General points
Geospatial data plays an important role in urban planning and construction activities, including developing plans, obtaining building permits, real estate activities, groundworks and construction, utilities, safety and security, building maintenance etc. Integration of geospatial and buildings information modelling (BIM) data is an important interoperability aspect.
Case studies
In 2019, in a report to Lantmäteriet, the National Land Survey of Sweden, estimated the potential annual economic benefit of the use of geodata in the digital urban planning and building process in Sweden to be between SEK 22.3 – 42.4 bn. The goal was to set up a national spatial data platform with detailed plans in harmonised digital formats, linked to a standardised base map with controlled property boundaries.
For public administrations dealing with planning inquiries and investigations, there were estimated cost savings for municipalities of SEK 172m, for regional authorities SEK 34m, for the courts SEK 9m and for the Swedish Transport Administration SEK 34m (total SEK 249m). These savings were derived from a Finnish study where it was estimated that 60% of the time spent on inquiries and investigations could be saved.
Estimated cost savings in working hours for municipalities providing a digital building permit service would be SEK 91 - 190 m.
For public sector property development, state and municipal surveying authorities would, with the help of national basic data and a national platform for access to geodata be able to make cost savings of up to SEK 21 – 43 m for the National Land Survey and SEK 8 – 16 m for municipal land surveys (total SEK 29 – 59 m).
Design costs for urban transformation could be reduced significantly with a common management of geographical data, creating benefits for municipalities, developers and citizens. Based on an assessment for the Kiruna development (Sweco, 2017), the time taken can be reduced by 50%. Nationally, this could result in annual construction savings of SEK 3 bn.
For groundworks and construction, larger savings were estimated. Total savings in labour costs for house construction were estimated at SEK 19 - 38 bn and for infrastructure construction at SEK 0.4 – 0.9 bn when using geographical data, BIM models and a common picture and information (total SEK 19.4 – 38.9 bn).