Scientific Development

At the core of the CHEK project is a strong foundation of scientific research aimed at modernizing and simplifying the building permit process through digital innovation. The project brings together expertise from architecture, engineering, planning, computer science, and public administration to develop a new, smarter way of managing building approvals.

CHEK focuses on turning complex planning rules and building codes into formats that computers can understand and check automatically. The scientific work behind CHEK also includes the development of tools that ensure data quality, allow digital signatures on IFC models, and convert city models from one format to another.

All research outcomes—whether data models, rule-checking tools, or software prototypes—are shared openly to encourage learning, collaboration, and further development. This approach supports open science and helps cities across Europe adopt modern, efficient, and digital-ready workflows for building regulation.

Name Partner Description
Process Maps FHI The TO-BE process map illustrates the CHEK DBP process from the information collection phase to the final update of the as-built model in the city model. It reveals that the digital building permit process is complex and involves multiple steps and stakeholders. Therefore, it is essential to have a clear understanding of each step to ensure that the process runs smoothly.
Maturity Model FHI The main goal of the CHEK Digital Building Permit Maturity Model (CDBPMM) is to help building authorities and other organisations assess their maturity in implementing a digital building permit process. The CDBPMM defines a fully implemented and optimised digital permit process as the highest level of maturity. Using this model, organisations can evaluate their current maturity level, identify capability gaps, and develop a strategic roadmap to incrementally enhance their processes, organisation, technology, and information systems to achieve higher levels of digital integration, efficiency, quality, and transparency in permitting workflows.
CHEKWiki UMinho The CHEKWiki has the main goal of helping the process of upskill/reskill in the construction value chain by gathering the multidisciplinary knowledge of the partners of the CHEK consortium. Furthermore, the base of knowledge also helps to improve the communication within the project, since it contains definitions concerning terms of the building permit process of the municipalities involved, as terms of the digital domain that are related to the technologies that are going to be implemented in the project.
Entities and Attributes UBS Summary of entities and attributes identified through interpretation of the normative text. The data within refer to the first four control sets (distances, maximum building height, buildability index and minimum area of interior spaces) described in deliverable 2.1. In addition to containing the list of identified entities and attributes, this table contains an in-depth analysis of attributes. Precisely, the type of data (e.g., numeric, alphanumeric, boolean), the unit of measurement, the type of value (e.g., float numeric, integer numeric, classification), the comparative (e.g., =,>,<), if the data is numeric, the value is specified, while if the data refers to a list, the classification is specified, and finally, the regulation and municipality in which the attribute emerges.
LOIN UBS From the interpretation of the normative text and conceptual models, information requirements were identified with reference to standard EN 17412-1:2020. Information requirements contain geometrical information (e.g., detail, location, appearance), alphanumerical information (e.g., identification, information content) and documentation. This table is under development. To date, it contains LOINs referring to the first four control sets (distances, maximum building height, buildability index and minimum area of interior spaces) for the municipality of Ascoli Piceno, Italy
CHEKClauses UMinho The CHEKClauses base in Airtable is being developed as a centralized source of information about the regulatory analysis in the project. The goal is to streamline the delivery of information to other teams within the project related to the information requirements and software implementation.
IFC CHEK (IDS and PSD files) RDF CHEK IFC is a standardized solution to allow automated validation.