A BIM-GIS integrated web-based visualization system for low energy building design

Abstract

A building's energy performance is significantly influenced by its external built environ-ment. However, in the current design practices, energy design and simulation of a building are often conducted independently from the surrounding buildings, and the energy landscape of the community or city. There is a gap between low energy building design and urban-level energy planning. The aim of this paper is thus to facilitate collaborative work between the two processes of urban-level energy planning and building-level energy design by adopt-ing a holistic energy design approach. This paper develops a BIM-GIS integrated web-based building energy data visualization system. The use of this system contextualizes low energy building design in the urban energy landscape. The paper also details the solutions for data conversion that that is the main challenge for integrating BIM and GIS and describes the visualization mechanisms.