dr.ir. L.L. olde Scholtenhuis (Léon)

Léon's research programme (ZoARG | ReDUCE) focuses on inner (smart) city construction, particularly at the available technologies (decision support systems, visualization tools, but also onsite equipment) that facilitate and streamline work along the construction life cycle of urban subsurface utilities. Key words: technology development, implementation & project management

Expertise

• Computer Science

  • Utilities
  • Models
  • Stakeholders
  • Ontology

• Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Ground Penetrating Radar
  • Utility

• Social Sciences

  • Reliability
  • Construction

Organisations

Publications

Research profiles

Léon teaches on the topics of Smart Cities, Digitization in Construction, Construction Innovation, and Coordination of Underground Utility Construction

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2023/2024

One of the main issues during society’s transition toward smarter cities relates to the maintenance and upkeep of public infrastructure. It becomes more complicated, for example, to add new networks (e.g. fiber optics, smart grids, submerged waste transport etc.) and maintain existing buried utilities. Besides the physical limitations, information uncertainty (inaccurate or incomplete maps) and coordination issues caused by privatization make add more complexity to execution of inner city streetworks. The ZoARG | ReDUCE research programme that I lead aims to study and improve the existing situation by. Key research activities are centered on information, coordination and supporting technologies. Currently, we have a growing research and industry consortium that collaboratively:

• Identifies how subsurface information can be effectively modelled to support life cycle decisions;
• Further develops and implements subsurface mapping technologies, practices, and codes;
• Implements detection and information solutions in practice to iteratively improve the tools, engage practice in advancing the field of smart inner city engineering, and develop new education curricula for inner city engineering.

Current projects

Finished projects

Spy the Underground

Developing 3D data models for visualization of utility data uncertainties

The ambition of this project is to provide a solution to the varying levels of certainty of underground utility location information. To date, this ambiguity hampered registration of most 3D coordinates on maps. We therefore aim to extend 2D-CAD utility maps (KLIC-melding) with fuzzy 3D information about depth- and geometry of utilities, to achieve an enriched 3D view on the subsurface.

ExcaSafeZone

Developing a prototype urban heat maps for safe excavation

ExcaSafeZone’s objective is to develop an automated system that generates excavation safety maps to enable urban planners, contractors and excavator operators to make more informed decisions about where and how to conduct excavation activities safely. We propose using the promising Linked Data techniques to integrate relevant data sources from public agencies and the web (e.g. Cadastral maps, utility maps, images, soil information, height maps, and historical information). Next, we consult experts to define logical rules for extraction of safety risk information from the linked data. The linked data combined with expert knowledge help define the safety levels for excavation activities on a particular construction site. Eventually, this culminates in a prototype system that creates Excavation Safety Zones based on available linked data, contributing to better excavation planning and, reduction of excavation damage.

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room Z233
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations