BIM-Enabled Infrastructure Asset Management Using

Information Containers and Semantic Web

Philipp Hagedorn 1; Liu Liu 2; Markus König, Dr.Eng. 3; Rade Hajdin, Ph.D., M.ASCE 4;
Tim Blumenfeld, Dr.Eng. 5; Markus Stöckner, Dr.Eng. 6; Maximilian Billmaier, Dr.Tech. 7;
Karl Grossauer, Dr.Tech. 8; and Kenneth Gavin, Ph.D. 9

Abstract: The paper proposes a solution for a Building Information Modeling (BIM)-enabled Infrastructure Asset Management System (AMS)
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 139.255.192.18 on 03/13/24. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

for road owners. The approach provides asset managers with a strategy for the dynamic use of Information Containers for Linked Document
Delivery (ICDDs), considering the requirements of stakeholders across domains in the operational phase. The state of the art shows how in-
formation management can be carried out utilizing information containers employing Semantic Web technologies Resource Description Frame-
work (RDF), SPARQL, and R2RML. The key output is developing a web-based platform that implements ICDD containers for asset
management. Existing AMS are integrated by using SQL data mapped to RDF-based ontology data in the container. The use of existing
domain-specific ontologies for infrastructure in combination with the linkage of domain knowledge to a three-dimensional BIM model is a
step beyond the state of the art and practice in the construction industry. Linking inside the container allows for querying data across several
information models and ontology-based data to create stakeholder-specific data views. The approach was demonstrated in two use cases. The first
was related to the visual inspection of a concrete bridge. The detection of damage and the process of communicating the damage to a contractor
charged with the repair were described. The second use case was related to a road pavement and demonstrated how decision-making about
maintenance activities can be supported using cross-domain information containers. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CP.1943-5487.0001051. This work
is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Introduction
There are several challenges facing asset managers and owners of
transportation infrastructure, such as road networks. Bridges and
1
Research Assistant, Chair of Computing in Engineering, Dept. of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, Ruhr Univ. Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse
150, Bochum 44801, Germany. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6249
-243X. Email: philipp.hagedorn-n6v@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
2
Research Assistant, Chair of Computing in Engineering, Dept. of Civil
and Environmental Engineering, Ruhr Univ. Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse
150, Bochum 44801, Germany (corresponding author). ORCID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0001-5907-7609. Email: liu.liu-m6r@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
3
Professor, Chair of Computing in Engineering, Dept. of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Ruhr Univ. Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse
150, Bochum 44801, Germany. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2729
-7743. Email: koenig@inf.bi.rub.de
4
President, Infrastructure Management Consultants GmbH, Bellerives-
trasse 209, Zurich 8008, Switzerland. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001
-5453-1841. Email: rade.hajdin@imc-ch.com
5
Project Engineer, Infrastructure Management Consultants GmbH,
Landsknechtweg 28, Mannheim 68163, Germany. ORCID: https://orcid
.org/0000-0002-3688-9687. Email: tim.blumenfeld@imc-de.com
6
Managing Director, Steinbeis Transfer Center (IMV), Willy-Andreas-
Allee 19, Karlsruhe 76131, Germany. Email: markus.stoeckner@h-ka.de
7
Project Engineer, iC consulenten, Schönbrunner Strasse 297, Vienna
1120, Austria. Email: m.billmaier@ic-group.org
8
Managing Partner, iC consulenten, Schönbrunner Strasse 297, Vienna
1120, Austria. Email: k.grossauer@ic-group.org
9
Manager, InGEO Consulting, Bastiaanpoort 8, Delft 2611MC,
Netherlands. Email: kgavin@ingeoconsulting.com
Note. This manuscript was submitted on January 27, 2022; approved on
June 20, 2022; published online on September 29, 2022. Discussion period
open until February 28, 2023; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Computing in Civil
Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 0887-3801.
pavements across the globe are aging and are being subjected to
higher loads, faster speeds, and extreme weather impacts such as
floods, heat, and so forth, that can cause rapid deterioration. Asset
Management Systems (AMS) that store and allow for easy retrieval
of high-quality data are critical to managing risks and making in-
formed decisions. Recent developments in internet-of-things (IoT)
and sensor technologies provide an opportunity for asset managers
to move toward resilient networks and to make decisions that min-
imize cost and environmental impact. Efficient and safe transpor-
tation infrastructure is the basic prerequisite for social progress.
Planning, construction, operation, and maintenance of infrastruc-
ture requires a significant commitment of both economic and hu-
man resources. AMS are used worldwide to estimate the required
maintenance measures for assets based on their current and future
conditions and dependence on financial resources and objective cri-
teria (Aktan et al. 2019). The ISO 55000ff standards (ISO 2014)
provide an overarching multi-industry approach to asset manage-
ment (AM). One of the critical aspects of AM required to make
good decisions is the evaluation of current conditions based on in-
spection and monitoring.
Although periodic inspections are ubiquitous in managing road
networks, the requirements and methods differ across agencies and
regions. Bridge inspection largely comprises visual assessment
combined with some simple basic measurement techniques. In cases
in which the results of inspections are not conclusive, in-depth in-
vestigation or even maintenance intervention can be triggered. To
collect data about road surfaces, high-speed measuring systems
have been used for about 20 years with laser technology and skid
resistance measurement equipment. Based on the results of the in-
spections, suitable maintenance measures must be selected consid-
ering constraints regarding traffic, accidents, and environmental
and natural hazards. The derivation of technical measures, as well
as their execution schedules, essentially is based on an analysis of
the severity and extent of current and forecasted deterioration.

© ASCE 04022041-1 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.

