BIM Provides the Content, GIS Provides the Context: Using GIS to Improve BIM Georeferencing and Standards Compliance
(Print PDH from the October 2025 issue of Informed Infrastructure)
Author: Michael Davidson
Excellent GIS makes BIM more compliant—more in line with international standards—by ensuring models are correctly georeferenced, validated against open standards and consumable by every stakeholder in their preferred tools across planning, design, construction and operations.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this article, the reader should be able to:
• Understand how workflows that optimize integration between GIS and BIM platforms support project stakeholders—including engineers, project managers and field teams—in their decision-making.
• Understand how GIS georeferencing protocols ensure that BIM-based design is in line with open international standards such as those from buildingSmart International and the Open Geospatial Consortium.
• Identify key compliance challenges in BIM standardization as well as how GIS spatial analysis and real-world coordinate systems capabilities address these challenges.
• Understand how geolocated GIS platforms support efficiency gains across entire infrastructure project lifecycles, from design through asset management.