Scanning and data capturing for BIM-supported resources assessment: a case study

Buildings are the largest consumer of raw materials and simultaneously are responsible for 40% of the global energy consumption as well as for about 30% of global CO2 emissions. In order to reach sustainability goals such as reduction of the use of primary resources, it is of utmost importance to reuse or recycle the existing stocks – a strategy labelled as “Urban Mining”. The fact that the new construction rate is only 3%, underlines the importance of Urban Mining. However, there is lack of knowledge about the exact material composition and geometry of the existing stock, which represents the main obstacle for Urban Mining and accordingly for reaching high recycling rates. In this paper the Integrated Data Assessment and Modelling (IDAM) method based on digital scanning and modelling technologies for capturing of the geometry and material composition data is proposed for enabling a generation of as built Building Information Modelling (BIM)-models from acquired point clouds and non-geometric data. The main aim of this research is to explore the potential of the IDAM method for the generation of a BIM-model, which serves as basis for BIM-based Material Passports (MP), as major element enabling Circular Economy (CE) and Urban Mining strategies as well as the creation of a digital secondary raw materials cadastre. In order to deliver a proof of concept for IDAM, a real use case will be assessed in terms of geometry and material composition, and possibilities of data capturing via laser scanning and ground penetrating radar (GPR) for follow-up generation of a BIM-based MP explored. For capturing the geometry, laser scanning, and for capturing the material composition, GPR is used. The use of GPR for the generation of a BIM-model, which incorporates material information, addresses a research gap – the capturing and modelling of geometry is already well explored, however the methods and tools for capturing and modelling of the material composition of buildings are largely lacking. Result show, that the coupled use of capturing technologies has great potential to serve as basis for a BIM-based MP. Moreover, the use of GPR, enables a determination of embedded materials within a building, but is confronted with various difficulties. As a result, a framework, which can serve as groundwork for follow-up research, is presented.