Barcelona City Council and the Government of Catalonia are developing a pilot project to modernise administrative processes for urban planning projects. The goal is to process licences quicker and more efficiently, partly automated to simplify procedures and optimise procedures. In this first stage the intention is to identify technical, regulatory and organisational challenges that need to be addressed to make this possible.

Based on BIM technology and artificial intelligence, this initiative is part of the Barcelona Fàcil Plan and represents a step forward in the collaboration between public administrations and technological stakeholders. It should open the path to a more efficient, transparent and interoperable data-based management model.

The project comes within the context of the creation of the CoBIMCat, launched by public administrations in Catalonia to promote, standardise and disseminate BIM technology in the construction sector and move towards a shared digital transformation for civil engineering, housing and infrastructures.

How is the project being developed?

To start with, an analysis has been made of over 500 requirements with the goal of translating them into automated rules. Over 200 documents have been revised and priority regulations have been studied in detail to define a first set of rules and construct a functional pilot project in the digital environment.

A real case was used for the pilot: the ordinary processing of a work permit corresponding to a block of housing located in C/ Gran de Sant Andreu in Barcelona. A BIM model was created for the building that integrates its geometry and the data associated with its construction elements. Using 3D visualisation, the process can highlight different elements and immediately indicate whether they comply with the established requirements or not.

This test allowed for the identification of the possibilities of the digital model and the current limitations, the maturity requisites and the quality of data, the interoperability between systems and the regulatory and organisational factors that will need to be addressed in future stages.

Validation processes will continue to be broadened in the next stages, helping towards the evolution of the technological platform and analysing its applicability in future developments.