title: Congo River

text: Although the Livingstone Falls prevent access from the sea, nearly the entire Congo above them is readily navigable in sections, especially between Kinshasa and Kisangani. Large river steamers worked the river until quite recently. The Congo River still is a lifeline in a land with few roads or railways. Railways now bypass the three major falls, and much of the trade of Central Africa passes along the river, including copper, palm oil (as kernels), sugar, coffee, and cotton.


title: Congo River

text: The Congo River is the most powerful river in Africa. During the rainy season over of water per second flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Opportunities for the Congo River and its tributaries to generate hydropower are therefore enormous. Scientists have calculated that the entire Congo Basin accounts for 13 percent of global hydropower potential. This would provide sufficient power for all of sub-Saharan Africa's electricity needs.


title: Congo River

text: Currently there are about 40 hydropower plants in the Congo Basin. The largest are the Inga dams, about southwest of Kinshasa. The project was launched in the early 1970s, when the first dam was completed. The plan (as originally conceived) called for the construction of five dams that would have had a total generating capacity of 34,500 megawatts (MW). To date only the Inga I and Inga II dams have been built, generating 1,776 MW.


title: Congo River

text: In February 2005, South Africa's state-owned power company, Eskom, announced a proposal to expand generation through improvements and the construction of a new hydroelectric dam. The project would bring the maximum output of the facility to . It is feared that these new hydroelectric dams could lead to the extinction of many of the fish species that are native to the river.


title: Congo River

text: The current course of the Congo River formed between 1.5 and 2 million years BP, during the Pleistocene. It is likely that during this period many upper tributaries of the Congo were captured from adjacent river basins, including the Uele and upper Ubangi from the Chari system and the Chambeshi River alongside a number of upper Kasai River tributaries from the Zambezi system.


title: Congo River

text: The Congo's formation may have led to the allopatric speciation of the bonobo and the common chimpanzee from their most recent common ancestor. The bonobo is endemic to the humid forests in the region, as are other iconic species like the Allen's swamp monkey, dryas monkey, aquatic genet, okapi, and Congo peafowl.


title: Congo River

text: In terms of aquatic life, the Congo River Basin has a very high species richness and among the highest known densities of endemics. , almost 800 fish species have been recorded from the Congo River Basin (not counting Lake Tanganyika, which is connected but ecologically very different), and large sections remain virtually unstudied. For example, the section in Salonga National Park, which is about the size of Belgium, had still not been sampled at all in 2006. New fish species are scientifically described with some regularity from the Congo River Basin, and many undescribed species are known.


title: Congo River

text: The Congo has by far the highest diversity of any African river system; in comparison, the next richest are the Niger, Volta and Nile with about 240, 140 and 130 fish species, respectively. Because of the great ecological differences between the regions in the Congo basin —including habitats such as river rapids, deep rivers, swamps, and lakes— it is often divided into multiple ecoregions (instead of treating it as a single ecoregion). Among these ecoregions, the Livingstone Falls cataracts has more than 300 fish species, including approximately 80 endemics while the southwestern part (Kasai River basin) has more than 200 fish species, of which about a quarter are endemic.


title: Congo River

text: The dominant fish families – at least in parts of the river – are Cyprinidae (carp/cyprinids, such as "Labeo simpsoni"), Mormyridae (elephant fishes), Alestidae (African tetras), Mochokidae (squeaker catfishes), and Cichlidae (cichlids). Among the natives in the river is the huge, highly carnivorous giant tigerfish. Three of the more unusual endemics are the whitish (non-pigmented) and blind "Lamprologus lethops", which is believed to live as deep as below the surface, "Heterochromis multidens", which is more closely related to cichlids of the Americas than other African cichlids, and "Caecobarbus geertsii", the only known cavefish in Central Africa. There are also numerous endemic frogs and snails. Several hydroelectric dams are planned on the river, and these may lead to the extinction of many of the endemics.


title: Congo River

text: Several species of turtles and the slender-snouted, Nile and dwarf crocodile are native to the Congo River Basin. African manatees inhabit the lower parts of the river.


title: Congo River

text: The entire Congo basin is populated by Bantu peoples, divided into several hundred ethnic groups. Bantu expansion is estimated to have reached the middle Congo by about 500 BC and the upper Congo by the first century AD. Remnants of the aboriginal population displaced by the Bantu migration, Pygmies/"Abatwa" of the Ubangian phylum, remain in the remote forest areas of the Congo Basin.