J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

 Bridge inspections are used to provide key input to AMS. Although
many deterioration mechanisms can develop suddenly (e.g., bridge
scour) or can be hidden (reinforcement deterioration), periodic vis-
ual inspections are used to provide the majority of data. Given the
well-known limits of visual inspection, a range of nondestructive
testing (NDT) methods are available (Kušar et al. 2018). Visual
inspection and NDT can provide a snapshot of the condition assess-
ment of an asset.
For road pavements, condition data describing the surface con-
dition and, above all, data on the structural condition of the pavement
are required. The condition data can be surveyed using established
image- and laser-based networkwide measurement methods, and
then are assessed using an evaluation procedure. In addition, struc-
tural measurement systems, such as the traffic speed deflectometer
(TSD) used to measure the bearing capacity of the pavement struc-
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ture, have been developed in recent years for networkwide as-
sessment of structural pavement condition (Pinkofsky and Jansen
2018). Complementary to this, related data on the layer structure
can be determined indirectly using ground penetrating radar (GPR)
(Solla et al. 2021) or directly using boreholes. For application in
an asset management system, these data have to be transferred to
a uniform spatial reference system to be able to determine the in-
formation that is relevant for the road authorities, i.e., the expected
remaining life span and the associated necessary maintenance mea-
sures of individual road sections, or networkwide financial require-
ment forecasts. Therefore, AMS requires substantial effort for data
preparation, which can be reduced significantly with the procedure
proposed in this paper with the application of the Building Infor-
mation Modeling (BIM) method.
BIM methods already are used successfully for planning and
construction in building and infrastructure projects. The use of
BIM in the operation, inspection, and maintenance planning of road
infrastructure over its life cycle is a relatively new field (Parlikad
and Catton 2018; Biswas et al. 2021), but it offers considerable
benefits for road authorities. Updating the asset to mirror observed
deterioration and the effects of maintenance interventions is the
basis for AM. This work process can be improved with BIM, es-
pecially due to the precise geometric information. Therefore, four
research questions for using BIM for transportation infrastructure
AMS are proposed
1. How can data across the asset life cycle be described, updated,
and processed in a flexible and efficient way based on open data
standards?
2. How do standardized information containers need to be prepared
to provide data for transportation infrastructure operations?
3. How can existing asset management systems (or databases)
be connected to BIM models to enable consistent use of data
throughout the life cycle of an infrastructure asset?
4. How must the technical system architecture be designed in order
to implement a BIM-based information portal for the transpor-
tation infrastructure asset management?
To address these questions, this research provides a concept and
a prototype implementation of the BIM-enabled execution of AM
for transportation infrastructures using standardized information
containers implemented within a web-based platform.
The paper is organized as follows. We first provide an over-
view of AM tasks in the infrastructure domain, existing AMS, and
the utilization of BIM in transportation infrastructure. A general
overview of information management in BIM projects is provided,
and the fundamental terminology and concepts are defined. The
research procedure is introduced in the section “Methodology.”
Focusing on transportation infrastructure operation, the essential
stakeholders, processes, and relevant data are presented in the sec-
tion “Process Analysis and Concept Development.” Supplementing
© ASCE 04022041-2
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
the technical implementation, the concept and architecture of the
system are presented. The implementation is demonstrated and
proven in two use cases. The challenges and limitations of the ap-
proach are discussed. The paper is summarized, and the research
questions are answered in the section “Conclusion.”
Background
This section provides an overview of the state of the art and the
practice of infrastructure asset management, the application of BIM
for transportation infrastructure, linked building data (LBD), ontol-
ogies for AM, and the use of information containers for information
management.
Transportation Asset Management
Transportation asset management is defined as “a strategic and sys-
tematic process of operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expand-
ing physical assets effectively throughout their lifecycle. It focuses
on business and engineering practices for resource allocation and
utilization, with the objective of better decision making based upon
quality information and well defined objectives” (AASHTO 2013).
In recent decades, infrastructure owners have moved towards stra-
tegic AM, i.e., a systematic approach managing their infrastructure
assets to support long-term transportation infrastructure goals and
inform investment planning. Owners strive to optimize their limited
budgets and resources to adequately plan maintenance activities for
assets, thus maximizing the benefit and minimizing the necessity
for reactive repairs or asset replacement. Furthermore, transporta-
tion agencies are coming under increased pressure to provide more-
reliable and safer infrastructure, especially in the light of recent
sudden failures such as the collapse of the Polcevera Viaduct in
Genoa in 2018 (Calvi et al. 2019). Many infrastructure owners have
legacy transportation networks; for example, the rail networks in
Ireland (IRRS 2010) and the United Kingdom (UK) (Guler
2013) were constructed in the nineteenth century, prior to the ad-
vent of modern engineering standards. In addition, transportation
agencies have to handle increasing demand from customers, re-
duced budgets, and greater challenges to deliver value for money
and transparent processes for investments (PIARC 2017). To over-
come these challenges, one aim of AM is to align and link processes
so that all business units within an agency operate in a coordinated
fashion (FHWA 2012). Within the framework of AM, reliable data
are needed to obtain information about the current condition of the
transportation infrastructure and, based on this, to predict its future
state. These data then serve as the basis for the decision-making
process on the timing, scope, and costs of maintenance interventions
(Hajdin et al. 2019). AMS help to force this decision-making pro-
cess by supplying results of different case scenarios by comparing
several applied maintenance strategies.
Asset Management Systems
AMS for roads and bridges can be viewed as a cornerstone of the
broader context of infrastructure asset management (Hajdin et al.
2019). These management systems use the results of data collection
processes, prediction models, a set of rules to determine interven-
tion options within maintenance planning, and functionality to gen-
erate and evaluate projects and policies (Zimmerman and Ram
2015). There are a variety of different AMS solutions on the mar-
ket. However, a common AMS consists of inventory, inspection,
maintenance, and planning modules (Hajdin et al. 2019). One of
the key components of the management of assets is the inventory
and documentation related to all relevant assets (OECD 2001).
J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 An inventory module includes administrative and technical asset
data (e.g., bridge and road IDs, geolocation, bridge type, and so
forth) and optional information such as photos of bridge elements or
pavements. An inspection module enhances the asset data according
to the inspection findings, i.e., ratings of the structural (e.g., deck,
piers, and abutments) and nonstructural (e.g., safety rail, pavement,
and drainage system) elements. A forecast of condition deteriora-
tion is the basis for estimating future maintenance. The final com-
ponent of an AMS is a planning module that enables the managing
agency to determine what maintenance and rehabilitation actions
should be taken given the current and predicted conditions of the
pavement sections and bridges (Ismail et al. 2009).
BIM for Transportation Infrastructure
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BIM for the transportation infrastructure was analyzed extensively
by Costin et al. (2018) by reviewing relevant literature to provide
insights into the current topics, the state of the art in industry and
academia, and future challenges in this domain. They also reviewed
application and use cases of BIM in transportation infrastructure,
particularly transportation asset management, maintenance, inspec-
tion, and data management. Costin et al. found a large number of
current research papers on bridge and road infrastructure. Within
bridge management, Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) ap-
proaches cover the life-cycle aspects of bridges: planning, design,
construction, and maintenance. Considering the use of BIM in pave-
ment design and planning implementation to date has been challeng-
ing, and the limitation of the industry foundation classes (IFC) data
model and a lack of standards was referred to in several studies. A
review of the literature shows that data exchange between infra-
structure and BIM still is lacking a standardized neutral exchange
format. Thus, ontologies and Semantic Web technologies are an
emerging trend to enrich the information with BIM and to increase
interoperability among stakeholders. Bazán et al. (2020) examined
road and bridge infrastructure management, and presented a set of
use cases for optimized and sustainable infrastructure management.
In the design phase, BIM is used to a certain extent, but the lack of
semantics for geometric elements hinders the efficient use of BIM
in successive phases. In use cases, Bazán et al. (2020) noted that
due to complexity, lack of appropriate software applications, and
missing standardized information exchanges, BIM is not yet imple-
mented widely for maintenance of infrastructure.
In the design and planning phase, the parametric and algorithmic
modeling of bridges was considered by Girardet and Boton (2021).
They improved the time for generating a 3D BIM model of a bridge
is reduced, and the geometric accuracy. Sacks et al. (2018) proposed
a BIM-integrated bridge inspection system. Their approach mainly
involves capturing and collecting data for bridge inspection using
BIM with IFC standards. With the recommended information deliv-
ery manual (IDM) as the documentation medium for data exchange
and the developed model view definition (MVD) based on the IDM,
the required bridge inspection data can be defined and validated
using IFC entities and their spatial and semantic relationships.
Vignali et al. (2021) presented a case study of the application of
BIM for the design of road segments, including the utilization of
three-dimensional (3D) parametrized modeling. The modeling ap-
proach is applied to several different road segment types, such as
roundabouts, bicycle lanes, or railway underpasses. In practice, these
different elements need to be modeled in various software applica-
tions. Collaboration between planners when designing these shared
spaces in transportation infrastructure, e.g., using the IFC data
model, still is challenging due to missing interoperability. BIM for
modeling road pavement was investigated by (Tang et al. 2020).
They integrated the pavement structural analysis of the asphalt
© ASCE 04022041-3
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
surface layer into the design process using a framework developed
in Dynamo. They stated that BIM enables the possibility to add
more analysis indicators and to consider the whole pavement layer,
which can support the design more efficiently. The use of BIM and
IFC also was investigated for planning future traffic technologies
such as intelligent transportation systems in order to provide a for-
mal description of these systems for road networks and to use the
resulting IFC models for traffic simulations (Mirboland and Smarsly
2021). For asset management, a semantic description is essential for
these future BIM applications, and formalization and standardiza-
tion of these road and bridge semantics are being discussed further.
Several existing approaches have been proposed for BIM-based
asset management of transportation infrastructure. Because most
infrastructure assets are existing objects, there is considerable po-
tential for the integration of BIM into AM processes (Pocock et al.
2014; Chancey et al. 2017). Realistic representation of objects sig-
nificantly can improve the quality of decisions regarding mainte-
nance measures. In addition, BIM enables an improvement of the
existing methods of data acquisition and storage, through seamless
information exchange over the entire life cycle of the road infra-
structure. Currently, approaches are in the form of BIM pilot projects
(Jackson 2018), primarily considering planning and execution
phases and mimicking a “digital construction site” (Parlikad and
Catton 2018). A particular issue noted is a lack of uniform specifi-
cations for data exchange between partners. A general description of
processes, data structures, and flows within national roads authority
(NRAs) does not yet exist in a comprehensive and usable form for
the application of the BIM method. This hampers the use of novel
data streams via technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), e.g., drones and photogrammetry (Hajdin et al. 2018).
Semantic Web and Linked Building Data
The Semantic Web integrates different internet resources and adds
a semantic layer describing the resource with additional metadata
(Berners-Lee 2006). Therefore, ontologies are used to define a
schema for the interpretation of metadata from these resources
(Staab and Studer 2009). Ontologies determine the meaning of the
metadata instances for a generic concept of machine-readable data
access. Furthermore, the semantic layer can be utilized to link data
and resources across the World Wide Web using Semantic Web
technologies (Domingue 2011). This linkage is called linked data
(Berners-Lee 2006). The Semantic Web technology stack consists
of a layered set of technologies developed for use in Semantic Web
environments and applications (Domingue 2011). Identifiers accord-
ing to the uniform resource identifier (URI) syntax form the basis of
each resource described. The exchange of data is performed using
the Resource Description Framework (RDF) (Cyganiak et al. 2014)
and the extended RDF schema (RDFS). Semantic Web data are
structured using ontologies defined in the Web Ontology Language
(OWL) (Motik et al. 2012). These data can be serialized into,
e.g., RDF/Extensible Markup Language (XML) (Gandon and
Schreiber 2014), Turtle (Beckett et al. 2014), or other syntaxes. To
query data in the structured format, the SPARQL Protocol and RDF
Query Language (SPARQL) was developed, which as a query layer
can process all defined vocabularies and search the data record on
the basis of triple pattern matching (Harris and Seaborne 2013).
For validation of RDF-based data, the Shapes and Constraint Lan-
guage (SHACL) has been developed and extended (Knublauch and
Kontokostas 2017). Linked data and Semantic Web technologies
increasingly are being researched and applied in the architecture,
engineering, construction, owner, and operation (AECOO) sector
(Pauwels et al. 2022). The development of ifcOWL as an exact rep-
resentation of the IFC STEP formats in an OWL ontology can be
J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 seen as a starting point for accessing building data in a Semantic
Web context (Beetz et al. 2009). Bonduel et al. (2018) implemented
the conversion from IFC STEP to several construction ontologies as
the IFC to Linked Building Data converter (IFC2LBD). Moreover,
a central ontology for representing the topology of a building or a
structure was proposed by Rasmussen et al. (2017) as the Building
Topology Ontology (BOT). It represents the site, buildings, building
stories, zones, building elements, and the spatial relationship be-
tween these entities. This ontology fulfills the minimal requirements
to represent building data and to align with other ontologies that
extend the elements with domain-specific information (Schneider
2019).
Ontologies for the Transportation
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project, several test ontologies were developed which are oriented
toward EUROTL and correspond to the respective national stan-
dards. One of these ontologies represents the German standard for
bridge condition assessment, which is referred to in this work as the
ASBING ontology.
Information Containers
Information management using BIM is specified in ISO 19650-1
(ISO 2018). To exchange information between project stakehold-
ers, information containers can be used. According to DIN SPEC
91391-2 (DIN 2019), an information container can provide meta-
data along with arbitrary information content. Thus, these standards
and specifications do not provide the container definition and syn-
tax itself. Therefore, in recent years research has investigated how

