Architecture, engineering, construction and facility management (AEC-FM) projects involve a large number of participants that must exchange information and combine their knowledge for successful completion of a project. Currently, most of the AEC-FM domains store their information about a project in text documents or use XML, relational, or object-oriented formats that make information integration difficult. The AEC-FM industry is not taking advantage of the full potential of the Semantic Web for streamlining sharing, connecting, and combining information from different domains. The Semantic Web is designed to solve the information integration problem by creating a web of structured and connected data that can be processed by machines. It allows combining information from different sources with different underlying schemas distributed over the Internet. In the Semantic Web, all data instances and data schema are stored in a graph data store, which makes it easy to merge data from different sources. This paper presents a shared ontology approach to semantic representation of building information. The semantic representation of building information facilitates finding and integrating building information distributed in several knowledge bases. A case study demonstrates the development of a semantic based building design knowledge base.

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A construction project requires collaboration of a large number of individuals working in different organizations to deliver the project on time and within the budget. Architecture, engineering, and construction industry spends time and money to solve the information sharing and interoperability issues between different domains. With the advent of building information modeling, a 3D CAD model of a project is used as a shared knowledge resource during the design, construction, and facility management phases of a project's life cycle. Currently, 4D models are created by combining CAD and schedule information. A 4D model is useful for detecting potential construction conflicts during the project planning and design and a valuable tool during construction. However, creating 4D models requires a great amount of human involvement. An approach that facilitates integrating BIM and schedule information can improve efficiency and is highly desirable. This paper presents a new approach to information modeling using the Semantic Web technology. The Semantic Web provides an infrastructure and a data modeling format that allows computers to access and combine information distributed over the Internet. The paper discusses:(1) ontologies that the authors have developed for BIM and project schedule information; (2) how ontologies are used for creating project knowledge bases in RDF/OWL format; and (3) how project knowledge bases can facilitate machine processing of project information and semantic interoperability among project knowledge bases. The Semantic Web approach allows information to be saved once at the provider source and be used by authorized users as needed. This means BIM information is created and maintained by designers and project schedule is created and maintained by schedulers on their respective servers. This would allow the latest BIM and project schedule information to be accessed over the Internet and combined for various purposes.