ABSTRACT
The Digital Building Permit Service, in Dutch known as Vergunning Controle Service (VCS), of the municipality of Rotterdam is an open-source tool, currently in the Minimum Viable Product stage. It facilitates digital permitting using open standard Building Information Modeling (BIM), open standard geospatial data (GIS), and open standard digital legislation integration. Initially developed locally, VCS supports compatibility with national requirements. Developed as part of a national effort to harmonize permitting processes across municipalities (Omgevingswet), VCS standardizes submission requirements and leverages a scalable architecture, enabling autonomous deployment by other governmental and industry entities.
The VCS currently enables digital checks for municipal rules by analyzing BIM and GIS data against rules, producing visual and report-based feedback for compliance. By integrating Linked Data technologies and triple store databases, VCS can handle heterogeneous regulatory information. User training is needed for full operational maturity. The system supports human expert judgment required for legal compliance checks.
Ongoing improvements focus on simplifying rule-querying methods, broadening regulatory scope, and refining interoperability with urban data models, with plans to expand rule sets and usability in collaboration with other municipalities. These enhancements seek to establish VCS as a cornerstone in a standardized, data-driven permitting framework that promotes nationwide efficiency and data accessibility.