Infrastructure Domain to exchange interrelated BIM data in containers. Some approaches

are the Dutch standardized COINS container (Hoeber and Alsem
The number of published domain-specific ontologies for transpor-
2016), the multimodel or BIM-LV-container (Fuchs and Scherer
tation infrastructure has increased in the last few years. There are
2017), and the most recent Information Container for Linked
several domain ontologies that consider the inspection and main-
Document Delivery (ICDD) (ISO 2020). Extensions of the defined
tenance of bridges. Based on the BOT, a Bridge Topology Ontology
openCDE interface according to DIN SPEC 91391-2 (DIN 2019)
(BROT) as a core ontology for representing a bridge was developed
for specific container types, for example, using the ICDD (Höltgen
(Hamdan and Scherer 2020). It associates four additional ontologies
et al. 2021), were analyzed, conceptualized, and implemented. The
as an extension for modeling the bridge type, bridge components,
ICDD container utilizes Semantic Web technologies to provide
and building materials. With the Damage Topology Ontology (DOT)
metadata about the contained data, and the linking between these
(Hamdan et al. 2019), the damage representation can be linked
documents delivered within. The application of Semantic Web tech-
to bridge components defined in other ontologies, e.g., BROT
nologies enables an extendable structure of the container schema,
or BOT. The DOT provides an ontological basis for bridge inspec-
unique identification of objects, and independent localization of data
tion and damage detection. The Bridge Maintenance Ontology
for integration of distributed data (Hoeber and Alsem 2016). The
(BrMontology) is defined with a focus on condition assessment
data schema of this information container relies on three main
and maintenance planning without alignment of existing ontologies
ontologies for the structure of the container, the included linksets,
(Ren et al. 2019). It consists of classes considering the structure,
and further specialized human-interpretable link types based on the
material, hazards, and other events. Another ontology focusing on
Semantic Web technologies RDF and OWL (ISO 2020). The stan-
Concrete Bridge Rehabilitation Project Management (CBRPMO)
dard also provides a data validation approach using SHACL. The
was developed to model domain information during the rehabilita-
information container can host several types of documents inter-
tion procedures (Wu et al. 2021). For the area of road AM, a variety
nally or externally, all of which are identified uniquely using URIs.
of ontology developments mainly has focused on the operation and
Several approaches utilize the ICDD for validation (Hagedorn and
maintenance phase (Lei et al. 2021). For example, an important out-
König 2021) or for the integration into a common data environment
come of the European research project INTERLINK was the devel-
(CDE) (Karlapudi et al. 2021).
opment of the European Road Object Type Library (EUROTL)
(Luiten et al. 2018). This Object Type Library is available as the
EUROTL ontology, which provides classes and properties for mod- Methodology
eling infrastructure entities, actors, and operational activities and re-
uses concepts of the well-established Provenance Ontology Family Following the definition of the research questions, the research pro-
(PROV) (W3C 2013). An ontological basis for the management of cess consisted of three main steps (Fig. 1). The methodology used in
infrastructure information related to the requirements of European this paper follows the analysis, concept, implementation, and proof-
Road Directors has been provided. Within the scope of this research of-concept approach. Regarding the proposed research questions

1 3
Process analysis and concept development Use Case and Validation

Identify workflow for
Propose
transportation
research questions
infrastructure operation
Use Case 1
Define task- and process- Conceptualize ICDD
driven data flow for platform for workflow and
information containers data management
Use Case 2

2
System architecture and implementation

Web-based platform for ICDD containers based on

BIM and Semantic Web technologies

Fig. 1. Methodology of the research process of this paper.

© ASCE 04022041-4 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.

