BIM as a Mitigation Tool for COVID-19 Management on a University Campus
Publication: Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many academic institutions have been facing the challenge of how to maintain face-to-face instruction while also reducing the chance of an outbreak within the student population. One potential solution that has proven to be efficient is wastewater surveillance of student residence halls. In a case study, BIM models of 18 residence halls on a university campus were developed, each of which included parametric components such as building envelopes and plumbing fixtures. These models also included the locations of COVID-19 wastewater autosamplers. A Dynamo visual programming script was developed to highlight a vertical riser once the connected autosampler showed the existence of the coronavirus. Supplementary 2D floor plans and 3D isometric views can also be generated to help the institute’s pandemic management team make informed COVID-19 management decisions. In the absence of someone who is knowledgeable in plumbing, this novel application of the BIM technology can significantly improve visual comprehension of the extent of COVID-19 spread within a facility and assist the management team in decision-making processes under tight time constraints.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.
REFERENCES
Rodríguez-Amigo, A., Fernández-Alvarado, J. F., and Fernández-Rodríguez, S. Case of study on a sustainability building: Environmental risk assessment related with allergenicity from air quality considering meteorological and urban green infrastructure data on BIM, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 838, Part 1, 2022, 155910, ISSN 0048-9697.
Betancourt, W. Q., et al. (2021). COVID-19 containment on a college campus via wastewater-based epidemiology, targeted clinical testing and an intervention. The Science of the Total Environment, 779 (146408), pp. 1–8.
Cascante, I. L., Aranburu, M. S., Martín, F. M., and Zubizarreta, J. G. (2021). BIM Application for Sustainable Teaching Environment and Solutions in the Context of COVID-19. Sustainability, 13, 4746.
Delval, T., Sauvage, C., Jullien, Q., Viano, R., Diallo, T., Collignan, B., and Picinbono, G. (2021). A BIM-Based Approach to Assess COVID-19 Risk Management Regarding Indoor Air Ventilation and Pedestrian Dynamics. Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Wetzel, E. M., and Thabet, W. Y. The use of a BIM-based framework to support safe facility management processes, Automation in Construction, Volume 60, 2015, Pages 12–24, ISSN 0926-5805.
Gibas, C., et al. (2021, August 15). Implementing building-level SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance on a university campus. Science of the Total Environment, 782 (146749).
Gosnell, E. Wastewater Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 on American University Campuses: A Comparison of Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic. (2022). Senior Theses. 504. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/senior_theses/504 (accessed March 27, 2023).
Harris-Lovett, S., et al. (2021). Wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 on college campuses: Initial efforts, lessons learned and research needs.
Karthikeyan, S., Levy, J. I., and De Hoff, P. Wastewater sequencing reveals early cryptic SARS-CoV variant transmission. Nature 609, 101–108 (2022).
Kazado, D., Kavgic, M., and Eskicioglu, R. (2019). Integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) and sensor technology for Facility Management. Journal of Information Technology in Construction (ITcon), Vol. 24, pg. 440–458.
Kumar, M., Joshi, M., Patel, A., and Joshi, C. Unravelling the early warning capability of wastewater surveillance for COVID-19: A temporal study on SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection and need for the escalation, Environmental Research, Volume 196, 2021, 110946, ISSN 0013-9351.
Li, M., Yu, H., and Liu, P. An automated safety risk recognition mechanism for underground construction at the pre-construction stage based on BIM, Automation in Construction, Volume 91, 2018, Pages 284–292, ISSN 0926-5805.
Ma, P., and Chan, I. Y. (2022). The changing role of BIM-facilitated facilities management in the post-COVID era: A systematic literature review. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 1101.
Malekitabar, H., Ardeshir, A., Sebt, M., and Stouffs, R. Construction safety risk drivers: A BIM approach, Safety Science, Volume 82, 2016, Pages 445–455, ISSN 0925-7535.
Matheri, A. N., Belaid, M., and Njenga, C. K. Water and wastewater digital surveillance for monitoring and early detection of the COVID-19 hotspot: industry 4.0. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 20, 1095–1112 (2023).
Pavón, R. M., Arcos Álvarez, A. A., and Alberti, M. G. (2020). Possibilities of BIM-FM for the Management of COVID in Public Buildings. Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 9974.
Sellers, S. C., Gosnell, E. A., Bryant, D., Belmonte, S., Self, S., McCarter, M. S. J., Kennedy, K., and Norman, S. (2022). Building-level wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and targeted clinical testing in a university setting. Environ Res. 2022 Dec;215(Pt 1):114277.
Sadeghi, M., Elliott, J., and Mehany, M. Automatic Verification of Facilities Management Handover Building Information Models, Construction Research Congress 2020 : Computer Applications. 2020.
Tang, Y., Xia, N., Lu, Y., Varga, L., Li, Q., Chen, G., and Luo, J. BIM-based safety design for emergency evacuation of metro stations, Automation in Construction, Volume 123, 2021, 103511, ISSN 0926-5805.
Thabet, W., and Lucas, J. (2022). Linking life cycle BIM data to a facility management system using Revit Dynamo. Organization, Technology and Management in Construction: an International Journal. 14. 2539–2558. https://doi.org/10.2478/otmcj-2022-0001.
Vo, V., et al. Use of wastewater surveillance for early detection of Alpha and Epsilon SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and estimation of overall COVID-19 infection burden, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 835, 2022, 155410, ISSN 0048-9697.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Published online: Jan 25, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Architectural engineering
- Building systems
- Business management
- Case studies
- Colleges and universities
- Education
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Epidemic and pandemic
- Methodology (by type)
- Mitigation and remediation
- Personnel management
- Plumbing
- Practice and Profession
- Public administration
- Public health and safety
- Research methods (by type)
- Students
- Wastewater management
- Water treatment
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.