Intelligent Construction and Management of Landscapes through Building Information Modeling and Mixed Reality

Abstract

Intelligent construction and management processes are essential to ensure the efficiency of planting and maintenance of landscapes in large-scale projects. Unfortunately, various challenges still exist for achieving such a vision. For instance, creating detailed models of various plants to precisely capture the spatiotemporal changes is challenging. Moreover, transmitting massive plant-related data in time for project coordination and remote maintenance is also difficult through traditional landscape management practices. Integrated use of building information modeling (BIM) and mixed reality (MR) techniques could help establish digital representations of various plants with semantic information. Such integration of BIM and MR offers instinctual interactions by blending the physical and digital worlds. This study proposed an intelligent construction and management framework through BIM and MR to (1) establish detailed models of various plants, (2) capture spatiotemporal changes of plants across four seasons for model updating, and (3) establish a real-time data transmission method for effective project coordination and remote maintenance of various plants. The authors used the Jinhu Park project in the Xiong’an New District of China as a case study to validate the proposed method. Results show that the proposed method could support the sustainable development of landscapes in real practice.

Research on the Application of Extended Reality in the Construction and Management of Landscape Engineering

“…Among the literature included in the analysis, there are three articles [16,65,66] focusing on the application of XR in the management of the operation and maintenance phase of landscape engineering. Among them, one is based on VR, one is based on AR, and one is based on MR. For example, Zhao et al [65] proposed an intelligent construction and management framework to establish detailed plant models through BIM+MR, capture the dynamic updates of plant models with seasonal variability, and establish real-time data transmission methods to effectively achieve remote project coordination and plant maintenance. Wang et al [16] applied IoT and AR to the plant management control system to reduce manpower requirements and improve the control performance of plant factories.…”

“…15 [16][17][18][19]21,39,46,51,52,54,57,61,63,64,69] MR Virtual and real seamless integration, multimode real-time interaction. 7 [20,30,44,55,56,61,65] At the conceptual level of technology, extended reality is defined as the "Five Horizontals and Two Verticals" top-level technical framework. The "Five Horizontals" encompass near-eye display, perceptual interaction, network transmission, rendering processing, and content creation-constituting the five major technological domains.…”

“…By integrating features such as spatial mapping, virtual character animation, speech recognition, and visual tracking, Ali et al [55] implemented a seamless multimodal interaction framework for intelligent virtual agents. In the realm of landscape engineering management and maintenance, Zhao et al [65] have integrated Building Information Modeling (BIM) with MR. This integration further elucidates the temporal and spatial aspects of various information expressions related to landscape plants in a mixed-reality visual interactive environment.…”

Extended reality (XR)—A magic box of digitalization in driving sustainable development of the construction industry: A critical review

“…This greatly improves communication efficiency, reduces information barriers and communication errors, and contributes to reaching long‐term sustainability goals. Focusing on supporting the sustainable development of the landscape, Zhao et al (2022) propose a BIM and MR‐based framework for the creation of plant time‐varying models, visual maintenance of field plants, multiparty collaborative communication, and information tracking to achieve intelligent construction and management during the tedious planting and management processes of landscapes. Banfi et al (2022) developed a mobile app called HOMEeBIM and an XR web platform for real‐time thermal condition assessment in buildings.…”

Extended Reality (XR) for Condition Assessment of Civil Engineering Structures: A Literature Review

“…There are various use cases of VR, AR, and MR in the AEC industry and they are shown in Figure 8 . Generally, the use cases of VR, AR, and MR in the AEC industry can be classified as follows: heritage preservation [ 68 , 69 , 70 ]; design, analysis, and modeling [ 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ]; training and education [ 43 , 75 , 76 , 77 ]; construction activities [ 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 ]; others (e.g., building energy efficiency, emergency and disaster management) [ 60 , 83 , 84 , 85 ]; and structural condition assessment (studies are presented in the following subsections). Some use cases have more defined boundaries as they [ 43 , 75 , 76 , 77 ] do not cross into other use cases such as training and education.…”