asBuilt believes that the solutions needed by the sector are already available, and that by unlocking sites via technological empowerment of the workforce, the use of construction technologies like spatial mapping and IoT, and a shift in thinking toward humanity and long-term value, we have the power to truly advance the industry for the betterment of everyone involved..
Miranda Sharp says that she’s experienced exactly the same types of issues in the infrastructure space.She recalls a conversation with two linear infrastructure providers who wanted to establish a simple use case of information to be shared in order to better guard against, and mitigate, the effects of flood.
However, with one provider interested in road safety and surface water, and the other in railways and embankment flooding, they quickly discovered that their differing concerns added significant complication to the task.A complex process of questioning ensued around the use and translation of nomenclature, which Sharp says was a useful process in itself.However, the fact remained that every time they opened a new conversation, a new dimension and further complexity was revealed.. Sharp says this is why the ideas behind the National Digital Twin are necessary, because although we have lots of very specialised and efficient systems for sharing information, in order to achieve the next level of efficiency and public benefit, we need to start sharing information between systems.
While we’re very optimised to keep water off the roads, we don’t really understand other aspects, such as whether a drainage ditch should be built to go left or right at a particular junction.The information exists, we just need to find different ways of interpreting between it.. Sharp says that digitising planning is very much a use case of the National Digital Twin programme because people can see the value in it and therefore have the appetite to address it.
She highlights that we’re currently at the very early stages of connecting digital twins and we need to choose projects which will move us forward, picking the low hanging fruit.
She cautions that we should be careful not to codify or entrench any particular positions that will be preventative in the future.Defining the Need.
’ report – which came hot on the heels of the Construction Playbook at the end of 2020 – does exactly what the policy says.It sets about harmonising, digitising and rationalising demand by aggregating the next five years’ pipeline data from the major government departments (health, education, justice,.
and housing) to identify areas of commonality and difference..When these documents were published, I commented that they would both be enablers of an ‘Amazon for construction’.
(Editor: Modern Shelves)