Digital Transformation of Building Permitting

This book represents an initiative to amalgamate research findings from a diverse array of international perspectives on building permits, addressing their innovation and digital evolution. With a comprehensive approach, the publication endeavours to encapsulate global scientific advancements, practices, and takeaways within the realm of digital building permit systems. Ranging through a diverse set of disciplines, related to the different systems and aspects of digital building permitting, it provides stakeholders and researchers with a comprehensive overview, which should be grasped as a whole to allow for real progress in digitalisation of building permit procedures.

Central to the book's narrative is the theme of the digital transformation reshaping building permit systems globally. By undertaking an in-depth exploration and examination of best practices, it seeks to furnish readers with a nuanced understanding of the opportunities and challenges inherent in this digital transformation. In consolidating a wealth of knowledge, including best practices and case studies from multiple countries, the book aims to demystify the complex domain of building permit systems. It serves as a comprehensive guide, starting from bothersome tasks, such as breaking down intricate regulations and technicalities into digestible information, thereby facilitating greater accessibility and understanding.

This book significantly contributes to understanding digital building permits from a global perspective. Advancements, projects, and experiences are considered globally to provide the reader with an overview of opportunities and relevant methods to approach building permit digitalisation and innovation (regulations, process, organisational adjustments, legal aspects, 3D data, and software architectures, among others). The book is essential reading for researchers and professionals with interests in different sectors encompassing the built environment.

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Ing. Judith Fauth is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany at the Chair of Computing in Civil and Building Engineering in April 2025. Before she joined her current position, she was Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoc Fellow at the University of Cambridge (UK), Postdoctoral Researcher at Technische Universität Wien in Vienna (Austria) and researcher in the research project iECO at RIB Software GmbH in Germany. Judith completed several research stays abroad in the USA (University of Southern California), Italy (Fraunhofer Italia), New Zealand (University of Auckland) and Israel (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology). She obtained her Doctorate in Engineering from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Germany) from the Department of Construction Engineering and Management in 2021. She received various awards for young scientists in Germany and Austria for her dissertation. Judith graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master's degree in Facility and Real Estate Management. Judith’s research interest is on the digitalization of building permits starting in 2016. Her focus lies on transdisciplinary perspectives of project and process management in building permitting. She published several scientific journal and conference articles on the topic. Judith is member of the management committee of the EUnet4DBP. She chairs the scientific committee of the Digital Building Permit Conferences and is part of the organising committee.

Dogus Guler is a docent at the Department of Geomatics Engineering of Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Türkiye. He holds BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees from the same department. His research interest covers the applications of spatial decision making, data modeling, 3D geoinformation, Building Information Modeling (BIM), 3D land administration, and digital building permits for a sustainable future. He involved in and conducted scientific projects funded by the Scientific Research Projects Department of the university, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK), and private companies. He carried out research visits to Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, University of Colorado Boulder, USA, and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, thanks to scholarships such as the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Foundation PhD Scholarship and Postdoctoral Research Program of Turkish Higher Education Council. His doctoral studies were awarded by several organizations, such as the Ilhan Tekeli Urbanism Culture Foundation and the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE).

Rita Lavikka, D.Sc. (Tech.) is a Research Team Leader in Data-driven Circular Construction and an IPMA-C certified project manager at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. She coordinated the Horizon Europe ACCORD project, which digitalised building permit processes and automated compliance checks using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and other data sources to advance a sustainable built environment. Before joining VTT, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Aalto University, visited Stanford University twice as a visiting researcher and co-founded a consultancy company that focuses on facilitating digital transformation in the built environment. Her research focuses on digitalising and decarbonising the built environment. She has co-authored articles on the digital disruption of the AEC industry, the co-creation of digital services, and data platforms and ecosystems around sustainability. She has received scholarships, best paper awards, and a highly commended journal article 2018 Emerald Literati Awards. She has led and coordinated other R&D projects supporting the twin transition, EU Green Deal Goals and digital initiatives. One of them, besides the ACCORD project, was the Nordic BIM4LCA project, which worked on digitalising building life-cycle assessment using BIM.

Francesca Noardo is a Researcher and Project Manager in the Collaboratory Solutions and Innovation Program of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Prior to join OGC she has developed her research in geomatics at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy), where she obtained her PhD, and in the 3D geoinformation group at the Delft University of Technology (NL), where she worked as a postdoc for more than 3 years, on projects on Smart cities and data integration and interoperability (over the use case of digital building permit), including co-funded by the EuroSDR, ISPRS, and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS-Institute), City of Rotterdam, and in a COFUND Marie Sklodowska Curie EU project. She has been working towards the interoperability and integration of multi-source spatial data, in particular, detailed 3D information systems (from survey or from design), in interoperable 3D maps, leveraging Open standards and adopting a user-centric approach for the concrete uptake of such technologies for urban applications. She is coordinating an international multidisciplinary collaboration as founder and leader of the European Network for Digital Building Permits (EUnet4DBP). She is co-chair of the ISPRS WG IV-1 ‘Spatial Data Representation and Interoperability’. She coordinated, with TU Delft, the HORIZON Europe ‘Change toolkit for digital building permit’ (CHEK) project.

Peter Nørkjær Gade is Head of Research and Docent at Technology & Business, University College of Northern Denmark in Aalborg (Denmark). Before he joined his current positions, he worked at C.F. Møller Architects with building design projects and as IT-systems project manager. He obtained his doctorate in civil engineering from Aalborg University (Denmark) from the department of built environment in 2020. Peter graduated with a bachelor’s degree in architectural technology and construction management and a master’s degree in building informatics. Peter’s research interest is on providing positive changes in the construction industry with digital systems focused at BIM and more specifically, BIM-based Model Checking. Emphasizing both human and technical perspectives starting more than a decade ago. He published several scientific journal and conference articles on the topic. Peter is member of EUnet4DBP and is involved in a research activity aiming at a European-wide building permit process analysis with more than 20 researchers from different countries involved.

Ing. Silvia Mastrolembo Ventura is an Associate Professor of Production and Management of the Built Environment at the University of Brescia (Italy). She previously served at the same institution as a postdoctoral researcher (2019–2022) and as an Assistant Professor (2022–2025). A licensed engineer, she holds a five-year single-cycle Master of Science degree in Architectural Engineering. She obtained her Doctorate in Digital Innovation in Project and Construction Management from Politecnico di Milano (2015–2018), within the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, where she developed a novel framework for implementing virtual reality systems in collaborative design management. Her research focuses on design and construction management, with a specific emphasis on digital and sustainable process innovation. She actively collaborates with public administrations and construction SMEs on digital transformation through national and EU-funded projects (e.g., the Horizon Europe CHEK project and the DIHCUBE European Digital Innovation Hub), specifically focusing on public works and building permit processes. She is also a member of the Management Committee of the European Network for Digital Building Permits (EUnet4DBP).