Main content:
Development of a semantic information model for energy efficient urban development
ISIS: Development of an integrated, semantic information model as a planning tool
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Stadt und Energie: Das Beispiel der Fächerstadt Karlsruhe
© KIT / Building Lifecycle Management (BLM)
The development and evaluation of climate protection concepts in urban planning demands the use of integrative methods and tools which, from the earliest point possible, incorporate all aspects concerned with cities and energy as dynamic and highly emergent systems. As part of the ISIS project, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are working with partners to develop an innovative information model as a planning tool for energy efficient urban development. The aim is to improve the information management and interoperability.
Technology summary
| Software type | Planning, Project managment, Analysis, Balancing/Optimising |
|---|---|
| Term of project | November 2011 - Oktober 2014 |
| Identification code | ISIS |
| Key aspects |
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Project description
Initial situation
Complex issues particularly often pose considerable problems for smaller local communities. A solution-neutral identification of the most practical fields of action frequently already fails in the introductory planning phase owing to the lack of a suitable information basis. Underlying circumstances specific to local communities mean on the other hand that solution-oriented best practices can seldom be determined unequivocally and applied in a targeted manner at the local level. Despite positive intentions, incorrect, lacking or incomplete information on the local situation, insufficient methodological and technical support for the planning process and sometimes rigid political dogmatism frequently lead to incorrect objectives or actionist measures.
Project goals, Application needs
As part of the EnEff:Stadt research initiative, the Building Lifecycle Management (BLM) department at KIT is developing a multi-dimensional and multi-scaling information model for energy efficient urban development. By analysing the requirements for communal information management, the product model scheme being developed aims to consolidate already established planning and evaluation processes with their thematic focuses and resolutions. The goal is to provide all participants with a uniform and transparent knowledge basis. This could prevent information losses that numerous media interruptions have previously created along the highly segmented communication chain for communal planning. With the holistic depiction of the “City System”, important semantic information on communal energy and transport flows is depicted and specialist, energy-related building data are transferred from Building Information Models (BIM) to the urban scale. To integrate this in the communal planning cycle, a management platform is being conceived that, in addition to specific professional perspectives, also provides functionalities for analysing models, checking consistency and for interface specifications.
In the long term it is planned to standardise the new urban model in order to ensure its ability to be technically integrated and disseminated in practice.
The aim is to improve the information management and technical interoperability in communal planning, principally in the context of energy-efficient urban development. This goal shall be achieved by implementing continual, model-based planning using an integrative database (holistic approach).
Project partners
The work programme is being coordinated by the Building Lifecycle Management (BLM) department at KIT and is being implemented and evaluated in conjunction with GEF Ingenieur AG, the Institute for Applied Computer Science (IAI) at KIT and the City of Karlsruhe’s Land and Property Department (Liegenschaftsamt).
State of work
A cross-sectional analysis of energy efficient urban development and energy planning guidelines in practice has now been concluded; the findings will be summarised in a consolidated specification manual. Based on this, a multi-scaling and multi-dimensional system model called “Stadt+Energie” has been developed that can consistently depict and continually document all context-relevant information and aspects. A generalised, formal procedural model has been conceived for the communal energy planning guidelines. The procedural module will be ultimately used to derive the business logistics for the projected planning tool.
Next steps, Schedule
- Consolidation of the “Energy efficient communal planning” specification manual (Q2/2013).
- Identification and analysis of a practical application scenario for implementing the projected planning tool as an example (Q3/2013).
- Conception of the planning tool in accordance with the requirements of the application scenario (Q4/2013).
- Prototypical implementation of the planning tool (Q2/2014).
- Partial transfer of the developed system model into the established CityGML model standard (Q3/2014).
- Evaluation of the findings with partners in practice (Q3/2014).
- Processing of the findings, final publication (Q4/2014).
Application-ready product
Specifications of the prototypical planning tool in accordance with specific requirements (semantic, technical, functional) for an exemplary, practical application scenario in the "Stadt+Energie" context.
Publications on the project
Brüggemann, T.; von Both, P.: Mehrdimensionales und multiskaliges Informationsmodell für den Anwendungskontext energieeffiziente Stadtentwicklung, BauSIM 2012 - Fourth German-Austrian IBPSA Conference, Berlin, September 2012.
Project website for the Building Lifecycle Management (BLM) department at KIT
