Table of Contents
Overview
This blueprint is based on the need to manage multiple types of information about buildings pre- and post-event. This blueprint is based largely on Gavin Treadgold's experiences with post-earthquake building damage assessment following the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence that started on 4 September 2010, and included the 22 February 2011 aftershock that killed 185 people, as well as the June 13 2011 aftershock that caused considerable more damage to the built environment.
Concept
The broad concept of the Building Information System is to provide an overview page for each building. The page will contain a header with key information about the building e.g. name, current status, type of construction, number of floors, type of occupany, primary contact, a small embedded map, and a small embedded photo to set the context.
The rest of the page would be similar to a blog, or social media wall, whereby there a log entries with the newest at the top. These log entries can conceivably be quite diverse forms of information. Early on in response, it may be as simple as adding a note e.g. media reports that a building has partially collapsed, later followed by photos, and eventually by various and multiple forms of building assessment. Each building would require various forms of media to be uploaded ranging from photos (some geotagged) to documents (e.g. scanned pdfs of survey forms, and engineering firm technical reports).
The concept is meant to be fairly similar to Facebook, but the focus is on buildings - effectively creating a wall or page for each building, and allowing all the relevant people and organisations to follow that particular building.
Linked Information
As mentioned, there are a wide variety of information that will be added and linked to a building's record over time.
- Notes - e.g. phone or news reports recorded as a simple text note.
- Photos - from publicly submitted photos soon after the event to potentially hundreds as first rescue teams, and later engineers and building inspectors visit.
- Documents - such as plans converted to pdf, or reports, or correspondence in a word processing format.
- Assessments - a building will potentially undergo a number of assessments over time (e.g. in Christchurch many buildings had to be reassessed after every m5.0 eathquake which meant 20+ assessments). This will include different types of assessments - some of which will be implemented as assessments in Eden.
- Status Changes - some of the key information, such as the building state, needs every state change to be recorded. E.g. when a building was marked as 'yellow/restricted access', and when this was later changed to 'red/no access', or 'green/no restriction on access'. These state changes, that are usually triggered by an assessment, need to be recorded.
It isn't the responsibility for the BIS module to provide all the tools, but rather to integrate and produce an overview from information contained in other Eden applications. Assessment, for example, will be links to the actual assessments in the Assessment application
Users
The primary user will be the local authority that has the regulatory authority to manage the built environment e.g. a local council. Secondary users will include, but not be limited to the building owner, the building manager, the tenants, and the insurers. All of these users will potentially need access to multiple buildings in the system. If the BIS is publicly deployed, then many of these individuals and organisations will need the ability to self-register, and start linking themselves to buildings in the database e.g. an engineering firm may register, and then identify all the buildings that they are acting as the engineer for. It would be the building owners responsibility to approve their request to be 'added' to the building.
It should be possible for some information to be publicly accessible, as some information such as photos and status may be used to communicate building information to the public.
Project Management
Introduction
This section of the module will primarily focus on the Bobby Chain Tech Building. The Bobby Chain Tech Building is located at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The goal for this section is to provide information about the building in the likelihood that the area is under a state of a natural disaster (such as a hurricane or a flood). The building is to be used to provide shelter for those in immediate danger and before the event of a natural disaster, we are to inform as many people as possible through multiple means of media (such as Twitter, Facebook, Eagle Alert, etc.).
Description
- The mock-up website is used to provide information to those who are unfamiliar with the Bobby Chain Tech Building
- Along with information, a floor-plan is used to provide details of available rooming inside said building
- The mock-up website is used to provide alerts about the outside condition in the likelihood a disaster should happen
- In the occurrence that the Bobby Chain Tech Building is not sufficient enough for rooming, the website would provide any other locations better suited for shelter.
- The University of Southern Mississippi provides a service that alerts students of any potential threats in the immediate area. For non-students, a Twitter page along with a Facebook page will be provided for alerts.
Requirements
- Users can use the website to obtain information regarding the Bobby Chain Tech Building
- As an added reference, a link is included to provide information about the Canterbury Building
- A survey is to be included on the website for users to provide feedback
Use-Cases
| Actor | Use-case | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BIS alert manager | Provide alerts | The BIS alert manager will provide information on the website regarding any immediate disasters that could and will happen in the current area |
| BIS content manager | Provides website content | BIS content manager has the role in which they will continually provide information regarding different topics such as the current situation of Bobby Chain Tech Building, its history. |
Design
- This mindmap is used to devise ideas for the current project.
- This image provides a floor plan of all available floors of the Bobby Chain Tech Building.
- This is the page to the planned website. Additionally, there is a survey on the website for users to take. You can visit the site by clicking here.
- For those without the use of Eagle Alert, a Facebook page is created for those who need a quick update on anything disaster-related, directions, advice, etc.
- Alternatively, for those with Twitter, an account is there where followers can receive updates.
Timetable and Gantt Chart
- A Gantt chart depicting the process of developing the current project.
