A Semantic Web Service Approach to Construction Cost Estimating

Cost estimating is a vital activity for contractors. Cost estimates require cost information collected from several sources. These sources include material and equipment suppliers. Current estimating software programs maintain a large database of resource cost data which must be updated before starting new estimates. The process of updating such databases is both time-consuming and error prone. This paper discusses the architecture of a new approach to construction cost estimating using the semantic web technology. The semantic web technology structures data according to formal ontologies intended to promote machine understanding. Semantic web services provide interfaces for publishing information. The proposed estimating approach requires that suppliers encapsulate their product information within appropriate interfaces and make this information available to contractors through web services. Estimating software applications can retrieve the latest cost data from suppliers' web services. The paper discusses how ontologies can be used to publish product information and develop ontology-based estimating applications.