METHODS article

Front. Built Environ.

Sec. Building Information Modelling (BIM)

Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1575913

This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Transformation in Construction: Integrating Metaverse, Digital Twin, and BIMView all 4 articles

Semantic and Ontology-Based Analysis of Regulatory Documents for Construction Industry Digitalization

Provisionally accepted
Zarina KabzhanZarina Kabzhan1Alexandr ShakhnovichAlexandr Shakhnovich1Nazym ShogelovaNazym Shogelova1*Yevgeniya GlyznoYevgeniya Glyzno1Sergey GorshkovSergey Gorshkov2Fedor GorshkovFedor Gorshkov3
  • 1JSC Kazakh Research and Design Institute of Construction and Architecture, Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 2LLC «Datavera», Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 3LLC «Datavera»,, Almaty, Kazakhstan

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In the context of the digitalization of the construction industry, the demand for automation in the analysis of regulatory documents is increasing. The significant volume, structural complexity, and frequent amendments of regulatory acts lead to semantic inconsistencies, duplication of provisions, and contradictions in requirements. The aim of this study is to develop a method for the automated analysis of regulatory documents in the construction sector based on the integration of ontological modeling and natural language processing (NLP) techniques. The relevance of the topic is driven by the need for the digital transformation of construction standardization, which involves eliminating redundant provisions, logical inconsistencies, and outdated references in the regulatory framework. The study proposes a methodology for constructing semantic “profiles” of regulatory statements, which include structured components: subject, predicate, object, modality, and additional conditions. A software prototype has been developed, implementing an algorithm for semantic matching of regulatory requirements using an ontological model that incorporates SKOS-based terminology, deontic logic, and domain-specific concepts of the construction sector. Experiments were conducted on a corpus of 14 regulatory documents of the Republic of Kazakhstan (≈242,000 words), demonstrating high computational efficiency (document analysis time <10 seconds) and acceptable quality metrics (F1-score up to 0.86). The results confirm the applicability of the proposed method for integration into automated regulatory compliance control systems and Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Keywords: Semantic analysis1, ontology modeling2, regulatory documents3, digitalization of construction4, NLP5, automated analysis6

Received: 13 Feb 2025; Accepted: 16 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Kabzhan, Shakhnovich, Shogelova, Glyzno, Gorshkov and Gorshkov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Nazym Shogelova, JSC Kazakh Research and Design Institute of Construction and Architecture, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material