A HYBRID GROUND DATA MODEL TO SUPPORT INTERACTION IN MECHANIZED TUNNELING F. HEGEMANN P. MANICKAM K. LEHNER M. KÖNIG D. HARTMANN Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Ruhr-University of Bochum,44780 Bochum, Germany Tunneling processes are governed by diverse types of activities such as tunnel boring machine simulation, advance reconnaissance, or settlement detection. All these processes require detailed ground information on different levels of spatio-temporal scales. Therefore, a consistent ground data model is necessitated to store ground information of different categories such that diverse analyses and simulations can be provided. Due to the requirements posed by these analyses and simulations, a ground data model must be developed as a hybrid model to enable processing data in terms of boundary representation models as well as voxel-based octree models. To this end, the present paper gives an overview on how to create a ground data model tailored to the needs of mechanized tunneling. Also described is the process of reading data from an unmodified ground data model to handle tunneling specific queries. Finally, an outlook is given on future improvements. INTRODUCTION In July 2010, a Collaborative Research Center entitled “Interaction Models for Mechanized Tunneling” [7] was started at the Ruhr -University of Bochum. Within this research center, over a dozen sub-projects are concerned with important actual aspects of mechanized tunneling. The individual sub-projects deal with sophisticated research topics such as recognizing subsoil structures based on the analysis of machine data, applying acoustic techniques for underground exploration, developing process oriented simulation models for mechanized shield driving, employing methods of system identification used for the adaption of numerical simulation models and many other research topics. Although existing simulations and analyses have their own focus of research, they are all interrelated to each other at a higher level. Obviously, all of them need specific and detailed ground information to fulfill their own tasks whereby each simulation or analysis requires different parameters in different scales depending on their research focus. Furthermore, many simulations are related to or based on one another. As a consequence, the exchange of data between them is essential if they have to be coupled. Therefore, a common data model is mandatory which can store every type of needed ground information and efficiently provide the interaction between simulations and analyses associated with the data requested. A few promising geographic information models exist, such as GroundXML or GeoBIM, which offer data structures to store ground information efficiently. In addition, data of subsurface and subsurface related buildings can be stored. By way of example, the GroundXML [4] is an