About the Qatar-BIM project

Development of a Whole Life Cycle Information Flow Approach enabled by BIM Modeling  Protocols and  Technologies for Qatar Construction Industry

The Qatar’s construction industry is expected to spend around $100 billion on infrastructure projects in the next four years’ (Qatar Construction Summit, 2011). The need to deliver projects within time and budget whilst adhering to sustainable practices and industry regulations has never been greater than it is today. There is an enormous need for a new approach that enables the integration of stakeholders, their processes and information in an organised way. BIM tools were conceived with the overall aim of enabling co-ordinated and streamlined delivery of construction processes while covering all life phases of construction projects. However, there are still some limitations affecting the adoption and deployment of BIM in Qatar’s construction industry such as its restricted use to specific disciplines and phases of projects. These limitations are due to the fact that BIM is not only a complex and multifaceted technology but it also requires changes in organisations’ processes and interactions. Existing research has focused on interoperability issues between different BIM platforms and neglected the very real problems that most stakeholders in the construction supply chain lack knowledge of how to adapt their business processes and interact with other stakeholders within a BIM-based project. The overarching aim of this research is to develop whole lifecycle BIM protocols to enable whole lifecycle information management.

The Qatar-BIM project is funded under the Qatar National Priorities Research  Program, the flagship funding programme of the National Research Fund in Qatar.