title: Congo River

text: The Kingdom of Kongo was formed in the late 14th century from a merging of the kingdoms of Mpemba Kasi and Mbata Kingdom on the left banks of the lower Congo River. Its territorial control along the river remained limited to what corresponds to the modern Kongo Central province. European exploration of the Congo began in 1482 when Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão discovered the river estuary (likely in August 1482), which he marked by a Padrão, or stone pillar (still existing, but only in fragments) erected on Shark Point. Cão sailed up the river for a short distance, establishing contact with the Kingdom of Kongo. The full course of the river remained unknown throughout the early modern period.


title: Congo River

text: The upper Congo basin runs west of the Albertine Rift. Its connection to the Congo was unknown until 1877. The extreme northeast of the Congo basin was reached by the Nilotic expansion at some point between the 15th and 18th centuries, by the ancestors of the Southern Luo speaking Alur people. Francisco de Lacerda followed the Zambezi and reached the uppermost part of the Congo basin (the Kazembe in the upper Luapula basin) in 1796.


title: Congo River

text: The upper Congo River was first reached by the Arab slave trade by the 19th century. Nyangwe was founded as a slavers' outpost around 1860. David Livingstone was the first European to reach Nyangwe in March 1871. Livingstone proposed to prove that the Lualaba connected to the Nile, but on 15 July, he witnessed a massacre of about 400 Africans by Arab slavers in Nyangwe, which experience left him too horrified and shattered to continue his mission to find the sources of the Nile, so he turned back to Lake Tanganyika.


title: Congo River

text: The Europeans had not reached the central regions of the Congo basin from either the east or west, until Henry Morton Stanley's expedition of 1876–77. At the time one of the last open questions of the European exploration of Africa was whether the Lualaba River fed the Nile (Livingstone's theory), the Congo or even the Niger River. Financed in 1874, Stanley's first trans-Africa exploration started in Zanzibar and reached the Lualaba on October 17, 1876. Overland he reached Nyangwe, the center of a lawless area containing cannibal tribes at which Tippu Tip based his trade in slaves. Stanley managed to hire a force from Tippu Tip to guard him for the next or so, for 90 days.


title: Congo River

text: The party left Nyangwe overland through the dense Matimba forest. On November 19 they reached the Lualaba again. Since the going through the forest was so heavy, Tippu Tip turned around with his party on December 28, leaving Stanley on his own, with 143 people, including eight children and 16 women. They had 23 canoes. His first encounter with a local tribe was with the cannibal Wenya. In total Stanley reports 32 unfriendly meetings on the river, some violent, even though he attempted to negotiate a peaceful thoroughfare. But the tribes were wary as their only experience of outsiders was with slave traders.


title: Congo River

text: On January 6, 1877, after , they reached Boyoma Falls (called Stanley Falls for some time after), consisting of seven cataracts spanning which they had to bypass overland. It took them to February 7 to reach the end of the falls. Here Stanley learned that the river was called "Ikuta Yacongo", proving to him that he had reached the Congo and that the Lualaba did not feed the Nile.


title: Congo River

text: From this point, the tribes were no longer cannibals but possessed firearms, apparently as a result of Portuguese influence. Some four weeks and later he reached Stanley Pool (now Pool Malebo), the site of the present day cities Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Further downstream were the Livingstone Falls, misnamed as Livingstone had never been on the Congo: a series of 32 falls and rapids with an elevation change of over . On 15 March they started the descent of the falls, which took five months and cost numerous lives. From the Isangile Falls, five falls from the foot, they beached the canoes and "Lady Alice" and left the river, aiming for the Portuguese outpost of Boma via land.


title: Congo River

text: On August 3 they reached the hamlet Nsada. From there Stanley sent four men with letters forward to Boma, asking for food for his starving people. On August 7 relief came, being sent by representatives from the Liverpool trading firm Hatton & Cookson. On August 9 they reached Boma, 1,001 days since leaving Zanzibar on November 12, 1874. The party then consisted of 108 people, including three children born during the trip. Most probably (Stanley's own publications give inconsistent figures), he lost 132 people through disease, hunger, drowning, killing and desertion.


