#1 ePlanning and eApprovals – Scoping Study

Planning and building approval processes are still largely paper (PDF) based, which make them inefficient and time-consuming, imposing significant costs on both industry and government. Industry is effectively unable to test plan compliance against planning controls and building regulations, track progress of their applications, and efficiently track compliance through construction. The long-term objective of the Building 4.0 CRC in this area is to embrace the opportunities that digital workflow and digital twin technology provide to design, develop and deliver an innovative digital platform to facilitate effective, efficient and timely planning, building permits, approvals, ongoing compliance with planning controls, building regulations and other regulatory requirements.

In this project, a roadmap was developed for the phased design and implementation of an innovative digital platform to facilitate effective, efficient, and timely planning and building permits and approvals, thereby removing unnecessary delays and costs that impose substantial constraints on the building and construction sector. This objective must be viewed in the context of what industry perceives to be a broader problem, and the projects longer-term objective that extends beyond the planning and building permit process to the whole of the building lifecycle.

Researchers on this project included: Dr Davood Shojaei, Dr Soheil Sabri, Dr Eric Windholz, Dr Alexa Gower, Prof Tuan Ngo, Prof Abbas Rajabifard, Prof Colin Duffield, A/Prof Yee-Fui Ng, Dr Neda Malekzadeh, Dr Nilupa Herath, Ms Jihye Shin, Ms Susan Wright, Mr James Moutsias, Ms Cassandra Tremblay, Ms Vania Djunaidi & Ms Nellie Sheedy-Reinhard