Improved cadastral data management in a BIM-GIS compliant environment by engaging stakeholders

Flood risk management in the Netherlands has a long history of large-scale prevention strategies, such as
dikes and storm surge barriers, to protect its territory from floods. However, the increasing complexity of
urban environments demands a shift to decentralized approaches that prioritize actions from individuals
and municipalities. This shift would benefit from tools capable of integrating heterogeneous datasets,
such as cadastral information, semantic city models, and BIM data, to support informed decision making.
The literature review identified that semantic city models and BIM are key technologies for representing
urban environments on different scales. However, integrating these domains remains challenging due to
differences in semantics, geometric detail, and purpose. The most widely used methods often rely on
transformations or extensions of data models, which usually lead to data loss, deformations, or limited
scalability. Therefore, there is a need for alternatives that preserve the integrity of data. Semantic web
technologies offer a promising alternative by linking datasets, which avoids most of the issues encountered
during transformations, to enable the exchange of information across multiple domains.
This research project developed a web-based modular platform to address these challenges using a
framework based on Django. Stakeholder needs were identified through semi-structured interviews and
brainstorm sessions, leading to the definition of the functional and non-functional requirements. The
platform integrated a Cesium-based 3D city viewer for urban navigation, and an IFC viewer for the
detailed inspection of building models in a web interface. Moreover, it integrated cadastral data, BIM
data, and semantic annotations of flood defense mechanisms, using a system of federated databases. As a
result, a mechanism was proposed in which property owners could upload IFC files, define FDM, and
submit them for municipal review. Municipalities could validate these submissions, which were stored as
RDFtriples in a Graph database, enabling queries across domains.
The verification confirmed that most requirements were met, leaving room for improvement mostly
for data visualization, file modification, and version control. Therefore, this research contributes to
participatory flood management by integrating stakeholder contributions, preserving semantic richness
and geometric fidelity, and establishing a scalable framework.