title: Congo River

text: Kinshasa was founded as a trading post by Stanley in 1881 and named Léopoldville in honor of Leopold II of Belgium. The Congo Basin was privately claimed by Leopold II as Congo Free State in 1885 where the many Atrocities in the Congo Free State were committed until the region was called the Belgian Congo.


title: Sixth form

text: In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-level or equivalent examinations like the IB or Pre-U. In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the term Key Stage 5 has the same meaning. It only refers to academic education and not to vocational education.


title: Sixth form

text: "Sixth Form" describes the two school years which are called by many schools the "Lower Sixth" (L6) and "Upper Sixth" (U6). The term survives from earlier naming conventions used both in the state maintained and independent school systems.


title: Sixth form

text: In the state-maintained sector for England and Wales, pupils in the first five years of secondary schooling were divided into cohorts determined by age, known as "forms" (these referring historically to the long backless benches on which rows of pupils sat in the classroom). Pupils started their first year of secondary school in the "first form" or first year; this being the academic year in which pupils would normally be 12 years old by August 31st. Pupils would move up a form each year before entering the fifth form in the academic year in which they would be 16 years old by August 31st. Those who stayed on at school to study for A-levels moved up into the sixth form, which was divided into the "Lower Sixth" and the "Upper Sixth".


title: Sixth form

text: In the independent schools sector, the traditional public schools did not have a consistent naming convention except for the "Sixth Form". As well as the "Upper Sixth" and "Lower Sixth", the public schools used and still use a variety of descriptions such as "Shell, Remove, Lower Fourth, Upper Fourth, Lower Fifth, Middle Fifth, Upper Fifth".


title: Sixth form

text: In some independent schools, the term "Middle Sixth" was used in place of "Upper Sixth", with the latter being used for those who stayed on for an extra term to take the entrance examinations that were previously set for candidates to Oxford or Cambridge universities. Other schools described these Oxbridge examination students as being in the "Seventh Form" or "Third Year Sixth".


title: Sixth form

text: In the state sector, the system was changed for the 1990–1991 academic year and school years are now numbered consecutively from primary school onwards. "Year 1" is the first year of primary school after Reception. The first year of secondary school is "Year 7". The Lower Sixth (the first year of sixth form) is Year 12 and the Upper Sixth (the second year of sixth form) is Year 13. Public (fee-charging) schools, along with some state schools, tend to use the old system of numbering.


title: Sixth form

text: In some parts of the country, specialist sixth form colleges were introduced. A large proportion of English secondary schools no longer have an integral sixth form. This is mainly related to reforms in the later 20th century, where different political areas became a factor in the introduction of colleges instead of the original sixth forms. There are now numerous sixth form colleges throughout England and Wales, and in areas without these, sixth form schools and specialist further education (FE) colleges called tertiary colleges may fill the same role.


title: Sixth form

text: Sixth form is not compulsory in England and Wales (although from 2013 onwards, people of sixth form age must remain in some form of education or training in England only; the school leaving age remains 16 in Wales); however, university entrance normally requires at least three A level qualifications and perhaps one AS level. Before the most recent reforms, students would usually select between three and five subjects from the GCSEs they have just taken, for one "AS" year, the AS exams being taken at the end of Lower Sixth. Three subjects would then be carried into the A2 year (the dropped AS being "cashed in" as a qualification), then further exams would be taken at the end of that year. The marks attained in both sets of exams were converted into UCAS points, which must meet the offer made by the student's chosen university.


title: Sixth form

text: Since the move to a "linear" system, students more commonly choose three or four subjects and either continue to study them for the full two years before a single set of final "A level" exams, or choose to drop one or two subjects by sitting "AS level" exams at the end of the first year.


title: Sixth form

text: In Northern Ireland, the equivalent of Reception is "P1", and the equivalent of the English Year 1 "P2", while the first year of secondary school is known as "Year 8" or "first year" (rather than "Year 7" as in England), and following that Lower and Upper Sixth are Year 13 and Year 14 respectively.


title: Sixth form

text: In the Scottish education system, the final year of school is known as "Sixth Year" or "S6". During this year, students typically study Advanced Higher and/or Higher courses in a wide range of subjects, taking SQA exams at the end of both S5 and S6. Pupils in Scotland may leave once they have reached the age of 16; those who reach 16 before 30 September may leave after national examinations in May, whilst those who are 16 by the end of February may leave the previous Christmas.


title: Sixth form

text: It is not essential for candidates to do a sixth year if they wish to attend a Scottish university, as they have obtained adequate Higher grades in S5 and may apply and receive acceptance, though this is conditional on being successful in the examinations. However, the vast majority of Scottish students return for S6 if they plan to attend university. Some English universities will also accept Scottish students who have obtained adequate Higher grades in S5. It was announced in December 2008 that, as from 2010, UCAS will increase the number of points awarded to those who achieve Highers and Advanced Highers.


title: Sixth form

text: In some cases, particularly in independent schools, the term "sixth form" is also used for the last two years of secondary education.


title: Sixth form

text: In the Jamaican Education System, "sixth form" describes the two school years which are called the "Lower Sixth" (6B) and "Upper Sixth" (6A), or grades 12 (lower) and 13 (upper), by many schools, students aged 17 or 18 by October 31.


title: Sixth form

text: Sixth form is a must, two years long, advanced post-secondary program, at the end of which students write the CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exams). These are the equivalent of the GCE A Level examinations which were the standard up until 2003. Some students still choose to sit A-levels if they wish, but in doing so they must still meet CAPE's basic subject requirements/groupings. CAPE and A-level exams are significantly harder than exams sat at the end of high school, and are often thought to be harder than most exams students will ever sit in university. Students usually select between three and five subjects from the GCSEs/CAPE they have just taken.


title: Sixth form

text: In the Republic of Ireland, the last year of secondary schooling is called the Sixth Year. There is no Sixth Form "per se" but a similar concept exists called the Senior Cycle where school pupils aged 16–19 prepare in their final two years for the Leaving Certificate examination.


title: Sixth form

text: In some secondary schools in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, the sixth and seventh years, are called Lower and Upper Sixth respectively.


title: Sixth form

text: In India and Nepal, the Higher Secondary Education is called as "Class 11th" and "Class 12th" which is also known as "+1" and "+2" respectively of the "10+2" educational system. In India, this is also referred to as "Intermediate"in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar State Boards, " Pre-University Course"(PUC) in Karnataka State Board, and "Junior College" or "Higher Secondary Certificate" in Maharashtra State Board, in CBSE and CISCE Boards it is called as "Class 11th" and "Class 12th".


title: Sixth form

text: Similarly, the term "sixth form" is also used to define the final two years of education before entering university in Malta.


title: Sixth form

text: In Singapore the equivalent of a sixth form college would be called a junior college, where pupils take their Cambridge GCE A-levels after two years. Prior to the 1990s, these two years were known as "Pre-University" (Pre-U) 1 and 2.


title: Sixth form

text: In New Zealand, under the old system of forms, standards and juniors, sixth form was the equivalent of Year 12 in today's system. Year 13 was known as seventh form. Australia also sometimes uses the term for year 12, though the Australian year 12 is equivalent to the NZ Year 13 / seventh form and the UK's upper sixth / Year 13.


title: Sixth form

text: In Brunei, sixth form comprises Year 12 and 13, which may also be referred to as Lower and Upper Sixth. At the end of the schooling, students sit for Brunei-Cambridge GCE A Level. Students may also opt to take Advanced Subsidiary Level or AS Level halfway at the end of Lower Sixth or halfway through Upper Sixth. Sixth form is not compulsory, but a preferable choice for students wishing to continue in academic studies leading to university level.


title: Sixth form

text: In some college preparatory schools in the United States, such as The Hill School, Woodberry Forest School, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Kent School, Pomfret School, The Church Farm School, The Haverford School, Portsmouth Abbey School and more, "sixth form" refers to the final year of education prior to college. It is the equivalent of twelfth grade in the US education system.


title: Building information modeling

text: Building information modeling (BIM) is a process supported by various tools, technologies and contracts involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. Building information models (BIMs) are computer files (often but not always in proprietary formats and containing proprietary data) which can be extracted, exchanged or networked to support decision-making regarding a built asset. BIM software is used by individuals, businesses and government agencies who plan, design, construct, operate and maintain buildings and diverse physical infrastructures, such as water, refuse, electricity, gas, communication utilities, roads, railways, bridges, ports and tunnels.


