3D Australia 2017 report

The inaugural 3D Australia conference was at the University of Melbourne from 24th to 27th October 2017. 3D Australia 2017 comprised the 3D Geoinfo Conference 2017, the 1st international workshop on BIM and GIS integration, and 3D Cadastre training.

The 3D Geoinfo Conference 2017 brought together 150 international researchers from academia, industry and government in the field of 3D spatial information. It provided an interdisciplinary forum in the fields of data collection, advanced modelling approaches, data analysis and visualisation.

The attendees enjoyed excellent keynote lectures on topics related to the national approach for 3D SDIs, nD systems for cities, the changing role of surveyors and spatial professions driven by 3D technologies, cultural shift to achieve smart cities and the role of standards in nD city systems.

There were 43 scientific papers submitted to the conference. After the double-blind peer review process, 16 papers were accepted and published in ISPRS Annals (Volume IV-4/W5) and eight papers in ISPRS archives (Volume XLII-4/W7) both available online as open access proceedings. The papers covered a range of topics related to 3D geospatial data including drivers of 3D data, reasoning and structuring 3D data, 3D indoor data, several applications of 3D data such as energy analysis, asset management, cadastres and much more. The papers also included some examples of how 3D data is being used by public sector agencies. There were many promising future research presented as short papers.

BIM-GIS Integration was a pre-conference workshop session of 3D GeoInfo 2017 organised by the BIM Working Group of the International Association of Geodesy. The workshop provided a platform for researchers to present and discuss their work in various aspects of BIM and GIS integration. The focus of the workshop was on the nexus of BIM and GIS to discuss the challenges of integrating BIM and GIS. There were ten papers presented during the workshop through which several challenges were identified including leadership, advocacy, collaboration inter-domain and intera-domain, best practices, funding models for BIM and GIS integration, BIM and City Models data value and IP, standards and scales, BIM to 3D GIS workflow, data models based on concepts and ontologies, cross-domain curriculum development and BIM/GIS issues in the context of current social constructs (public and private sectors). There was also a recognition of cross-domain collaboration in this space such as those between OGC, buildingSmart and ISO. The need for academic community input more into BIM and GIS standards was strongly highlighted.

The 3D Cadastre training presented the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration’s previous and current research topics related to 3D Cadastre. It also provided training on the implementation of 3D digital cadastral systems. There were 40 attendees all of which received a certificate of attendance from the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructure and Land administration, the University of Melbourne.

The attendees enjoyed the Australian hospitality including Melbourne famous coffee, international food, Aussie BBQ and Australian Aboriginal music.

The conference presentations are now available at http://3dgeoinfo2017.com.

Mohsen Kalantari and Abbas Rajabifard, University of Melbourne, Australia.