Toward Safe and Inclusive Urban Landscapes: Bringing BIM & GIS Together
READING TIME
6:46
MIN
Aug 7, 2025
Many of today’s most urgent urban challenges—accessibility, safety, climate risk—are spatial in nature, and solving them requires a deep understanding of a project’s geographic context. When designing within the built environment, we need to know where we’re starting, in order to provide comprehensive approaches to address issues beyond the building, master plan, or landscape in question. As the prolific urban advocate Jace Jacobs said, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” For context, from 1950 to 2050 the percentage of the global population living in urban areas will more than double, from 30% to 70%. It is estimated that 90% of this growth will take place in developing countries.
While a methodology like BIM offers detail and precision that are needed to plan for the final result, it often lacks a broader view of place. This is because it is a model-based technology linked into a database of project information, one that can be expanded: Enter GIS, a conceptualized framework that provides the ability to capture and analyze spatial and geographic data. It is a software tool that adds critical layers of situational information and can be easily added to your current BIM workflow. By integrating BIM with GIS, project teams can visualize data in real-world context, and make informed decisions during the design process that serve more people, more effectively.
The Spatial Imperative
Architecture and urban design play a large role in influencing issues beyond the aesthetic. Physical components of urban landscapes set the stage for how a city can meet the increasingly challenging needs of its people when it comes to mobility, safety, equity, accessibility, and resiliency. Designing within urban landscapes, without proper contextual knowledge of the specific area at the center of the project, will result in inequitable design and increased risk.
The best project planning begins with putting people first. Understanding how occupants will use the space is the foundation for safer and more inclusive design outcomes. Data becomes the key to informing what this looks like. The ability to measure attributes like citizen engagement in public parks, or how many people use which mode of transportation to commute to work, or the popularity of specific types of building use in the downtown core, will provide the curated feedback that is necessary to best plan for your specific project and user needs.
Why Traditional BIM Falls Short
BIM is an excellent tool for producing coherent and detailed drawing packages, but community, cultural, and environmental layers are missing, resulting in limited geographical awareness. Without this spatial view of the context of the project, barriers such as accessibility gaps, social divides, or meteorological dangers could remain hidden until it is too late.
Unequal Scenes - City of Buenos Aires
For example, an urban area with drastic elevation changes is difficult for those in mobility devices to navigate. Integrating the accurate topographical landscape into your BIM model will allow the design team to best incorporate the necessary accessibility interventions, such as ramps or floor level changes in a building, that without this data may otherwise be missed until far too late in the design.
BIM is equipped to handle a supplementary tool that allows for strengthened geolocation capabilities. Adding this tool to your team’s workflow is the second step needed to create a place-specific perspective from which to plan and design. GIS brings in this extra layer, elevating BIM’s precision and built-in coordination across drawings. /slantis’ Olivia Melazzo gave a public talk at Autodesk University in which she shared her research into the advantages and technical details when pairing BIM with GIS. You can see her talk here, and read on for more insights.
Introducing the BIM + GIS Advantage
GIS is a powerful tool for gathering, managing, and analyzing data, transforming layers of information into maps and 3D visualizations. When BIM + GIS are used in tandem, design becomes both precise AND place-aware: detailed modeling meets geographic context. GIS brings in the information BIM lacks on its own, such as demographics, topographic mapping, zoning, and public infrastructure. Designers are now armed with the knowledge needed to ensure the specific challenges of their project site are being met.
Designing comprehensively benefits everyone involved in the team, and streamlines each step of the design process. GIS integration creates compelling visual materials, which helps the designers immerse themselves in the work, and can be used to engage stakeholders. Consultants are able to speak a common language, using the shared BIM + GIS platform for communication and problem-solving. There is a clear data-driven prioritization of site needs that allows for more targeted decision-making.
