The MUDDI (Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration) Standards Working Group will standardize a conceptual model, a modular framework, one or more logical models, one or more implementation specifications, and mappings to/from other models for geospatial data that represent underground infrastructure assets and characterize the underground environment that contains those assets. According to its name, the MUDDI approach emphasizes the definition of common concepts and terminology that mediate between elements in existing relevant data models and can be used to integrate underground data from disparate sources leveraging those models.

Every year the vast majority of seemingly routine street excavations occurring around the world are adversely impacted by lack of usable information about buried utility infrastructure. Large-scale construction projects are frequently stalled, incurring delay claims and change orders that significantly increase costs, because the locations of utility installations were never properly recorded or depicted. Bid costs may be increased by a minimum of 10-30% for contingencies to deal with buried unknowns. Lack of knowledge about underground built environment dependencies and vulnerabilities often stands in the way of effective disaster response and recovery.

These costs and risks could all be mitigated if accurate, comprehensive underground built environment information were available and shared between responsible parties for rapid integration and analysis. An essential first step towards achieving this capability involves developing geo-enabled utility data models with built-in capabilities for enabling data interoperability and integration. Development and adoption of such models would deliver significant benefits by improving data interchange, integration, and application readiness. Models should focus on those attributes most important for specific use cases such as safe digging, construction design, and disaster resilience, with the capacity for extension as needed to accommodate more complex use cases as the business value of data sharing and interoperability is established.

An additional value of developing standardized data models for selected underground utility components and environmental characteristics will be the opportunity to connect with models such as CityGML or BIM / IFC that principally address above-ground features, or GeoSciML / WaterML that cover a broad range of geologic and hydrologic phenomena. This will allow the use of standardized, interoperable data to model the entire interconnected built and natural municipal environment from top to bottom at every scale from small local jurisdictions to regional and national extents.

These are the categories of specification deliverables. The specific titles and how they are apportioned to particular documents for publication will be determined in the course of prioritization by the SWG members.

[x] RAND-Royalty Free

[ ] RAND for fee

The audience for this activity includes underground data experts but also any of the diverse stakeholders involved in the critical use cases for such data.

The 3DIM DWG [discussed and endorsed the establishment of this SWG and presented to the OGC Technical Committee in Plenary in in ___ 2020].

[1] J. Lieberman and A. ed’s Ryan, “OGC Underground Infrastructure Concept Study Engineering Report,” 2017. http://docs.opengeospatial.org/per/17-048.html

[2] J. Lieberman ed., "MUDDI Model for Underground Data Definition and Integration Engineering Report," 2019. http://docs.opengeospatial.org/per/17-090r1.html

[3] OGC API - Features - Part 1: Core https://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/ogcapi-features

[4] Yan, Jingya & Jaw, Siow Wei & Soon, Kean & Wieser, Andreas & Schrotter, Gerhard. (2019). Towards an Underground Utilities 3D Data Model for Land Administration. Remote Sensing. 11. 1957. 10.3390/rs11171957.