J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

 in this paper, the BIM-enabled infrastructure asset management
approach is supported using information containers on a web-based
platform. Therefore, in Step 1 the process analysis of transportation
asset operation is conducted. The process analysis identifies the
general work process of recurring engineering and maintenance
tasks in the operation of transportation infrastructure modeled as
an abstracted workflow. To define data exchange requirements, the
task- and process-driven data flow is analyzed, focusing on the im-
plementation and use of standardized information containers. Fol-
lowing these requirements, a web-based platform for working with
the standardized ICDD containers is conceptualized. The resulting
concept for the ICDD platform employs the data management to
realize the identified work processes and data flows.
The layered system architecture of the platform is presented and
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use of ICDD for data acquisition, data exchange, and data integra-
tion with the existing database.
In the last step, Step 3, two use cases relying on recurring rou-
tine engineer work for bridge and road infrastructure were demon-
strated, validated, and discussed. The first use case incorporated a
visual bridge inspection in which data were acquired on-site and
transferred into the respective information container. The second
use case comprised a pavement maintenance plan, for which infor-
mation about the condition of the existing pavement was loaded
from an external AMS and processed within the container for the
maintenance plan. The use cases are discussed afterward.
Process Analysis and Concept Development

the software implementation is conducted in Step 2. This software The overview of the general abstracted work process and data flow
architecture is a common architecture pattern, and was used in this in infrastructure asset management in Fig. 2 takes into account four
paper to provide an extendable and reusable implementation of the major aspects: the stakeholders, the processes, the data, and the en-
individual components. The resulting implementation enables the compassing web-based platform as the data management solution.

Stakeholders Processes Data

Asset

Plan asset management task Information

Manager group Container

Define task requirements Information

Delivery Manual

Prepare commissioning Requirement

Operational engineer group
Container

Fulfills requirements?

No Yes
approved

Approve work Delivery

Container
Traffic authority

Internal / external organization

Receive order

unapproved
Contractor
Execute work Delivery
Container
Realization
ICDD Infrastructure Asset Management Platform

open container / store transactions

Container

transfer
Existing
Container
relational
storage
database Retrieved datasets BIM model Documents Semantic data

Fig. 2. Overview of the involved stakeholders, the abstract work process, and generated data for the use of information containers in the ICDD
Infrastructure Asset Management Platform.

© ASCE 04022041-5 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.

