# Combined MvdXML and Semantic Technologies for Green Construction Code Checking
###### Abstract  
The construction process plays a key role in sustainable development of the environment. With the concept of sustainable construction being put forward in the world, some countries released green construction standards to strengthen the requirements in the construction phase. Green construction code checking needs to integrate semantic information embedded in green construction standards and model information involved in Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and/or Model View Definition (MVD), which are generated separately and lead to difficulty in information integration for green construction code checking. At present, the existing code-checking methods cannot be directly used for green construction. Related practitioners need an efficient and convenient method for green construction code checking urgently. To ameliorate this situation, this research proposes an innovative approach to organize, store, and re-use green construction knowledge by combining mvdXML and semantic technologies. The code checking of green construction is classified into four types based on the difficulty level to meet the requirements of the clauses in green construction standard. Depending on the characteristics of each inspection type, mvdXML or semantic technology is adopted for the appropriate inspection type. This paper demonstrates the deployment and validation of such automated checking procedures in a case study. Based on these experiences, a detailed discussion about the identified issues is provided as the starting point for future research. g 2019 9 1463 10.3390/app9071463 10.3390/app9071463 10.  
land, water, and materials) and environmental protection\", which is specified in the Code for Green Construction of Building (GB/T50905-2014) issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China (MOHURD) in 2014. The evaluation of green construction is becoming more and more complex; however, traditional evaluation processes need a lot of manpower, materials, and time, which will undoubtedly increase the unreliability and bring uncertainty to the quality of construction project. Therefore, construction industry practitioners put forward urgent requirements for a more efficient approach of code checking of green construction. Some code-checking cases are shown in other researchers' papers. For example, [PERSON] et al. showed that BIM-based validation could prevent 4.3-15.2% of construction waste that might have been generated without using BIM [4]. However, the requirements of green construction were not fully considered. Therefore, existing approached cannot be directly used for green construction code checking, which results in an imperative need for innovative technology to improve the current condition. Green construction code checking requires distinct domain knowledge and building model information. Model view definition (MVD), proposed by buildingSMART, defines a subset of the IFC schema needed to satisfy data exchange requirements, and it helps software vendors develop IFC import and export features that allow project participants to share and exchange BIM information. It is a kind of handshake protocol that allows expected meaningful requirements, implementation, and results. The method to publish the concepts and associated rules is called mvdXML [5]. Ontology and semantic web technology offer an opportunity to enable domain knowledge to be represented semantically. Semantic Query Web Rule Language (SQWRL) is a Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL)-based query language that provides SQL(Structured Query Language)-like operators for extracting information from ontologies in Web Ontology Language (OWL), which is also widely used for code checking [6; 7]. The goal of the mvdXML and semantic technologies is not only to put forward an automated knowledge framework, but also to offer the impetus to gear up the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry toward greater interoperability through the deployment of the BIM-based code checking.