Challenges of digitising the infrastructure sector

From BIM to smart cities, the capturing and use of ‘big data’ across the construction industry has been receiving massive media coverage.

The civil infrastructure sector has the daunting challenge of maintaining and modernising the systems on which we depend to respond to increasing demand. In recent years there has been an increasing demand for new processes and procedures to capture, store and interrogate better data on infrastructure asset performance and the wider system in which it sits. There remains a gap to be filled focusing on digitising the civil infrastructure sector.

One of the challenges facing the infrastructure sector is how to give data meaning, how to prioritise and analyse vast amounts of data and how this can be applied to both the construction phase and the management of infrastructure assets, networks and systems.

Bringing together industry experts; CIRIA will be hosting ‘Smart Construction & intelligent infrastructure’ on Thursday 13 March, an evening panel discussion focusing on the challenges of maintaining and modernising infrastructure systems through intelligent interventions, innovative solutions and improved asset data management within industry.

Chaired by Professor John Beckford, independent consultant, visiting professor UCL & Loughborough University, the seminar will explore the challenges of capturing, storing, managing and exploiting construction data with speakers from RSSB, Crossrail, BIM Task Group, SelexES and SEAMS.

Case studies from SelexES, SEAMS and Crossrail will showcase examples of smart construction in practice. These projects illustrate the development and deployment of new technologies, heralding a new dawn in construction, delivery and management of infrastructure.

The topics raised on the evening will form the basis of a series of briefings and further events including:

Innovators of tomorrow’s infrastructure, 19 June 2014

A seminar and exhibition showcasing innovation adopted throughout the supply chain.

Research to practice – harnessing the UK construction industry to deliver next generation infrastructure, 18 September 2014

Symposium with industry leading practitioners and academics involved in cutting-edge civil infrastructure research.

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