Documentation of the Urban PERIsCOPE platform and tools

The document in hand covers the documentation of the Urban PERIsCOPE platform and tools implemented in WP8. More specifically, the following are included:

a.      A complete system architecture, including the communications of the individual elements.

b.      The platform’s information architecture provides an outline of the user experience and the methods of navigating and switching between screens.

c.      The accepted by the selected viewers, BIM file formats along with the tested conversion tools.

The suggested solution is based on Clowder and ArcGIS, which provide the client side with data, covering both geospatial and statistical information, required metadata and media files. All front-end elements have been developed with ReactJS to safeguard the performance and interactivity of the platform. Users are distributed in different roles, based on Clowder’s predefined role system. Users authorized to upload and edit, have access to Clowder’s backend, to perform said operations. In terms of features and functionalities, the UP platform and tools offer:

▪ Mapping of heritage buildings using interactive maps for geoinformation viewing;

▪ Characterization of the geometric features, typologies and architectonic details of heritage buildings (metadata of classification to be handled by the BIM tools);

▪ Definition of the structural condition of heritage buildings, in terms of structural stability and thermal performance;

▪ Importing of BIM data for heritage buildings in a predefined format (e.g., IFC files), documenting and converting them to web-compatible formats using extractors;

▪ Search for relevant data in Clowder’s data repositories (e.g., Mongo DB and file storage system);

▪ Downloading of multiple (structured) datasets or single data linked to building information in standardised BIM file formats used in the market;

▪ Graphical representation and visualization of data selected through multiple filters.

The effort for the Urban PERIScOPE Platform involved the seamless integration of various software components and technologies to create a cohesive and functional system. It required coordinating the implementation of Clowder as the main content management system, along with its associated tools such as MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Traefik, RabbitMQ, and Portainer. Additionally, the integration included incorporating the ArcGIS server for mapping functionality through the React-ArcGIS library.

The front-end development using React JS and the Material-UI framework was integrated with the back-end systems. Furthermore, the incorporation of the Xeokit Toolkit for web-based BIM model visualization completed the integration effort. This process involved establishing smooth communication channels, ensuring compatibility between different components, and designing appropriate interfaces and APIs to facilitate data exchange and interoperability. The integration effort aimed to create a seamless, robust, and unified platform that delivers a comprehensive and user-

friendly experience for accessing, processing, and reusing heritage-building information.