title: Building information modeling

text: The concept of BIM has been in development since the 1970s, but it only became an agreed term in the early 2000s. Development of standards and adoption of BIM has progressed at different speeds in different countries; standards developed in the United Kingdom from 2007 onwards have formed the basis of international standard ISO 19650, launched in January 2019.


title: Building information modeling

text: The concept of BIM has existed since the 1970s. The first software tools developed for modeling buildings emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and included workstation products such as Chuck Eastman's Building Description System and GLIDE, RUCAPS, Sonata, Reflex and Gable 4D Series. The early applications, and the hardware needed to run them, were expensive, which limited widespread adoption.


title: Building information modeling

text: The pioneering role of applications such as RUCAPS, Sonata and Reflex has been recognized by Laiserin as well as the UK's Royal Academy of Engineering; former GMW employee Jonathan Ingram worked on all three products. What became known as BIM products differed from architectural drafting tools such as AutoCAD by allowing the addition of further information (time, cost, manufacturers' details, sustainability, and maintenance information, etc.) to the building model.


title: Building information modeling

text: As Graphisoft had been developing such solutions for longer than its competitors, Laiserin regarded its ArchiCAD application as then "one of the most mature BIM solutions on the market." Following its launch in 1987, ArchiCAD became regarded by some as the first implementation of BIM, as it was the first CAD product on a personal computer able to create both 2D and 3D geometry, as well as the first commercial BIM product for personal computers. However, ArchiCAD founder Gábor Bojár has acknowledged to Jonathan Ingram in an open letter, that Sonata "was more advanced in 1986 than ArchiCAD at that time", adding that it "surpassed already the matured definition of 'BIM' specified only about one and a half decade later".


title: Building information modeling

text: The term 'building model' (in the sense of BIM as used today) was first used in papers in the mid-1980s: in a 1985 paper by Simon Ruffle eventually published in 1986, and later in a 1986 paper by Robert Aish – then at GMW Computers Ltd, developer of RUCAPS software – referring to the software's use at London's Heathrow Airport. The term 'Building Information Model' first appeared in a 1992 paper by G.A. van Nederveen and F. P. Tolman.


title: Building information modeling

text: However, the terms 'Building Information Model' and 'Building Information Modeling' (including the acronym "BIM") did not become popularly used until some 10 years later. Facilitating exchange and interoperability of information in digital format was variously with differing terminology: by Graphisoft as "Virtual Building" or "Single Building Model", Bentley Systems as "Integrated Project Models", and by Autodesk or Vectorworks as "Building Information Modeling". In 2002, Autodesk released a white paper entitled "Building Information Modeling," and other software vendors also started to assert their involvement in the field. By hosting contributions from Autodesk, Bentley Systems and Graphisoft, plus other industry observers, in 2003, Jerry Laiserin helped popularize and standardize the term as a common name for the digital representation of the building process.


title: Building information modeling

text: As some BIM software developers have created proprietary data structures in their software, data and files created by one vendor's applications may not work in other vendor solutions. To achieve interoperability between applications, neutral, non-proprietary or open standards for sharing BIM data among different software applications have been developed.


title: Building information modeling

text: Poor software interoperability has long been regarded as an obstacle to industry efficiency in general and to BIM adoption in particular. In August 2004 a US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report conservatively estimated that $15.8 billion was lost annually by the U.S. capital facilities industry due to inadequate interoperability arising from "the highly fragmented nature of the industry, the industry’s continued paper-based business practices, a lack of standardization, and inconsistent technology adoption among stakeholders".


title: Building information modeling

text: An early BIM standard was the CIMSteel Integration Standard, CIS/2, a product model and data exchange file format for structural steel project information (CIMsteel: Computer Integrated Manufacturing of Constructional Steelwork). CIS/2 enables seamless and integrated information exchange during the design and construction of steel framed structures. It was developed by the University of Leeds and the UK's Steel Construction Institute in the late 1990s, with inputs from Georgia Tech, and was approved by the American Institute of Steel Construction as its data exchange format for structural steel in 2000.<ref name="NIST-CIS/2"></ref>


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM is often associated with Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and aecXML – data structures for representing information – developed by buildingSMART. IFC is recognised by the ISO and has been an official international standard, ISO 16739, since 2013.