BIM model being imported to ArcGIS
Risk analysis becomes more dependable with the ability to access data. Rather than working in a vacuum with the project BIM model standing on its own, geolocating it to the project site brings in the context that would otherwise be unknown. Physically moving around the model on screen reveals perspectives, sight lines, or other opportunities in design that may not otherwise have been exposed. These benefits are felt by the project end users, who are being delivered a built environment that was designed conscientiously and purposefully.
Several global municipalities have already utilized this advantage. Singapore developed their own Digital Twin, which showcases a seamless merging of GIS and BIM. Not only can this be accessed by professionals to draw from a shared and consistent network of infrastructure and planning data, but it can also be utilized by residents searching for information about things like traffic status or walking routes. This allows for design and construction solutions or in-progress projects to be widely shared, encouraging other project planners to incorporate lessons learned.
Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires developed 3D City, an online platform consolidating all real estate information in the city, another invaluable resource for planning professionals and everyday people alike. This map directly provides the type of zoning and infrastructure information that outline restrictions in place for beginning a project. The advantage of this platform is that all stakeholders, designers, and other interested parties begin from the same page.
Buenos Aires - 3D City
In both of these examples, and in the GIS networks at large, there is the potential for outdated or unchecked data to be included. Part of the work we do at /slantis is data literacy amongst our teams to avoid the pitfalls of decision-making based on faulty information.
Practical Tools
Autodesk and Esri (the makers of Revit & Civil 3D, and ArcGIS Pro, respectively) have partnered up to best position BIM and GIS to work in tandem. They (and we) share a common goal of building for a resilient future, and a crucial step towards this is sharing our collective knowledge to strive for the design and planning solutions. ArcGIS contains its own unique database that allows users to gain access into datasets linked by location, enabling design professionals to filter through complex information to reveal patterns and trends that will inform their work. These combined tools allow for a speedy start-up process to modeling:
Utilizing a shared geodata base for collaboration: your team will be able to access and help maintain a growing network of environmental data, and begin working from an aligned common ground of place-awareness.
Geolocating your model: it takes just minutes to place your model in space anywhere in the world, and directly aligning client stakeholders with spatial visualization of their home, generating additional engagement and interest.
Building phased, confidence-boosting pilots with real-time 3D models: ideas can be tested quickly and easily with fast results in context, and project phasing implementation communicated simply and effectively.
At /slantis, we can help you build context‑aware workflows that transform your next urban or infrastructure project by shifting from isolated models to systems that respond to the real world. There are three ways of integration and the choice of one over the others will depend on the intended use of the integration, the professionals involved, the project stage, and the knowledge and preferences of each team. These three methods include directly integrated between desktop applications, between two working clouds, or integration between one desktop application and a working cloud.
The most common workflow between desktops is utilizing ArcGIS Pro to read Autodesk files. If working with two clouds, ArcGIS GeoBIM, enables live linking of ArcGIS features into Autodesk using BIM 360 or Autodesk Construction Cloud. Integration between one desktop and one cloud allows for the most complexity. Both Autodesk and Esri have built connections that allow plug-ins from one program to the other. ArcGIS Pro contains a BIM Cloud Connection, where users can access content online, enabling live updates and constant collaboration across teams. Whatever your team’s set up, there is an immediate option for GIS integration.
BIM + GIS Workflow
Bringing it all Together for Inclusive Urban Design
In today’s challenging world of design and building, adding GIS to your BIM workflow is one step towards a more comprehensive design process that puts people first by providing place-specific context. The open databases provide an invaluable source of ever-increasing knowledge from which to draw, with multiple avenues for incorporation into your current team’s set-up.
At /slantis, we've found that successful BIM-GIS symbiosis is crucial for fully digitizing the AEC industry’s value chain, and it depends less on mastering the programs than on developing frameworks for translating complex spatial data into actionable design insights. Inclusive design starts with inclusive thinking beyond project delivery, equally considering people, place, and process. This isn’t just about software—it’s about rethinking how we approach design. This is where specialized guidance becomes valuable. The tools are becoming accessible; the wisdom to use them well remains specialized.
