MEST 2009: One Stop Shop Building Permitting with Mandatory Electronic Submissions

8 December 2009 Geoff Zeiss

I am at MEST 2009 in Bahrain where I had the opportunity to speak about the New Interoperability Challenge: The Convergence of BIM, CAD, GIS, and 3D and some related topics.

I listened to a fascinating presentation by Venkatesa Kumar about the Municipal One Stop Shop for building permitting that the Information System Directorate of the Ministry Of Municipalities & Agriculture Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain has implemented. I have blogged previously about Singapore’s world leading building permitting syBahrainMinistryOfMunicipalitiesstem, and so was very interested to find that Bahrain’s permitting system not only has similar  objectives

  • Improve the accuracy of submissions
  • Automate the permit application review process
  • Map urban development projects and applications

but also that electronic submissions are mandatory in Bahrain, as they are in Singapore.  The government offices that review building permit applications include Electricity, Water, Civil Defense, Roads and Highways, Sewerage, and others.  Singapore has been a strong supporter of building information modeling (BIM) and supports architectural and structural BIM submissions (MEP BIM is coming soon I’ve been told), in addition to 2D electronic drawing submissions (DWG, DWF, DGN, DXF, and PDF).  In Bahrain currently only 2D electronic drawing (DWG, DWF) submissions are supported, though I sensed real interest in BIM at MEST 2009.  According to Mr. Kumar, the electronic building permitting system in Bahrain has already managed to reduce the average time required to grant a provisional building permit from six months to one week, which represents a tremendous achievement.

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial software industry and 15 years experience developing enterprise geospatial solutions for the utilities, communications, and public works industries. His particular interests include the convergence of BIM, CAD, geospatial, and 3D. In recognition of his efforts to evangelize geospatial in vertical industries such as utilities and construction, Geoff received the Geospatial Ambassador Award at Geospatial World Forum 2014. Currently Geoff is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. From 2001 to 2012 Geoff was Director of Utility Industry Program at Autodesk Inc, where he was responsible for thought leadership for the utility industry program. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Enterprise Software Development at Autodesk. He received one of ten annual global technology awards in 2004 from Oracle Corporation for technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle. Prior to Autodesk Geoff was Director of Product Development at VISION* Solutions. VISION* Solutions is credited with pioneering relational spatial data management, CAD/GIS integration, and long transactions (data versioning) in the utility, communications, and public works industries. Geoff is a frequent speaker at geospatial and utility events around the world including Geospatial World Forum, Where 2.0, MundoGeo Connect (Brazil), Middle East Spatial Geospatial Forum, India Geospatial Forum, Location Intelligence, Asia Geospatial Forum, and GITA events in US, Japan and Australia. Geoff received Speaker Excellence Awards at GITA 2007-2009.

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