An Open and Standards-Based Approach for the Digital Building Permit in Montevideo
摘要
Building permits (BP) are authorizations required to start the construction of building projects and granted by public authorities. BPs are still mostly processed manually, which presents drawbacks (e.g. subjective interpretation of regulations, long processing times). The digitalization of the BP process is promising towards the digital transformation of public administration and the sector of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC). However, current Digital Building Permit (DBP) solutions aiming to automate this process are usually partial, tailored-made or tool-specific, which hinders their applicability, extensibility, interoperability and portability. This paper presents an open and standards-based approach for the DBP in Montevideo, which comprises a compliance life cycle and a DBP platform. The approach leverages Building Information Modeling (BIM), is based on open standards and technologies, and aims to be extensible regarding regulations, types of buildings, and geographic locations. The approach also encompasses interdisciplinary work between teams with DBP-related skills (e.g. AEC, BIM, software engineering) and coming from different sectors (i.e. public administration, academia, software and AEC industries). The proposal was assessed by a prototype, functional/non-functional assessments, and validation activities with end-users. Results confirmed the feasibility and suitability of our approach, and let foresee its benefits and challenges.