BIM Adoption for Facility Management in Urban Rail Transit: An Innovation Diffusion Theory Perspective

Abstract

Although building information modeling (BIM) has demonstrated to be an effective tool for the construction of urban rail transit worldwide, it has not gained the same popularity in the facility management (FM) of urban rail transit. The objective of this study is to investigate the BIM application areas for FM in urban rail transit from an innovation diffusion theory perspective, in order to gain efficient operation and maintenance (O&M) in urban rail transit. A total of 18 BIM application areas were first identified through semistructured interviews. A questionnaire survey was then conducted to further quantitatively characterize the relative advantage, ease of use, trialability, observability, and compatibility of these areas. Statistical analysis of the survey results provided evidence that, currently, BIM application areas directly related with facilities and equipment are most likely to be adopted. Correlation analysis further indicates that the perceived innovation diffusion characteristics of these BIM application areas significantly correlate with the development level of urban rail transit in different regions. The findings contribute to a broadened understanding of the complex innovation diffusion process of BIM for FM in urban rail transit and provide insights into how BIM can be more effectively adopted in the domain.

Application of openBIM for the Management of Existing Railway Infrastructure: Case Study of the Cancello–Benevento Railway Line

“…Furthermore, BIM methodologies can be applied to facility management in order to gain efficiencies in management. Xu et al [17], through questionbased surveys, have studied the application of BIM to urban rail transit in order to assess its diffusion and effectiveness when applied to the O&M phases. Here, for the purposes of information exchange, since interoperability is a fundamental requirement, openBIM provides increasingly indispensable support for interdisciplinary collaboration.…”

“…Currently, however, the applications of openBIM, especially in relation to the O&M phases in the case of the railway sector, are limited. BIM methodologies may also be applied to manage operation and maintenance information [1,17,18,[25][26][27], particularly in the context of railway infrastructures [17,26,28]. Kwon et al [15] have proposed a method for the realization of BIM models based on the IFC standard for certain components (e.g., railway tracks), and the management of the information relating to those models using concepts such as alignment and classification codes (e.g., for the association of IFC entities with railway components); they have also demonstrated how this methodology is able to reduce the time associated with maintenance operations.…”

Design and Research on the Intelligent System of Urban Rail Transit Project based on BIM+GIS

“…The unexpected disruptions are caused by the urban rail transit line emergencies which lead to interrupted operations and passenger delays. Unexpected service disruptions of varying degrees are caused by the variety of random events ranging from train malfunctions to bomb threats and power failures [6,7]. The longer disruptions are caused by the serious emergencies whereas the short disruptions are caused by the minor events.…”

Analysis of BIM functionalities diffusion in the construction industry: the case of the MENA region

“…He agreed that the diffusion of any innovation over a given period requires specific communication channels to reach the social system (Rogers, 1983). Diffusion models are largely employed to estimate the cumulative number of individuals that will accept and adopt an innovation, and to explain patterns of innovation adoption over time and space (Xu et al , 2020; Lagoe et al. , 2021).…”