ABSTRACT
To cater for the informational requirements of building assessment applications, building information models need to include representations of inhabitants. Thereby, the representation of people as passive and static entities is unlikely to yield reliable building performance assessment and building operation planning. Rather, adequate representations of building inhabitants should account for user-initiated actions (e.g., interactions with buildings indoor environmental control devices and systems). To address these requirements, many recent model development efforts have explored the potential of sophisticated mathematical formalisms. However, the resulting occupancy-related behavioural models have rarely gone through a rigorous evaluation process. The present contribution is indeed motivated primarily by the lack of general procedures and guidelines for the evaluation of proposed user-related behavioural models. Specifically, we formulate a number of conditions that are necessary for systematic and dependable enrichment of building information models with representations of buildings’ inhabitants. Toward this end, we discuss both general model evaluation requirements as well as specific circumstances pertaining to models of building inhabitants. Moreover, we present, as a case in point, a model evaluation study involving a number of recently proposed window operation models. Thereby, our main objective is to promote a rigorous process toward quality assurance while considering and integrating behavioural representations in building information models that are meant to meet sound scientific requirements as well as professional accountability criteria.
