parts obtained from 2D representations are also inadequate to estimate the valuation of these apartments in both taxation and selling/buying processes. Considering that digitalization and consequently digital data are becoming more and more the norm in the AECOO industry, including the building permit requests, there is an opportunity to exploit Building Information Model (BIM), specifically Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), in the registration of apartment rights in three-dimensional (3D) representations. To investigate the opportunity, this study will further analyze the cases of the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey by revealing the similarities and discrepancies with respect to the registration of apartment rights in terms of legislative basis and current practice and extrapolating the current 2D practices into fully 3D representations. In earlier work, ISO19152 LADM-based models for the 3D building legal spaces have been developed and are related to BIM/IFC. The main objective of the study is to highlight the possibility of providing an internationally standardized modeling specification for 3D registration of legal rights within buildings, based on the earlier detected information model overlaps. What is more, it is expected to increase the awareness in other sectors than land administration with regards to legal spaces in the buildings. Finally, this study endeavors to provide concrete guidelines for the other sectors, most specifically the Architects, regarding the type of information that BIM/IFC models should have, in order to facilitate the 3D registration of apartment rights. ... Read more

The growth of cities and the pressure on land worldwide leads to more complex and multilevel structures with different space interrelations. For the registration of complex spaces mostly 2D Land Administration Systems (LAS) are used, while a representation of space in 3D could provide a clearer insight. Concurrently, technological advancements rapidly improve methods to collect, create, visualise, register, store and disseminate 3D data. In this context, much research is now being carried out at the sources and data used as input in 3D LAS and the various methods for their collection. In this scene, the approach to reuse data from the design phase is gaining ground. Specifically existing Building Information Models (BIMs), usually encoded in the non-proprietary Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format (EN ISO 16739:2018) are considered a promising source for 3D LAS. Previous research has shown promising results using BIMs as input for 3D LAS. However, the use of BIM/IFC-models from practice has not yet been tested adequately. This paper investigates the technical issues that are encountered when using real-world BIM/IFC-models as input for the registration of apartment rights in a 3D LAS and how that process can be improved. In the context of this paper, BIM/IFC-models are iteratively being validating against technical requirements. Five real-world BIM/IFC-models are collected. They are tested on the existence of IfcSpace, geometric validity, overlap and the ability to georeference the BIM/IFC-models. The results of these validation show that the collected BIM/IFC-models lack the ability to be georeferenced. Additionally most BIM/IFC-models did not contain IFCSpace, or reference to essential attributes for identifying legal units in the Dutch 3D LAS. Recommendations and guidelines are formulated to address these issues. The BIM/IFC-models are placed in a 3D LAS at conceptual level, in which the legal spaces are enriched with information of the Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities (RRR’s) to those spaces in line with the LADM. ... Read more