Future Internet 2016, 8(3), 39; doi:10.3390/fi8030039
Ontology-Based Representation and Reasoning in Building Construction Cost Estimation in China
Department of Construction Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Tamer E. El-Diraby and Jinyue Zhang
Received: 17 February 2016 / Revised: 21 June 2016 / Accepted: 18 July 2016 / Published: 3 August 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Semantic Computing and Knowledge Building)
Abstract
Cost estimation is one of the most critical tasks for building construction project management. The existing building construction cost estimation methods of many countries, including China, require information from several sources, including material, labor, and equipment, and tend to be manual, time-consuming, and error-prone. To solve these problems, a building construction cost estimation model based on ontology representation and reasoning is established, which includes three major components, i.e., concept model ontology, work item ontology, and construction condition ontology. Using this model, the cost estimation information is modeled into OWL axioms and SWRL rules that leverage the semantically rich ontology representation to reason about cost estimation. Based on OWL axioms and SWRL rules, the cost estimation information can be translated into a set of concept models, work items, and construction conditions associated with the specific construction conditions. The proposed method is demonstrated in Protégé 3.4.8 through case studies based on the Measurement Specifications of Building Construction and Decoration Engineering taken from GB 50500-2013 (the Chinese national mandatory specifications). Finally, this research discusses the limitations of the proposed method and future research directions. The proposed method can help a building construction cost estimator extract information more easily and quickly. View Full-TextKeywords:
ontology; cost estimation; semantic relationships; reasoning; specification for cost estimation
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Scifeed alert for new publications
Never miss any articles matching your research from any publisher- Get alerts for new papers matching your research
- Find out the new papers from selected authors
- Updated daily for 49'000+ journals and 6000+ publishers
- Define your Scifeed now
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
Liu, X.; Li, Z.; Jiang, S. Ontology-Based Representation and Reasoning in Building Construction Cost Estimation in China. Future Internet 2016, 8, 39.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Future Internet
EISSN 1999-5903
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert