An integrated approach between Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to support historical building maintenance, restoration, and documentation activities

Abstract

The management of urban ensembles, especially those encompassing protected historical buildings, faces intricate challenges due to the particularities of these structures and the scope of the ensembles in question. Faced with these challenges, the application of technologies such as photogrammetry, 3D digitization, semantic modeling, and more recently, the integration between Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has emerged as a possibility that expands the scales of knowledge of historical structures. The HBIM-GIS integration in the management of large-scale cultural heritage represents an opportunity for multi-scale analyses for the conservation of architectural heritage, integrating geometric and non-geometric data from the HBIM model and documentation and geographic information into a unified platform, offering a holistic approach to conservation. This post-doctoral research project aims primarily to evaluate the HBIM-GIS integration for the management of urban ensembles, focusing on case studies of the urban ensemble Pueblo de Colonización Esquivel in Alcalá del Río, Spain, and the modern urban ensemble of Pampulha in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The intention is to establish an efficient workflow in terms of interoperability, using the HBIM-GIS model and applying it to a web-based viewer for GIS data, in order to digitally represent heritage, construction elements, and spatiality. The study adopts a technical approach that incorporates the use of digital scanning equipment with multiple sensors, such as photogrammetry with Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS). These techniques will be employed to create parametric HBIM models with millimeter precision from point clouds of buildings designed by renowned modernist architects such as Oscar Niemeyer (BR) and Alejandro de la Sota and Fernández del Amo (ES). As expected results, it is hoped to demonstrate that the HBIM-GIS integration can promote enhanced efficacy in the preservation process of historical ensembles, providing detailed and assertive analyses for decision-making, as well as a profound understanding of this heritage at its various scales, encompassing the city, the neighborhood, and the buildings.