Digital transformation is key to delivering a construction industry fit for 2050 and beyond. In this paper, the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES) considers the changing nature of the surveying professions amid the development of digital engineering, encompassing information management, data sharing and building information modelling (BIM) during the full infrastructure asset lifecycle.
The pace of technology development, particularly artificial intelligence, machine learning and data management, means surveying roles will change, requiring different skills on top of those honed in their rich history of being the key suppliers and curators of geospatial information throughout the civil engineering plan of work.
All the engineering professions are facing change, some more than others. The UK government mandate for the use of BIM on all centrally procured projects by 2016 instigated change in many contractors and consultancy firms. The ‘BIM4’ groups sprang up under the BIM Task Group and the BS1192 series of standards developed as the precursor to the international BS EN ISO 19650 series we have today. Throughout these early days, the challenge lay in demonstrating the relevancy of information management to surveyors.
Geospatial surveyors have witnessed lost opportunities because of a lack of awareness of their expertise and understanding of location data and data capture methods. Commercial managers have faced new ways of working using software platforms that they could not interact with to reflect the true progress on a project, which has exacerbated the ‘silo mentality’ information management has tried to counter.
Two factors since 2016 have accelerated the pace of digital transformation. The first is the growing awareness of climate change and the commitments that governments globally are making to mitigate its effects in a timeframe of just a few decades. The second is the COVID-19 pandemic which led to an increase in digital communications, reduced site visits and brought remote technologies such as automated monitoring and drone (also known as unmanned aerial vehicles/UAV, or small unmanned aircraft/SUA) progress reporting to the fore. ‘Agility’ and ‘pivot’ have become terms that businesses take pride in achieving. The information management trailblazers of the 2010s are now sharing their successes and lessons with their supply chains.
The remit of the BIM Task Group was taken forward by the Centre for Digital Built Britain and now by the UK BIM Alliance and British Standards Institution within the UK BIM Framework. The National Digital Twin Programme being delivered by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is continuing to evolve, with the focus for the next three years moving to exploring and demonstrating how existing and near-to-market information gathering and management systems and information visualisation tools of increasing complexity can support decision making.
The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure is working with BEIS and the National Cyber Security Centre on the security of digital twins and underpinning information. It has been engaged to protect all that is digital in the digital twin, demonstrating that information about assets is as critical as the physical asset, system or process it relates to. It is supporting the development of a standard interoperable approach to asset information through the Government & Industry Interoperability Group (GIIG). The pace of change shows no sign of slowing. As emerging technology drives surveyors to acquire new capabilities and competencies, their expertise is essential in realising the efficiencies of digital engineering.
In 2021, CICES supported the global study Accelerating Digital Transformation Through BIM.1 It showed 70% of civil engineers have adopted BIM since 2016, demonstrating the rapidly growing use of information management for infrastructure work. Contractors deploying information management on at least 50% of projects reported significant benefits in areas such as bid efficiency, fewer defects, cost control, forecast accuracy, scheduling, reduced rework and fewer on-site challenges.
CICES was established in 1969 and has a Latin motto, omnia metimur quae videmus, we measure all that we see. The fashion for having a Latin motto may have gone, but the principle is relevant today and will be in 2050 and beyond. Measurement equals accuracy. Accuracy equals efficiency. Transforming the civil engineering surveyor simply reshapes that function for the future.
Key to this transformation is a better understanding of the expertise of geospatial engineers and commercial managers, and how they can inform decision making on infrastructure projects. This paper recommends a shift in the traditional timing of when civil engineering surveyors are engaged in projects, identifying that they will have more impact in the planning phase. Knowing what data will be needed when and to what accuracy and how this data will be used in scenario planning, costing, scheduling and monitoring will realise efficiencies and make full use of the surveyor’s expertise.
While the majority of papers and initiatives referred to in this paper are from the UK, digital transformation of civil engineering surveying is global. Each country faces its own unique challenges and hope that lessons learned and shared here will benefit our colleagues overseas.
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1 Accelerating Digital Transformation Through BIM SmartMarket Report, Dodge Data & Analytics
https://www.construction.com/toolkit/reports/Digital-Transformation-BIM