Towards the establishment of a District Information Modeling

The subject of energy efficient districts is one of the greatest and most challenging of research priorities in the European Union (EU). In order to achieve an effective impact, instead of just concentrating on the improvement in terms of energy efficiency to one particular building, this approach requires challenges to be solved at the neighborhood level. A new concept, named District Information Modeling (DIM) is introduced which relies upon the integration between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with real-time data, trying to create a prototype of a tool that simplifies the visualization and management of data and the analysis of energy consumption in a Smart City district. This study is part of two ongoing Smart City research studies, an EU VII Framework Program project named District Information Modeling and Management for Energy Reduction (DIMMER) and a national cluster project named Zero Energy Buildings in Smart Urban Districts (EEB). The development of a DIM model is needed in order to optimize energy efficiency, monitoring the whole energy consumption and production process through ICT. The result will be an open platform for real-time data processing and visualization at the district level that exploits the information about buildings, the energy distribution grid, and user behavior.