J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

 Asset management tasks usually are executed by a range of different
stakeholders. These tasks can be presented in an abstracted work
process considering the technical and data aspects. The retrieved
and generated data can be identified for each process. The integra-
tion of stakeholders, executed processes and generated data in Fig. 2
is defined herein as the general workflow. A web-based platform can
enable data management integrated with existing asset management
databases. This section describes the general work process, the task-
and process-driven data flow, and the concept of an ICDD platform
for infrastructure asset management.
Identifying the General Workflow in Infrastructure
Asset Management
The traffic authority is responsible for the AM to ensure safe and
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reliable infrastructure by employing the management group and the
operational engineering group. The main technical tasks in infra-
structure asset management focus on inspection and on planning
and executing maintenance based on the condition of the infrastruc-
ture. The abstracted work process is performed by several stakehold-
ers (Fig. 2). First, the manager plans tasks based on the available
infrastructure data. Engineers provide the technical requirements
and data needs of the planned task related to national standards.
Then the commissioning can be prepared. After contractors receive
the order, they can execute the work and deliver the requested or
updated data back to the operating engineers. The engineers verify
the quality of the work executed and data delivered against the re-
quirements, and finally approve the work if the requirements are
fulfilled. The data generated during the process are provided or
exchanged in the form of information containers.
Defining Task- and Process-Driven Data for
Information Containers
An information container can be used to bundle and link different
types of data and documents (ISO 2018). The generic structure of
the containers consists of an index.rdf file and three predefined
folders—Ontology resources, Payload documents, and Payload
triples—that are distributed in a ZIP archive (ISO 2020). The in-
dex.rdf file describes the container and its contents, including the
respective metadata. The ontology resources folder is used to store
employed ontologies. The mandatory container ontologies Con-
tainer.rdf, Linkset.rdf, and ExtendedLinkset.rdf according to ISO
21597-1 (ISO 2020), and ExtendedDocument.rdf according to
FAIRsharing.org (2021) must be included. These ontologies provide
the class and property definitions to specify and link documents
within the container. Depending on the scope of the container, uti-
lized domain ontologies also are declared in this folder. The Payload
documents folder is used to store all defined documents, e.g., 3D-
object models, images, reports, and so forth. The Payload triples
folder is used to store the links collected in the related linkset file
and to store all RDF-based data sets, which are instances of domain
ontologies.
In the work process depicted in Fig. 2, the data and the connec-
tion between data and process are shown as containers and dashed
lines, respectively. The manager can access and query the available
infrastructure data from existing relational databases connected to
the 3D-object model for task planning inside the Asset information
container. The planning data for a maintenance task can be col-
lected directly in the Asset information container by the asset man-
agers. The data exchange points and the related data scope are
defined as a part of the task requirements. An information delivery
manual based on ISO 29481-1 (ISO 2016) can be used. The level of
detail of the data exchanged at each point must be defined. In this
© ASCE 04022041-6
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
paper, business process model and notation (BPMN) is used to for-
malize the detailed process map for the use cases and to specify the
content of the container for the exchange. The content of the container
then is described in terms of the data scope, data type, and the con-
nection between the data or documents. In addition to the IDM, the
necessary data and documents, i.e., the infrastructure and technical
specifications for executing the task, are provided in a Requirement
container for the commissioning preparation. This Requirement con-
tainer is created once throughout the workflow and is supplemented
and handed over to stakeholders in each step. When the container is
handed over to further workflows steps, the status and suitability of
the container are changed accordingly. Thus, the whole workflow
is documented within this container, and the history of changes
and details of the previous content can be tracked. In addition, the
contractor’s works also are recorded in this container as requested
documents. The resulting Requirement container will be handed over
via the ICDD platform to the contractor by receiving the order.
The contractor uses the Requirement container for retrieving the
technical documentation of the infrastructure and as a template for
capturing the requested data. Adding the requested information
from the contracted task into the Requirement container, this con-
tainer is transitioned into a Delivery container. This transition im-
plies that the contractor modifies the Requirement container with
all information included as a template container and adds each
piece of the required information into the container during the work
process. After successfully integrating the data, this container can
be delivered to the operating engineers for approval. The same con-
tainer is reused, and thus is only annotated with metadata (suitabil-
ity and status) to embody the data flow in the overall workflow.
After delivering the required documents and information into
the container, it can be approved by the receiving operating engi-
neers. Certain data can be selected and integrated into the existing
relational database, which can be used for the review of the infra-
structure information and as a basis for future maintenance tasks.
This paper introduces two use cases to demonstrate the application
of the Asset information container for planning maintenance tasks
and to present the data exchange using Requirement container and
Delivery container for a bridge inspection. The use cases were real-
ized by providing an ICDD platform implementation.
Utilizing an ICDD Platform for Asset Information
Management
To facilitate sharing, exchange, and visualization of data between
different stakeholders in information containers, an information sys-
tem called ICDD Infrastructure Asset Management Platform is
implemented. To track the work process for a container concerning
information management, the platform enables setting the container
status according to the ISO 19650-1 (ISO 2018) status codes and
workflows. The user access to the container can be determined de-
pending on the relationship between the logged-in user role and
the project. Functions for visualization, creation, manipulation, and
deletion of the container content are provided. Data querying within
the container and data integration from an existing relational data-
base is implemented. A detailed description of the system architec-
ture of the proposed platform is presented in the following section.
System Architecture of the ICDD Platform
The system architecture of the asset management platform is split
into five layers with different functional scopes (Fig. 3). The foun-
dation is the data layer consisting of two data stores. The user
and project database is conceptualized as a relational database stor-
ing users, projects, and the relation of projects to a container with
J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 Presentation REST API
Layer DIN SPEC 91391-2
Unified Project Container
Container
Service
Layer
Authorization
r2rml4net
Business
Logic Access Rights Management
R2RML Processor
Layer
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xBIM, IFCtoLBD
IFC Processor
Data Access
Entity Framework Core
Layer
Data
Layer User and Project
Database
Fig. 3. System architecture of the asset management platform.
additional metadata. The container storage is file-based storage, in
which container payload and RDF-based data are deposited. The
data from the container storage is processed using the IIB.ICDD
framework on the data access layer. This library provides the con-
tainer payload data at runtime and RDF-based data in in-memory
triple stores for accessing, transacting, and querying data inside
containers. The framework handles ICDD containers that are valid
according to ISO 21597-1 (ISO 2020). The transactions are referred
back to the file-based containers using writer classes for disposing
of the in-memory triple stores and releasing memory resources.
The service layer provides user-related data to implement a
token-based authorization in the service layer. These tokens can
be used by any web-based user interface. Together with the project
service, the access rights to projects and containers are assigned.
Projects have members, and these members have access to the con-
tainers included in the projects, which in turn means that each con-
tainer is allocated to a project.
On the service layer, access to projects, containers, container meta-
data, contents of the container (as payload or RDF data sets), linksets,
and the querying and validating services are provided. At the infor-
mation management level, the services provide project and container
management according to ISO 19650-1 (ISO 2018). The implemen-
tation of this standard contributes to the successful implementation of
the asset information model (AIM). Thus, each container receives a
status from the status codes (work in progress, shared, published, and
archived) of the standard. The archived status encompasses the jour-
nal of changes in the container but does not allow any change of in-
formation. However, each archived container can be updated to the
next version, in which the status is work in progress, and changes can
be made in this version. The versions of containers are linked to each
other using the previous version predicate of the container description
defined by ISO 21597-1 (ISO 2020). The container claims additional
metadata as a set of recipients inherited from the project members, a
revision number, and suitability. The suitability is adapted from PAS
© ASCE 04022041-7
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
Web User Interface
"ICDD Platform"
Content Validation
Linkset Query
Onto-
Rules dotNetRDF
logies
SHACL Processor
RDF Triples
Container Processor dotNetRDF
SPARQL Processor
ICDD Framework
Container Storage
1192-2:2013 (BSI 2013) and indicates the use or type of informa-
tion. A set of predefined labels from PAS 1192-2:2013 is imple-
mented into the platform. These labels include coordination,
information, internal review, construction approval, manufacture,
Project Information Model (PIM) authorization, AIM authoriza-
tion, costing, tender, contractor design, manufacture procurement,
construction, AM inspection, and AM maintenance. The suitabil-
ity is extended with another label, Requirements container, which
specifies a container for modeling exchange information require-
ments. Therein, requested documents can be added into the pay-
load, setting the property requested to true for this special
document. These documents do not have a file stored in the pay-
load documents folder, but need to be filled by the receiving stake-
holder after the suitability has changed. When the suitability has
changed, documents can be supplied for the placeholder file meta-
data. The property requested then is set to false if the uploaded file
matches the requested metadata for mime-type and file extension.
With this concept, links between payload documents also can be
defined in the requirements container so that the files uploaded
afterward are linked directly, as required by a client.
On the business logic layer of the system architecture, the data
flow from the data access layer to the representation layer is man-
aged, and input from the user interfaces in the representation layer
is processed. Therefore, processors are implemented to fulfill cer-
tain tasks with input data and user interactions and provide the ap-
plication programming interface (API) and the user interface with
the required data. The processors access and distribute data to cli-
ents throughout the services and the data access layer. Every proc-
essor is related to the Container processor because all of them
retrieve or send container-related data. Additionally, functionalities
are provided for particular payload contents in containers. One of
these functions is the processing of IFC-based building models.
Building models first are converted into a WebGL format to be
shown within the web user interface afterward using the xBIM
J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 Web UI module. In parallel, the IFC model is processed to retrieve
the spatial hierarchy of the IFC model and the property sets from
the IFC objects to be accessible for the user. Moreover, IFC models
can be converted into RDF-based data sets within the platform us-
ing the IFCtoLBD converter provided by Bonduel et al. (2018).
To establish the connectivity with existing AMS, a connector to
relational database systems was designed and integrated. This con-
nector enables the access of AM data from other systems within the
container context, creates links between IFC models, documents,
and AM data, and performs queries on an integrated data set. To
enable the exchange of containers between stakeholders during op-
eration workflows, data from an existing asset management sys-
tem are selected from the external systems based on the defined
mapping. These are converted into RDF to be queryable within the
container context, and then stored in the container for exchange.
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To realize this connector, first, the container schema is supple-
mented with a subtyping of the ct:ExternalDocument class from
ISO 21597-1 (ISO 2020). The specialized class is denoted exdoc:
ExternalDatabase and documented in an extension ontology for
ICDD containers (FAIRsharing.org 2021). The external database
class provides the necessary information to connect a container to
a MSSQL or other database specifying a connection string. To re-
trieve data from the relational database, the R2RML mapping lan-
guage (Das et al. 2012) is utilized. R2RML is well researched and
defines either automatically generated basic mapping algorithms or
creates user-defined mappings (Hazber et al. 2016). In the platform
concept, both basic mapping of the full database and the user-defined
mappings are envisaged. Therefore, the exdoc:ExternalDatabase
class can have zero or one mapping file attached using the database
Mapping object, which references a mapping file stored inside the
container as a ct:Document individual and provided in a RDF-based
syntax. If no mapping file is defined, basic mapping is executed. In
either case, the resulting generated RDF triples are stored within a
payload triples file and can be accessed using SPARQL or SHACL.
User-defined R2RML mappings are defined according to the W3C
recommendation (Das et al. 2012). The R2RML-based retrieval of
RDF data from relational databases in the platform context is per-
formed using the r2rml4net NuGet package.
On the presentation layer, two possible user interfaces are imple-
mented. A representational state transfer (REST) API is provided,
which conforms to the DIN SPEC 91391-2 (DIN 2019) specifica-
tions. Höltgen et al. (2021) demonstrated the API for the management
of ICDD containers, contents, and linksets. Moreover, the web user
interface provides a graphical user interface for all provided function-
alities in the business layer and service layer. Additionally, the web
user interface is equipped with an IFC viewer that becomes the start-
ing point for creating queries in the container related to selected IFC
objects without the user needing much prior knowledge of SPARQL.
Both representations are secured using token-based authentication
and access the same data sources so that users can work in the same
project or container in several client applications.
Overall, the layered architecture allows for extensibility, which
enables different clients and front ends to be combined with each
other on the basis of the REST API provided, and thus to be usable
from any client software or even different AMS.
Use Cases
To visualize, exchange, and integrate AM data for inspection and
maintenance based on the proposed ICDD platform, this section in-
troduces two use cases. The first use case simulates a visual bridge
inspection by an external contractor. The focus is on creating, col-
lecting, and exchanging the relevant data between the external and
© ASCE 04022041-8
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
internal stakeholders using the information container. The second
use case demonstrates a pavement maintenance plan based on the
current condition of road sections. The pavement condition data
are stored in an existing asset management database and retrieved
to create a maintenance plan by the asset manager. Using the in-
formation container, the data from the relational database are in-
tegrated and linked with the object model of the asset. Based on
SPARQL queries, the asset manager determines the road sections
for the maintenance plan by querying the critical condition within
the container.
Use Case 1: Visual Bridge Inspection
In this use case, the condition of bridge elements is assessed using
the German guideline ASBING. The detected damage of an element
is recorded with an image related to the respective IFC object. An
IDM is defined for data exchange between different stakeholders in
the inspection process. Fig. 4 shows a BPMN diagram. This formali-
zation of processes within the scope of IDM particularly supports
understanding complex workflows of BIM model exchanges be-
tween several stakeholders. The process typically contains detailed
tasks for each stakeholder and the respective data exchange points.
In this case, the process has just two data exchanges using the in-
formation container. The container content must be defined as an
exchange requirements model for each data exchange. The opera-
tion engineer prepares the commissioning of the inspection with the
necessary documents concerning the bridge structure. This informa-
tion is collected in the ER1_requirement_container. The contractor
uses this container as a template, and changes its name to ER2_
delivery_container with status “Work in progress” and changes
the suitability from “Suitable for requirement” to “Suitable for in-
spection.” These changes can be realized simply on the ICDD plat-
form. Then, the inspection information as required can be added into
the ER2_delivery_container. As a result, the ER2_delivery_
container with the aggregated data is delivered. The operation en-
gineer verifies the deliverables against the technical and exchange
requirements. The verified information can be filtered by the engi-
neer for specific tasks, e.g., maintenance planning.
The configuration of the requirement container and the delivery
container related to the use case is displayed in Fig. 5. Regarding
the type and the usage of the data, the documents are stored in the
three container folders as defined in the ICDD standard. In
addition to the ontologies required by ISO 21597 and the ICDD
platform, the domain-specific ontologies also are considered in the
folder Ontology resources for executing RDFS reasoning in the
container to further process the data with SPARQL and SHACL.
For the use case, the container employs three existing domain ontol-
ogies for capturing semantic data (Fig. 6).
In addition to the structure model BridgeModel.ifc for a BIM-
enabled inspection, the operation engineer provides the prede-
fined document templates [REQ]DamagePlacement.ifc and [REQ]
DamageImage.jpg with the requested attribute as placeholders in
ER1_requirement_container. Using the requested attribute, the infor-
mation requirements can be defined digitally, fulfilling the process of
information delivery and information approval both in practice and
for the ideal process according to ISO 19650. The contractor can
use the container template to deliver information and complete the
ER2_delivery_container. The required documents for the damage
description can be uploaded into the container. If more damages
were captured, all related documents should be uploaded regard-
ing the requirements of the defined template files in the Payload
documents folder.
Semantic data are captured in Turtle files in the Payloads triples
folder according to the defined domain ontologies. Links between
J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 Inspector
Collect inspection Deliver inspection
Perform inspection
Platform data with ICDD result

ER1_ ER2_
ICDD

requirement_ delivery_
container container
Operational engineer

Start
Request the
Prepare the No
Request inspection Check result result
commissioning improvement
Traffic authority

End
fulfills requirement? Yes Select relevant
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data
Object Model /
Database

IFC
Model AMS

Fig. 4. Process diagram of the visual bridge inspection with data exchange.

Fig. 5. Content of the requirement and delivery containers for the visual bridge inspection.

Fig. 6. Domain ontologies and related semantic data as payload triples.

IFC elements, images, and semantic data are specified in RDF files clarifies which data are associated with each other. These data form
as so-called linksets. All linkset files included in the two containers the connective elements that are contained as components or instan-
are summarized in Fig. 7, providing the link description and the ces in the aforementioned documents. They then are linked using
document containing the linked elements. The link description the link type Directed1toNLink that defines a direction via exactly

© ASCE 04022041-9 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.

J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

 Fig. 7. Linkset files and the related link description.
one from-link element and a set of to-link elements defined by
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ISO 21597-2.
Use Case 2: Pavement Maintenance Plan
This use case demonstrates how decision-making can be supported
with the help of cross-domain information containers. Steps 1–7 in
Fig. 8 show the establishment of an information container with
available data from an existing asset management database linked
to road object models and the generation of an appropriate main-
tenance plan. Step 1 defines the scope of the generated information
container. For example, an asset manager can use the information
container to request the current condition of pavement road sections
linked to the respective elements in a 3D model. Based on the re-
sult, they can plan the maintenance based on the geometry of the
affected elements and the historical pavement data from the data-
base considering time planning and cost estimation of the mainte-
nance work to be executed.
A relational database RoadInformationDatabase (RIDatabase) is
set up consisting of seven database tables based on the German
NWSIB database for state-specific road maintenance. It contains
four main information components: road section data, construction
project data in connection with the road network information, in-
spection data in connection with the condition information, and the
maintenance plan in connection with the planned pavement works.
The pavement condition assessment with four key indicators (fric-
tion, evenness, rut depth, and crack width) available from the Con-
dition table (Fig. 9) is the focused of Step 2. These condition data
are recorded as instances of an appropriate domain ontology. In the
same manner, the data of the maintenance plan must be acquired
using a domain ontology regarding the database table the Mainte-
nanceplan table of the RIDatabase. Considering both aspects, the
EUROTL ontology is employed to capture the numerical values of
the condition and the planned maintenance data as Step 3. In Step 4,
Domain Mapping
ontology rules
(3) Select
domain ontology
(1) Define (4) Define mapping
use case rules
(2) Identify
related DB-data
Fig. 8. Process diagram of the maintenance plan creation using information container.
© ASCE
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
the mapping rules for exporting data between relational databases
and RDF-based payload triples are defined in the R2RML mapping
language. The alignment between attributes of the Condition table
and the classes and properties of the EUROTL ontology is defined as
shown in Fig. 9.
To generate the container for this use case in Step 5, all contents
are provided in Fig. 10. When the relational database is registered
as the payload document RIDatabase using the extdoc:External
DatabaseLink class and the mapping rule is declared as RIDatabase.
mappings.ttl and referred to the database link, the condition data
can be integrated automatically into the container as payload triples
RIDatabase.instances.ttl using the defined mapping. The connec-
tion of lane sections from the database to respective IFC elements
is created and stored in the linkset file Ls_ifc_RIDatabase.rdf.
To query and filter the relevant data to create the maintenance plan,
the SPARQL query language can be used, and queries can be ex-
ecuted in the platform on the aggregated container data as Step 6. By
reviewing the query result, the asset manager generates the main-
tenance program, for example, for the queried road sections in criti-
cal surface conditions, and incorporates the respective data into the
information container in Step 7. These data are collected in the
Maintenance.instances.ttl file. These instances of the planned pro-
gram also are linked with the related IFC elements. The links then
are recorded in the linkset file Ls_ifc_maintenance.rdf. As the last
step, Step 8, the asset manager can import the relevant result back to
the original database, an approach for which was introduced by Liu
et al. (2022) and which will be implemented into the platform in the
future.
Validation
Using the web user interface of the ICDD platform, stakeholders can
create, edit, view, and delete container contents using the applied
functions as shown in Fig. 11. The user interface includes three main
Information
Container
(5) Generate ICDD (6) Query (7) Integrate (8) Import data
container existing data new data into database
Database
(DB)
04022041-10 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 eurotl:Lane prov:value

rdfs:domain
prov:generatedAtTime

eurotl:hasCondition prov:atLocation

rdfs:range rdfs:range

eurotl: schema:minValue
EUROTL
LocationByCoordinates schema:maxValue

eurotl:
rdf:label
LocationGeographicalName

Ontology
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Class
eurotl:Condition prov:value
Object Property DataTypeProperty

Fig. 9. Overview of the proposed mapping between the condition table of the RIDatabase and the respective classes of the EUROTL ontology.

components for the interaction between the user and the system.
In the Explorer component, the structure of the container is pre-
sented. The document content is represented in the Content compo-
nent, e.g., the elements and structure of an IFC model, images, or
RDF-based triples. Domain ontologies, RDF-based triples, docu-
ments, and linkset files can be added to the container from the nav-
igation bar. SPARQL queries can be executed on the entire container
data. The output of the results is provided as a table or in the stand-
ardized SPARQL Query Results JSON Format. In the Properties/
IFC viewer component, the user can switch between the metadata
of documents and the integrated IFC viewer, which provides loading
multiple models combined into a federated model and selecting
elements directly per partial model.

Use Case 1: Visual Bridge Inspection

For the BIM-enabled bridge visual inspection, the IFC model of a
Fig. 10. Content of the information container for the pavement
concrete road bridge is used that contains two bearing axes built
maintenance plan.
with a foundation and abutment walls. The structure and traffic load

Fig. 11. Interface of ICDD platform comprising the example container ER2_Delivery_Container for the visual bridge inspection use case.

© ASCE 04022041-11 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.

J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

 N IFC Object Model
W BROT BOT EUROTL PROV

Ontology

Ontology
E
S bot:Building bot:Element rdfs: prov:Activity prov:Organization
subClassOf
rdfs:domain rdfs:range rdfs:domain rdfs:range
bot:hasElement eurotl:
brot:Bridge prov:wasAssociatedWith
InspectionActivity

1 Links of Ls_element_inspection.rdf

Inspections.instances.ttl
elements:

Instances from Elements.instances.ttl

bot:hasElement
concreteBridge

Instances from
inspections:
substructure Inspection2020

prov:wasAssociatedWith
1 Links of Ls_ifc_element.rdf elements: elements: elements:
crossBeamWest crossBeamMiddle crossBeamEast

inspections:
elements: elements: EngineerOfficBridge
mainBeamNorth mainBeamSouth

elements: elements:
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abutmentWest abutmentEast Ontology Class Object Property

elements: elements: 1
Instances
Instantiation
foundationWest foundationEast Links related to
linkset file

Fig. 12. The relationship between the bridge model and instanced in ER1_Requirement_Container.

are carried by a grid consisting of two main beams and three cross
beams. The bridge substructure elements described previously are
considered to demonstrate the visual bridge inspection use case.
The topological representations of structure elements are described
using BOT as shown in Fig. 12. The whole bridge structure was
typed both as a bot:Building and a brot:Bridge to be able to use the
generic topology hierarchy from BOT and to provide a more spe-
cific classification of the structure using BROT explicitly. Further
classifications of BOT individuals can be inferred through the
alignment between BOT and BROT as provided by Hamdan and
Scherer (2020). The metadata of the inspection with the execution
year and the assigned contractor are collected as instances of
classes from the ontologies EUROTL and PROV. The links defined
in the use case description are created between these instances and
the elements of the IFC model.
The contractor collects the condition of the nine elements defined
as BOT instances. Based on the German ASBING ontology, each
element possesses three condition grades considering traffic safety,
stability, and durability on a scale from 0 (no influence) to 4 (re-
newal is to be initiated). In this inspection use case, all elements of
the substructure are assessed as having no influence on traffic safety
and Grade 1 or 2 for stability and durability without the relevant
need of maintenance, until the main beam at the south side has dam-
age such as concrete cracking or spalling. It then receives a Grade 3
for both conditions and needs to be maintained shortly. The re-
spective damage will be captured within the IFC model Damage-
Placement.ifc for the localization and in an image DamageImage.
jpg for visual assessment afterward. The IFC elements that are in a
Stability grade 3 state can be selected as shown in the IFC viewer in
Fig. 11 and linked to create a maintenance plan. Moreover, the
model with the damage location is shown in the IFC viewer.
Use Case 2: Pavement Maintenance Plan
For planning the pavement maintenance based on the BIM model, a
limited road section with a length of approximately 1,000 m was
modeled. This road model contains only one direction and one lane
without a terrain model. The underlying alignment of the road was
built from an alignment element straight line. Because the current
export of ifcAlignment in IFC 4x3 is not provided in the modeling
application, the model was exported in IFC 4 without alignment
elements. The road cross section consists of four layers: asphalt
surface course, asphalt base course, base layer, and antifrost layer.
In addition, a virtual layer over the pavement structure in the lon-
gitudinal direction was defined with element lengths of 100 m as a
homogeneous section for the condition assessment.
The condition data for the 100 m homogeneous sections are
recorded in the RIDatabase with the numerical values of friction,
evenness, rut depth, and crack width. The database is connected to
the information container as a payload document (Fig. 13). The
mapping rules RIDatabase.mappings.ttl are defined using EUROTL
to export the data from the database into the container. Fig. 14 shows
an example of R2RML mapping rules for converting the data of
column crackwidth from condition table of the RIdatabase into in-
stances of the class eurotl:condition with the related pavement sec-
tion as a spatial object. Fig. 15 shows the imported data set of one
pavement section represented in triples as a result. The whole onto-
logical data are captured as triples in the RIDatabase.instances.ttl,
which then are linked with the homogeneous section of the IFC
model.
Combined with the IFC model, the stakeholder can select
the pavement sections with critical values of the condition indi-
cators. Based on the query result, the pavement sections requiring
maintenance can be determined. The recommended work, year,
and cost are recorded in the maintenance plan linked to the sec-
tions. Fig. 16 demonstrates a query to filter the sections with
a value of crack width of more than 3 mm through the SPARQL
query. As a result, the two end sections between 800 and 1,000 m
are returned and highlighted in the IFC model (Fig. 13). After
a review of the IFC model, the maintenance plan can be made
for the related sections with the required information using
EUROTL.
Discussion
When using BIM for infrastructure operations, practical engineering
challenges must be overcome. BIM still is not adopted widely in the
transportation infrastructure domain. BIM models mostly are cre-
ated during the design and construction phase but are not carried
forward to the operational phase to maintain the existing physical
assets (Bazán et al. 2020). Thus, it is demanding to bridge the gap
between current engineering practice and the optimal BIM usage
over the asset life cycle. Moreover, it is difficult to establish tech-
nologies such as BIM model servers and RDF triple stores adjacent
to existing organizational AMS, even if using BIM delivers more

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J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 139.255.192.18 on 03/13/24. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.

Fig. 13. ICDD platform with the query result as a table and the filtered pavement sections highlighted in the IFC viewer.

Fig. 14. RIDatabase.mappings.ttl.

Fig. 15. RIDatabase.instances.ttl.

added value for the organization. On the other hand, it is challenging
to establish a relation between the vast amounts of existing data,
especially road network data, the BIM model, and related data syn-
chronously. Therefore, the use of information containers based on
Semantic Web technologies can provide a solution for the temporary
storage of the BIM model and allow the linkage with further data as
a first step. The asset manager can create information containers
regarding the defined workflows without influencing the existing
AMS. After the advanced system for combining BIM and intercon-
nected RDF data in a RDF triple store is established, the information

© ASCE 04022041-13 J. Comput. Civ. Eng.

