Quality data for strategic infrastructure decisions in Ireland

Abstract

There is a need for change in Ireland’s current decision-making process for infrastructure planning and investment, moving away from the historic silo-type mentality, where each project is evaluated in isolation. This paper proposes the development of a ‘systems of systems’ (SoS) methodology for Ireland’s national infrastructure planning and delivery, using dynamic modelling. Building information modelling offers the methodologies and technologies to develop the required digital asset database to best inform life cycle decisions associated with conception, design, construction and operation of physical infrastructure assets. By developing the appropriate digital asset database, the demand for new infrastructure can itself be tested, in an SoS methodology, under various policy scenarios, to provide evidence for investment decisions. Ireland has a poor level of national asset registers and data sets, the building blocks for infrastructure network models. This paper evaluates the availability of the data sets necessary to develop such a methodology.