Building Information Modeling

5Complex Systems Modeling Approaches

Ana ROXIN¹ and Christophe CASTAING^2,3,4

¹Laboratoire d’Informatique de Bourgogne, Université Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

²buildingSMART International, Paris, France

³Groupe Egis, Paris, France

⁴Projet MINnD, Paris, France

5.1. Introduction

In this chapter, we present two main approaches for modeling complex systems, namely approaches based on data models and knowledge models. For each approach type, we summarize their history underlying modeling principles and the international standards that use them. However, before going into detail and to better understand the differences between these approaches, we start with a brief overview of the reference framework for data governance, for example, the ISO 8000 series of standards. Published by ISO/TC 184/SC 4, this series deals with data quality principles and specifies characteristics for assessing the quality (or degree of compliance) of an organization’s data. Data quality is a determining factor for the quality of information and, consequently, the accuracy and reliability of the knowledge that can be deduced from this information. Indeed, information is data that is placed in a context, and knowledge is information coupled with experience or know-how. According to ISO 8000-1 (ISO/DIS 8000-1 2011), data have the attributes of provenance, accuracy and completeness. They follow a formal syntax and use concepts defined in dictionaries.

Figure 5.1. Data structuring approaches according ...