J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041

 Fig. 16. Querying road sections with crack widths larger than 3.00 mm using SPARQL.
container can be used for the data exchange and data visualization
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 139.255.192.18 on 03/13/24. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
to overcome the difficulty of accessing the database as an external
stakeholder.
Therefore, the most important benefit of the information con-
tainer is to provide an open standardized data exchange format, in
which data content also can be verified using the SHACL rule lan-
guage. The data exchange and the demand for a standardized data
model still is one important impediment to BIM adoption in trans-
portation infrastructure (Costin et al. 2018). The presented ICDD
platform facilitates the creation, manipulation, and exchange of
ICDD-conform information containers between different stake-
holders in a project or asset context. Relevant standards have been
incorporated into the platform. The generic data structure of the
information container makes the collection and linkage of extended
information and documents with different types outside the BIM
model possible.
Even so, the generic concept requires a mapping of original data
structures into ontologies (as shown with the IFC model converted
into LBD). Beyond a certain point, one single ontology is not able to
cover all aspects of a data model, so alignments between ontologies
need to be defined and terminology has to be added. Although a
large number of central, general ontologies for AEC have been es-
tablished, there is a lack of a comprehensive overview of existing
ontologies, their application, and interfaces with other ontologies.
Based on the implemented ICDD concept, information contain-
ers also can be used for different life-cycle phases. Especially for
the construction phase, in which the BIM model is established and
the amount of information and documents increases intensively,
providing a structured data package without restrictions on the data
type can improve the digitization of the construction documenta-
tion. At the end of a construction project, the as-built model with
related information and documents can be handed over as a whole
data package, which also simplifies the data integration into the
AMS. However, the use of ICDD information containers as a data
structure and an exchange medium is only an intermediate step for
overcoming the file-based data exchange issues and establishing
the vision of a fully remote access of linked building data in triple
stores, as proposed by Pauwels et al. (2022). The platform develop-
ment prototype presented here offers the possibility that users can
generate queries and rules and execute these on containers for their
purposes. The creation of SPARQL queries on LBD requires knowl-
edge of the syntax and semantics of the query language on the one
hand and the queried data set on the other hand. This knowledge
cannot be assumed for application in the engineering context. Query
templates and rule sets must be prepared accordingly and filled with
parameters, e.g., from the IFC model, so that efficient use is possible.
Although the platform already allows the storage and import/export
of SPARQL queries, as well as the creation of SHACL shapes in a
knowledge base, the major challenge is actually creating this content
according to requirements for the application domains.
© ASCE 04022041-14
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
Using the developed solution, aggregated data from different
domains also can be made usable for other cross-domain use cases,
e.g., to perform combined maintenance for a road section and sev-
eral bridges on the network together in one or more federated con-
tainers. This is especially useful to align the competencies and
responsibilities of different planners from different disciplines.
Moreover, this paper shows how the reuse of established domain
ontologies can be beneficial for AM and also can provide a com-
mon basis for cross-country and cross-language AM. In addition,
condition assessment rule sets for asset information containers can
be developed using the SHACL rule language. By combining rules
with regularly updated data sets, e.g., through inspections or in-
tegration of data from existing relational databases, the presented
ICDD platform can function as an up-to-date dashboard for mon-
itoring infrastructure conditions, as shown in Use case 2.
Conclusion
This paper shows the use of information containers, Semantic Web
technologies, and domain-related ontologies as schemas in a web-
based platform for infrastructure asset management. A concept and
a methodical approach were developed, and a web-based platform
was implemented, demonstrated, and validated in two different use
cases. The investigated use cases are related to common activities
of visual bridge inspection and road pavement maintenance plan-
ning. Existing ontologies from the AM domain were reviewed and
used in ICDD containers in the proposed ICDD platform. Existing
AMS and their relational databases were considered in the ap-
proach and connected to the information container. Thus, the infor-
mation container can access and evaluate data from the database
within a container and can be linked to IFC models and instances of
ontology data to provide a cross-domain queryable AIM. SPARQL
queries can be executed on an aggregated data set of the container in
an in-memory triple store. In the use cases, these SPARQL queries
were utilized to retrieve road sections or bridge elements that relate to
areas of interest for inspection or maintenance (e.g., damaged sec-
tions). The results of this paper answer the aforementioned research
questions.
Information containers are suitable for describing, updating, and
processing data across the asset life cycle in a flexible and efficient
way. The use of information containers for the management of PIM
and AIM is predetermined by standardization (ISO 2018). Informa-
tion containers support information delivery according to IDM.
They also entail the systematic assembling, structuring, and ex-
change of data, which facilitates data management for transportation
infrastructure operational activities combined with the BIM model.
In this research, ICDD containers according to ISO 21597-1 (ISO
2020) were used to maintain IFC models and accompanying hetero-
geneous asset data, which were linked together inside these contain-
ers using Semantic Web technologies. These technologies enable
J. Comput. Civ. Eng.
 the container for extension and usage of dynamic data schemes with
domain-specific ontologies.
To examine how standardized information containers need to
be prepared, a process analysis and an analysis of the data exchange
during infrastructure maintenance operations were conducted. As
a result, a workflow including stakeholders, processes, and data
flow was described in this paper. In use cases, these processes were
modeled as BPMN diagrams according to the IDM framework.
The respective data exchange points in the workflow were iden-
tified. Container templates are provided for the handovers in the
two use cases. These container templates also include require-
ments, which can be configured as placeholder files for the receiv-
ing stakeholders. The suitability and status of the containers are
declared for the process steps and are tracked throughout the work-
flow. These annotations are used to compose Asset information
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containers, Requirements containers, and Delivery containers.
Considering the challenge of connecting existing asset man-
agement systems to BIM models, we demonstrated that an existing
database can be embedded in a container. An extension of the con-
tainer schema is presented to allow setting up the connection to a
relational database. The content of the database can be integrated
into the container using the R2RML specification for converting all
database entries or a subset of database entries defined by R2RML
mappings. These mappings can convert data from the database into
RDF data using domain-specific ontologies so that these entries can
be linked to the IFC model afterward. The import of specific data
from the database was demonstrated in Use case 2. In addition, the
data inside the information containers can be accessed in the scope
of the original AMS, which is possible in this approach through the
implemented REST API. The integration of RDF data into existing
SQL databases for a bidirectional data exchange was investigated
by Liu et al. (2022), and will be considered for future extensions of
the presented platform.
A system architecture was designed and implemented into a
web-based platform in this paper. The system architecture comprises
components for the general platform implementation (i.e., user au-
thentication, access rights, project management) and components to
handle the information containers. The core of the implementation
relies on the ICDD framework, which also is provided decoupled
from the whole platform. The ICDD framework implements func-
tions to create, read, update, and export ICDD containers. Moreover,
it enables further processing of IFC models, handling of SHACL
and SPARQL requests, and providing the R2RML processor for the
integration of external data from relational databases into the con-
tainer. Altogether, these functions are provided behind a unified ser-
vice layer that can be accessed via the REST API and the web user
interface in the presentation layer. This implemented web-based
platform enables executing the identified workflow for the mainte-
nance of transportation infrastructures using ICDD containers.
Nevertheless, several improvements of the presented system for
AM processes are conceivable and will lead to future research di-
rections. Firstly, the role of standardized domain ontologies was
highlighted in this paper, but efforts need to be made in particular
to find and align existing ontologies and provide a high proportion
of semantic information in a language-independent way. For AM,
the connection to geometric information is helpful for linear struc-
tures such as roads and bridge structures. Thus, research needs to
investigate how to better locate information both semantically and
geographically using geometric representation and preserve these
relationships between geometry and semantics for all stakeholders.
In addition, maintenance processes in AM often require the updat-
ing of geometric representations or the placement of geometric ob-
jects, such as drill cores or other test bodies, which can be automated
in the future. Especially for the use of different domain models in
© ASCE 04022041-15
J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 2023, 37(1): 04022041
information containers, an automatic generation of the relationships
between entities in these domain-specific models is necessary and
needs to be researched further to increase the automation for this.
Finally, the connection to sensors and other measuring devices that
produce regular time-dependent data must be made usable in infor-
mation containers automatically. Research in this direction, par-
ticularly concerning infrastructure digital twins, can lead to several
interesting topics for the further development of this concept.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study
are available in a repository or online in accordance with funder data
retention policies. The data generated for this paper is provided by
Hagedorn et al. (2022).
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge CEDR (Conference of Eur-
opean Directors of Roads) and FFG (Austrian Research Promo-
tion Agency) for funding this research. The authors thank the
consortia of the projects AMSFree and BIM4AMS for their col-
laboration on the research of BIM-based AM concepts for roads
and bridges.
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