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Article

Digitalisation and Building Information Modelling Integration of Basement Construction Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry in Urban Singapore

1
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
2
Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119076, Singapore
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Buildings 2025, 15(7), 1023; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071023
Submission received: 22 February 2025 / Revised: 15 March 2025 / Accepted: 20 March 2025 / Published: 23 March 2025
(This article belongs to the Section Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization)

Abstract

With advancement in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry, productivity in construction management can now be achieved with accuracy and is less labour-intensive. In the basement construction of buildings, prudent earthwork activities are often necessary, setting the basis of the building footprint. As such, monitoring earthwork volume estimation becomes important to avoid over- or under-cutting the earth. Conventional methods by means of land surveying are time-consuming, labour-intensive, and susceptible to varying degrees of accuracy. Moreover, earthwork sites often have multiple activities ongoing that increase the complexity of volume estimation through land surveying. This study explores the use of UAV photogrammetry to estimate earthwork excavation volume in a complex urban earthwork site in Singapore over time and discusses the feasibility, challenges and productivity enhancements of integrating the technology into the construction process. In this study, the earthwork site and controlled trials show that the models reconstructed with UAV photogrammetry data can produce volume measurements that fulfil the stakeholder’s accuracy tolerance of 5% between the estimated and actual volume. The filtering of unwanted objects in the model, such as columns, cranes and trucks, was successful but was insufficient for objects that occluded large areas of the soil surface. The integration of UAV photogrammetry with a highly automated acquisition and processing workflow for earthwork monitoring brings about productivity enhancements in time and labour efforts and improves the efficiency and consistency of models. Furthermore, the digitalisation of earthwork sites into point clouds and three-dimensional (3D) models increases data visualisation and accessibility, facilitates project team collaboration, and enables cross-platform compatibility into Building Information Modelling (BIM), which can significantly aid in reporting and decision-making processes.
Keywords: UAV; photogrammetry; 3D model; volume; earthwork excavation; productivity; BIM UAV; photogrammetry; 3D model; volume; earthwork excavation; productivity; BIM

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Chian, S.C.; Yang, J.; Wong, S.; Yeoh, K.-W.; Sarman, A.T.B. Digitalisation and Building Information Modelling Integration of Basement Construction Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry in Urban Singapore. Buildings 2025, 15, 1023. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071023

AMA Style

Chian SC, Yang J, Wong S, Yeoh K-W, Sarman ATB. Digitalisation and Building Information Modelling Integration of Basement Construction Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry in Urban Singapore. Buildings. 2025; 15(7):1023. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071023

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chian, Siau Chen, Jieyu Yang, Suyi Wong, Ker-Wei Yeoh, and Ahmad Tashrif Bin Sarman. 2025. "Digitalisation and Building Information Modelling Integration of Basement Construction Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry in Urban Singapore" Buildings 15, no. 7: 1023. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071023

APA Style

Chian, S. C., Yang, J., Wong, S., Yeoh, K.-W., & Sarman, A. T. B. (2025). Digitalisation and Building Information Modelling Integration of Basement Construction Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry in Urban Singapore. Buildings, 15(7), 1023. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071023

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