Integrating environmental sustainability certification data into a municipal spatial data infrastructure: a case study from Porto Alegre, Brazil

Abstract The increasing demand for sustainable and smart cities has reinforced the need to integrate environmental information into municipal Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) to support urban planning and evidence-based decision-making. Although the Brazilian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (INDE) and municipal SDIs provide standardized mechanisms for managing geospatial information, they remain largely focused on two-dimensional data and lack methodological approaches for the semantic integration of environmental sustainability certification data into three-dimensional urban models based on international standards. This study proposes a methodological framework for structuring and semantically modeling data from the Environmental Sustainability Certification Program (PCSA) of Porto Alegre, Brazil, enabling its future integration into the municipal SDI through the CityGML conceptual model at the Level of Detail 2 (LoD2). The methodology comprised three stages: (i) collection and organization of 43 sustainability assessment criteria distributed across seven thematic dimensions; (ii) semantic conceptual modeling based on the CityGML standard; and (iii) demonstration of the proposed approach through a three-dimensional visualization to assess its applicability and identify implementation challenges. The resulting conceptual model organizes certification data into interoperable semantic structures associated with the CityGML Building and BuildingPart entities, providing a consistent basis for future implementation in municipal SDIs. Although the current stage of the municipal SDI and limitations in the available building dataset prevented a complete three-dimensional implementation, the proposed framework demonstrated its potential to support spatial analysis, environmental management, and urban planning while identifying the technical requirements for future deployment. The proposed methodology provides a replicable framework for integrating environmental sustainability certification data into CityGML-based SDIs, contributing to the advancement of three-dimensional urban information management and Smart City initiatives.