Outcomes

These are comprehensive reports and documents that detail the progress and findings of the ACCORD project. They serve as official records of the project’s achievements and are often made available to the public to ensure transparency. Deliverables include public progress reports that outline the milestones reached, challenges encountered, and strategies employed to overcome obstacles. These reports provide stakeholders with a clear understanding of the project’s development and its impact on the field

• Landscape Review Report

The “Landscape Review Report” of the ACCORD project, funded by the European Union, provides a comprehensive review of current permitting and compliance processes in the built environment, aiming to digitize them using BIM and other data sources.

This project aims to improve productivity and quality in building design and construction, supporting carbon-neutral building designs and promoting sustainability in line with the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus initiative. The report reviews the adoption of digital building permits in academic projects and software tools and conducts a Europe-wide survey to understand stakeholders’ attitudes towards this digitalization.

Additionally, it identifies the current laws, regulations, and guidelines driving building permits in EU member states and models the current permitting and compliance processes in demonstration countries such as Finland, Estonia, Germany, the UK, and Spain. Key findings include a solid understanding of the field’s current state, applicable standards, and national permitting processes, providing a strong foundation for developing the ACCORD framework. This framework has the potential to achieve real change and advance the digitization of permitting and compliance processes, ensuring consistency, interoperability, and reliability with national regulatory frameworks.

• ACCORD Framework and User Requirements Specification

The document aims to develop and formally document the ACCORD semantic framework and the user requirements specification, supported by digitalization scenarios that will be further developed in work package 3. The ACCORD framework is based on semantics, and its requirements specification is supported by modeling activities, including UML use case and sequence diagrams.

Additionally, a specification of the project’s demonstration deployments will be included, identifying any specific requirements of the demonstration. The identification of relevant standards for storing, processing, analyzing, and retrieving administrative and regulatory information related to construction, renovation, and demolition is part of the project, validated by the project’s advisory board.

• Technical Report: Existing Models

The document focuses on the technical review of existing standards. The main objective of the ACCORD project is to digitize the permitting and compliance procedures in construction, using a semantic approach that eliminates the need for costly and difficult-to-maintain centralized systems. This document reviews existing ontologies, standards, and data models in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) domain to verify how they can be reused for automatic compliance checking. Specifically, it evaluates ontologies related to the AEC domain, reviews query and rule languages, and compares existing reasoners. The results will serve as a reference for other tasks in the project, helping to develop the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Compliance Checking and Permitting Ontology (AEC3PO) and facilitating the implementation of a sustainable and efficient built environment.

• BCO Ontology and Rules Format

The report describes the methodology for digitizing and formalizing regulations, the development of an ontology for compliance checking and permitting in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC3PO), and the creation of a domain-specific language to express rules. It also includes the evaluation of the methodology and the documented artifacts through test cases, and the creation of an ACCORD dictionary of terms from regulations of demonstration cases. The AEC3PO ontology, which is integrated into the project’s semantic framework, is designed to facilitate communication and collaboration among experts, stakeholders, and regulatory bodies in the AEC industry, and its development is based on agile and continuous integration methodologies for modular ontologies.

• Rules Toolset

The document is about the ACCORD project, which aims to improve construction permit processes by using digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI). It describes a tool that helps convert building rules into a format that computers can understand. This tool uses special language processing techniques and works with a specific type of data model. The document explains how the tool was designed, how it works, and the results of testing it.

• ACCORD Semantics Documentation

Expected in May 2025

• Transformation Pathways Report

Expected in May 2025

• Information Reliability Measures Paper

The document discusses the ACCORD project, which focuses on improving the reliability of information used in automated building permit checks. It emphasizes the importance of reliable data in Building Information Modelling (BIM) to ensure accurate permit checks. The paper explores solutions like voxelization and connectivity graphs to enhance data reliability and recommends a combination of technology, precise modelling, and human oversight to achieve trustworthy results in automated permit-checking processes. The findings were shared at a conference in Marrakesh in October 2024.

• Information Guidelines and Education Package

Expected in May 2025

• Technical Requirements Elicitation, Analysis and Cloud Architecture Model

The document presents the specification of technical requirements and the documentation of the ACCORD cloud architecture, identifying the responsible components and the necessary APIs. The components of the cloud architecture include rule formalization, data dictionary repositories, cloud-based services for building permits, microservices for model and data requirements validation, process execution, data storage, and compliance checking microservices, among others. Each component is described in detail, including its structure, behavior, technologies used, and an implementation plan. Finally, the relationship between the architectural components is formalized, documenting the elements to be used in each pilot.

• • ACCORD Building Compliance Checking Components, Microservices and APIs

This deliverable starts by re-capping the ACCORD cloud architecture model, covering any needed changes that have been made in the process of software development. The document then covers the development of the three main elements of the ACCORD cloud architecture; (1) Core Components, (2) Microservices and information services and (3) The APIs (Application Programming Interface) that integrate these elements.
In total, the ACCORD project has developed 9 core components, produced 3 API specifications, and integrated 8 demo-specific microservices.

• Quality Assurance and Validation Report

Expected in May 2025

• ACCORD Solutions Documentation

Expected in May 2025

• Best Practices of Modern Digital Building Permitting Processes in Europe

Expected in May 2025

• Dissemination, Exploitation, Standardization, Integration and Communication Plan

Expected in May 2025

• Dissemination, Exploitation, Standardization, Integration and Communication Report

Expected in May 2025

• Training and Up-Skilling Report

Expected in May 2025

These publications appear in reputable academic journals and present the research findings generated during the ACCORD project. Each article undergoes a rigorous peer-review process, where other experts in the field evaluate the methodology, data, and conclusions. This process ensures the quality and credibility of the research. Scientific articles are crucial for disseminating new knowledge, as they allow other scientists and experts to build upon the project’s findings, fostering further innovation and discovery.

Beyond scientific articles, the ACCORD project produces a variety of additional studies that delve deeper into specific topics. These may include technical reports, which provide detailed analysis and technical insights into particular aspects of the project. Books and book chapters are also part of this output, offering comprehensive coverage of broader themes and more extensive exploration of related subjects. These studies are valuable resources for academics, researchers, and practitioners seeking in-depth information and understanding of the project’s contributions.

Throughout the ACCORD project, various software solutions are developed to address specific needs and challenges identified during the research. These software developments are designed to be open source, making them accessible to a wide audience. Open-source software can be freely used, modified, and distributed, encouraging collaboration and continuous improvement by the community. These software solutions are practical tools that can be implemented in both industry and research settings to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and improve overall efficiency.

Github with ACCORD repositories https://github.com/Accord-Project

Zenodo