Geo-Enabling Your Construction Data

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a mature technology that is already widely used at the state and municipal levels for a variety of purposes. Location data has a high value in asset management. However, there continues to be a disconnect between GIS analysts, data scientists and construction and engineering teams across the civil construction industry.

The benefits of applying GIS to civil construction will ultimately drive the diffusion of innovation across the industry. We’ll see geographic data incorporated with details from inspection reports into comprehensive digital as-builts, enabling more efficient management of infrastructure assets across their full lifecycle. But at the moment, full utilization of GIS construction applications remains more limited to early adopters.

It’s Time to Build a Bridge Between GIS and Construction

The big challenge in this area is that people and systems haven’t been able to communicate efficiently. There continue to be disparate data silos and a lack of standard workflows, nomenclature and operating procedures to enable collaboration. Bridging the gap between GIS and construction requires stakeholders to embrace and support changes, including:

• Integration and interoperability to enable data sharing between systems

• Encouragement of open communication between people and departments

• Adaptation of processes and mindsets to support innovation and collaboration

The full vision of applying geo-enabled construction data will not be realized overnight. To start building that bridge, local agencies and engineering firms need to start with relatively small, practical steps, such as bringing more GIS data into field inspection reports.

For example, Infotech is supporting greater adoption of GIS in construction by connecting data and workflows from our field applications to the visualization and analytical capabilities of Esri’s ArcGIS Field Maps. This integration is empowering local agencies, engineering firms and inspectors to unite disparate data sets and increase efficiency and transparency for construction projects.

Case Study [Video]: Increasing Project Transparency through GIS Data Visualization

Our Appia service makes it easy to track key details of infrastructure construction projects, including daily inspection and progress reports, payments, change orders and as-built data included in digital project delivery. Our integration with Esri enables this data to automatically update a visual map. This makes data more accessible to stakeholders and enables closer collaboration across the planning, construction and asset management functions.

Infotech Helps Navigate the Long Road to Change

It’s a critical time; the systems we’re establishing today will form the foundation of our digital infrastructure for many years to come. Over the long term, asset owners will continue to integrate an increasingly wide range of data sources and applications. Beyond the data captured in construction inspection reports, we will see increased use of tools such as aerial data collection and photogrammetric analysis, LiDAR scans, IoT-enabled sensors and many more existing, emerging and futuristic technologies.

No one can perfectly foresee the next developments and the tech continues to evolve rapidly. We’ll all have to keep adapting to an accelerating pace of change, with all the uncertainty that entails. In the meantime, the Infotech team will keep focusing on delivering solutions that help construction crews, asset owners and other stakeholders work together efficiently to create value for their communities.

Interested in starting a conversation about how we can help your agency or organization? Contact the construction data experts at Infotech for a software demo or just a friendly consultation.