Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg: Building Information Model

Historically, in large part due to the Crown's jurisdiction over reserve and treaty settlement lands, First Nation's communities have been limited in their ability to develop comprehensive land-planning and infrastructure management strategies. This has resulted in ad hoc land-use and infrastructure development, leading to increased maintenance and development costs. However, incremental changes in legislation and ongoing challenges to the status quo are creating new opportunities for planning and infrastructure management in First Nation's communities. While adequate funding for capital projects continues to be a challenge for planned development, environmental stewardship and community sustainability are equally critical. The Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg has elected to take a leadership role in addressing these challenges.

Working in partnership, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg (KZA) and the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS) are working to develop a hybrid digital platform that draws on the progressive community development initiatives of KZA and our established research record in the field of building information modelling (BIM). The research challenges involved in the development of a comprehensive BIM for KZA are considerable. First, the physical size of the property, some 18000ha, is well beyond the conventional scale of a BIM. Secondly, the complexity and scale of the assets that KZA hope to incorporate through the BIM challenge the parameters of current best practice.