PIM - Planning Information Modelling

PIM is a tool that will improve the client experience by helping stakeholders collaborate better on sustainable urban development projects. Smarter Planning for Smarter Cities: PIM as part of the digital work process will equip urban planners with a single platform to engage with engineers, civil and technical experts, real estate developers and politicians when sharing development plans. The urban planning process of today consists of thousands of parameters, such as traffic, energy, waste, landscaping, water, architecture and sustainability. These can be poorly documented and are rarely re-calculated when a design is changed, which can result in a sub-optimal solution or cost ineffective measures later on in the process. PIM will create a “BIM” environment for urban planners that is not only a 3D visualisation of a development, but a powerful calculator for performance indicators on the subjects of sustainability, liveability and mobility.

What does it include?

PIM will be delivered with various basic urban planning features, which will be the basis for the analysis and calculations that can be performed in the tool. The 11 functions are presented in the image below. Some features depend on the data input by the user, other parameters as per user requirements when modelling the city space, and some are based on existing parameters and principles of Swedish urban planning, such as road and street typologies, as well as movement and accessibility principles for public transport, schools and other social amenities in a neighbourhood.

The prototype of PIM will have two functional aspects, which are Buildings and Land use, and Green Area Factor. The rest will be for demonstration purposes only and will be developed further. In the Buildings and Land use aspect, the user can dimension the buildings, specify land use, calculate development capacity and number of parking spaces for the with respect to the land use. The Green Area Factor aspect calculates the model's ecosystem services produced by the green and blue environments. Using the feature, the user can design solutions for water management, noise control, create a good microclimate, benefit biodiversity, etc., which at the same time helps to maintain recreational and social values.

What is the current progress?

As part of a Swedish government-backed initiative, an Atkins team based in Stockholm is designing a prototype for the tool. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the concept of a parametric tool designed by urban planners – for urban planners.

Currently, a demo of the work-in-progress prototype has been developed to show the basic functionalities of the tool. The final prototype will be finished by April 2018.

Demo

The prototype of PIM has been developed to demonstrate the basic features of the tool. Emphasis has been put on showing how PIM can be used for modelling and partly analyse the city space in a 3D environment. In this first version, the user can place and modify buildings and roads, as well as enter the development area, in one of four selectable models. In addition to modelling the urban space, as part of the design process PIM should be able to calculate various factors in urban planning, such as water and other utilities, energy consumption, environmental values, CO2 emissions, life cycle costs etc. In the demo version, this feature is partially developed and shows examples of calculations for the model's energy use and ecosystems.

Contact us for further demonstration and use of the tool.

PIM in VR (Virtual Reality)

In addition in being a platform for collaboration and implementation of planning projects, PIM will facilitate enriched design + user experience, communication and presentation of projects through immersive technologies. As part of this, PIM will include VR compatibility. Users with VR equipment can launch PIM in their VR console and navigate around the model to perform further analysis or detect errors that where not detected on the large scale. Projects can then be presented in VR for customers for increased understanding of the proposal, scenarios and its consequences.

The PIM prototype is VR compatible with Oculus Rift, and the user can now navigate around the 3D model. The focus is on navigating and presenting the model, no changes to it can be made in VR. A vision we have for the future is that the user will be able to design, calculate, analyse and basically do everything the desktop version of PIM enables, in VR. Changes made in the desktop version will also be updated directly to the VR version.

Potential Development of PIM

If you would like to collaborate with us or contribute towards the development of PIM, please write to us on admin.PIM@atkinsglobal.com or contact

LEIF LUNDIN
Project Manager – PIM
leif.lundin@atkinsglobal.com
+46 76 628 5319

SHRUTHI GURUSWAMY
International contact – PIM
shruthi.guruswamy@atkinsglobal.com
+46 76 628 5367