Asset information management using linked data for the life-cycle of roads

From September 2016 to August 2018 a CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads) research has been conducted by the consortium INTERLINK into asset information management for European Roads life-cycle management using Linked Data. This research aims to improve interoperability between the European National Road Authorities (NRAs) and their stakeholders, mainly to explore the procurement of road asset information by NRAs for better operations, asset management and project management, to investigate suitable data structures for asset information, including BIM and GIS, to develop common principles for a European Road object type library (OTL) and to design and test a basic European Road OTL connected to open BIM/GIS standards. The CEDR INTERLINK project will design a managed European Road OTL as the basis of a common language to be used for developing high quality national Road OTLs for exchanging and sharing road asset data. This European Road OTL is supported by three pillars to optimize the success of subsequent implementation: 1. a quality open available standardized Technical Specification, 2. a suitable and sustainable Standardization Body, with a plan for development beyond this project and 3. acceptance in practice by the industry through engagement and dissemination. First the business and data needs have been investigated by INTERLINK through a literature review, interviews with stakeholders (NRAs, contractors, consultants, suppliers, academics, software developers and standardization initiatives in Europe) and an industry survey, which resulted in a approach for the European Road OTL. The common principles, based on the requirements, describe a hybrid solution, with semantically-rich data referencing more traditional document-based information, combining the strengths of currently applied BIM/GIS standards with Linked Data / Semantic Web technology. The proof-of-concept European Road OTL is tested via three trial cases, which demonstrated data transfers representing typical processes during assets’ life-cycles in three European countries: Germany, Sweden and The Netherlands. A road map is delivered for development and implementation of the Road OTL from document based to object based road information management based on the European Road OTL open standard using Linked Data. © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London.