BIM-Based Value for Money Evaluation Methods of PPP Projects at Decision-Making and Design: A Case Study

This chapter presents a research framework based on building information modeling (BIM) and ontology technology, aimed at evaluating Value for Money (VFM) in the decision-making and design phases of public–private partnership (PPP) projects. In the decision-making phase, ontology technology is first used to establish a case database for PPP projects. Based on the characteristics of the proposed project, similarity algorithms are applied to identify the most similar past projects in the case database, from which a virtual BIM model of the proposed project is generated. This model is then used to calculate the public sector comparator (PSC) and PPP values. In the design phase, since a complete BIM model is already available, the PSC and PPP of the proposed project can be directly calculated. If the VFM value is negative, similar successful projects are searched in the ontology database, and their models and data are extracted. These models are used to optimize the parameters of the proposed project to meet VFM requirements. This study selects a public building project as a case study, applying BIM and ontology technology for VFM evaluation in the design phase. Through a comparative analysis with traditional evaluation methods, a positive VFM value is obtained. When comparing the results with similar projects in the ontology database, it was found that the potential for optimization is minimal, indicating that the project meets the VFM requirements. The framework and methods proposed in this study provide valuable insights and references for the VFM evaluation in the decision-making and design phases of PPP projects.