BIM and GIS Integration for Infrastructure Asset Management: A Bibliometric Analysis

The integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is gaining momentum in digital built Asset Management (AM), and has the potential to improve information management operations and provide advantages in process control and delivery of quality AM services, along with underlying data management benefits through entire life cycle of an asset. Work has been carried out relating GeoBIM/AM to buildings as well as infrastructure assets, where the potential financial savings are extensive. While information form BIM maybe be sufficient for building-AM; for infrastructure AM a combination of GIS and BIM is required. Scientific literature relating to this topic has been growing in recent years and has now reached a point where a systematic analysis of current and potential uses of GeoBIM in AM for Infrastructure is possible. Three specific areas form part of the analysis – a review of BIM and Infrastructure AM and GIS and Infrastructure AM leads to a better understanding of current practice. Combining the two, a review of GeoBIM and Infrastructure AM allows the benefits of, and issues relating to, GeoBIM to be clearly identified, both at technical and operational levels. A set of 54 journal articles was selected for in-depth contents analysis according to the AM function addressed and the managed asset class. The analysis enabled the identification of three categories of issues and opportunities: data management, interoperability and integration and AM process and service management. The identified knowledge gaps, in turn, underpin problem definition for the next phases of research into GeoBIM for infrastructure AM.