Evolution of Smart Parks and Development of Park Information Modeling (PIM): Concept and Design Application

With the development of smart cities and smart technologies, parks, as functional units of the city, are facing smart transformation. The development of smart parks can help address challenges of technology integration within urban spaces and serve as testbeds for exploring smart city planning and governance models. Information models facilitate the effective integration of technology into space. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and City Information Modeling (CIM) have been widely used in urban construction. However, the existing information models have limitations in the application of the park, so it is necessary to develop an information model suitable for the park. This paper first traces the evolution of park smart transformation, reviews the global landscape of smart park development, and identifies key trends and persistent challenges. Addressing the particularities of parks, the concept of Park Information Modeling (PIM) is proposed. PIM leverages smart technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, and collaborative sensing to help form a ‘space-technology-system’ smart structure, enabling systematic management of diverse park spaces, addressing the deficiency in park-level information models, and aiming to achieve scale articulation between BIM and CIM. Finally, through a detailed top-level design application case study of the Nanjing Smart Education Park in China, this paper illustrates the translation process of the PIM concept into practice, showcasing its potential to provide smart management tools for park managers and enhance services for park stakeholders, although further empirical validation is required.