The future in 3D – planning water and sewage infrastructures in BIM 

The civilian engineering in the water field and various water and sewage corporation already expect the technological revolution to effect on management, building, maintenance, systems coordination and planning water and sewage infrastructures. The new managing method is called BIM. Have you heard of it?
Today we are going to talk about Building Information Modeling. (it is important for you to know, that BIM is a method and not a technological tool or a software, in which you can use freely).
In the planning system using BIM, you can present every structure or infrastructure using a 3D modeling. Planning with BIM is maybe visual, but not only the infrastructure, its qualities and characteristics can be shown. With proper work, you can present and even plan expenses, schedules and important information as well. While working on a BIM module, you could find all the working staff of the infrastructure- planners, engineers of course, alongside work supervisors, operators and even the entrepreneurs.
The 3D modeling and management method allow escorting every infrastructure or project from level one – the planning, to the last level – completing the project. Even later on, for the infrastructure’s maintenance for example, you can maintenance and manage water and sewage infrastructures in BIM. In addition, we talk about a broad method you can use in various fields, and you can see that it is becoming popular – and it is the most common method to use while working on a smart city.

Smart city – closer than you think 

The film industry and advertising world made smart cities perceive as very futuristic or fictional, but if we look for a moment at the definition of a smart city and the technological tools available today, we will find that even in our place of residence and the infrastructures existing in it, highly advanced technology is used.

The goal of a smart city is to improve the residents’ quality of life, by using technology – that’s based on systems coordination and interaction with the residents, as well as with the various infrastructures which they use. Data and information are collected at real-time and are monitored using an advanced system, that day by day becomes more automated, more efficient and allows reduced utilization of resources.

Planning in BIM for the smart city, combines virtual reality and advanced technology familiar to all of us from the world of computer games – whose development does not rest for a moment, to create the perfect design. When we speak about maintenance and operating of water and sewage infrastructures in BIM – as well as cooperation between various systems during the work – the wok optimization procedure is done considerably. So in the UK for example, one can already see today, targets for reducing costs of government projects in the various water infrastructures, which cost about 15% to 20% less than in the past.

No limit to the possibilities 
with a possibility of projecting every project as if it’s already finished and prepared in a level you can actually walk in it, laser scans, ,mapping options and recreating every structure or infrastructure, planning in BIM not only reduces the work in the field, but also gives an opportunity for presenting new ideas. In addition, the BIM’s approach is open source environment – some will define it as the only way to verify, because all data is visible.

According to the approach, thinking and planning in 3D opens many doors for engineers – everything is based on collaboration and systems coordination so that the information is accessible to all employees on the infrastructure and even better managed. The data that’s collected during the planning in BIM also uses afterwards for improving the operation, maintenance and repairs needed in the infrastructure.

The operational efficiency is the added important value of water and sewage infrastructures in BIM, besides the building procedure of course. The water corporations are learning day by day how to move on to the digital and technological world, less field work is done – so that all access times to it are completely saved. In addition, the goal is to save about 50% of the actual work time – in the area where the infrastructure is located, as well as shorten the practical construction procedure of the infrastructure or models for it.

Modeling the information of the structure or infrastructure – examples from all around the world 

Additional examples coming from the UK, are talking about reduction of up to 50% in the carbon consumption of the infrastructure. There are big projects as well, in which 400 models from the entire supply chain working on the infrastructure – simultaneously fix design problems and together create a more efficient construction schedule. In addition, they managed in the UK to shorten projects that would take weeks – to only ten days!

Modeling the information of the structure or infrastructure has great potential for a smarter city! Apart from this, a great opportunity is given to the water industry and the various water corporations: to create a smarter infrastructure, with advanced systems corporation, that includes data collection and optimization – in the best possible way. Planning in BIM and working on water and sewage infrastructures in this approach, are a big and innovative thing that we should not ignore.

The big question that is of course asked – is Israel ready for a revolution? 

Only time can answer that, therefore, we will leave you with food for thought, until next time…