title: Building information modeling

text: Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBie) is also associated with BIM. COBie was devised by Bill East of the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 2007, and helps capture and record equipment lists, product data sheets, warranties, spare parts lists, and preventive maintenance schedules. This information is used to support operations, maintenance and asset management once a built asset is in service. In December 2011, it was approved by the US-based National Institute of Building Sciences as part of its National Building Information Model (NBIMS-US) standard. COBie has been incorporated into software, and may take several forms including spreadsheet, IFC, and ifcXML. In early 2013 BuildingSMART was working on a lightweight XML format, COBieLite, which became available for review in April 2013. In September 2014, a code of practice regarding COBie was issued as a British Standard: BS 1192-4.


title: Building information modeling

text: In January 2019, ISO published the first two parts of ISO 19650, providing a framework for building information modelling, based on process standards developed in the United Kingdom. UK BS and PAS 1192 specifications form the basis of further parts of the ISO 19650 series, with parts on asset management (Part 3) and security management (Part 5) published in 2020.


title: Building information modeling

text: The IEC/ISO 81346 series for reference designation has published 81346-12:2018, also known as RDS-CW (Reference Designation System for Construction Works). The use of RDS-CW offers the prospect of integrating BIM with complementary international standards based classification systems being developed for the Power Plant sector.


title: Building information modeling

text: Traditional building design was largely reliant upon two-dimensional technical drawings (plans, elevations, sections, etc.). Building information modeling extends the three primary spatial dimensions (width, height and depth), incorporating information about time (so-called 4D BIM), cost (5D BIM), asset management, sustainability, etc. BIM therefore covers more than just geometry. It also covers spatial relationships, geospatial information, quantities and properties of building components (for example, manufacturers' details), and enables a wide range of collaborative processes relating to the built asset from initial planning through to construction and then throughout its operational life.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM authoring tools present a design as combinations of "objects" – vague and undefined, generic or product-specific, solid shapes or void-space oriented (like the shape of a room), that carry their geometry, relations, and attributes. BIM applications allow extraction of different views from a building model for drawing production and other uses. These different views are automatically consistent, being based on a single definition of each object instance. BIM software also defines objects parametrically; that is, the objects are defined as parameters and relations to other objects so that if a related object is amended, dependent ones will automatically also change. Each model element can carry attributes for selecting and ordering them automatically, providing cost estimates as well as material tracking and ordering.


title: Building information modeling

text: For the professionals involved in a project, BIM enables a virtual information model to be shared by the design team (architects, landscape architects, surveyors, civil, structural and building services engineers, etc.), the main contractor and subcontractors, and the owner/operator. Each professional adds discipline-specific data to the shared model – commonly, a 'federated' model which combines several different disciplines' models into one. Combining models enables visualisation of all models in a single environment, better coordination and development of designs, enhanced clash avoidance and detection, and improved time and cost decision-making.


title: Building information modeling

text: "BIM wash" or "BIM washing" is a term sometimes used to describe inflated, and/or deceptive, claims of using or delivering BIM services or products. Also termed, "faking the BIM."


title: Building information modeling

text: Use of BIM goes beyond the planning and design phase of the project, extending throughout the building life cycle. The supporting processes of building lifecycle management include cost management, construction management, project management, facility operation and application in green building.


title: Building information modeling

text: A CDE workflow describes the processes to be used while a CDE solution can provide the underlying technologies. A CDE is used to share data across a project or asset lifecycle, supporting collaboration across a whole project team (the meaning overlaps with enterprise content management, ECM, but with a greater focus on BIM issues).


title: Building information modeling

text: Building information models span the whole concept-to-occupation time-span. To ensure efficient management of information processes throughout this span, a BIM manager might be appointed. The BIM manager is retained by a design build team on the client's behalf from the pre-design phase onwards to develop and to track the object-oriented BIM against predicted and measured performance objectives, supporting multi-disciplinary building information models that drive analysis, schedules, take-off and logistics. Companies are also now considering developing BIMs in various levels of detail, since depending on the application of BIM, more or less detail is needed, and there is varying modeling effort associated with generating building information models at different levels of detail.


title: Building information modeling

text: Participants in the building process are constantly challenged to deliver successful projects despite tight budgets, limited staffing, accelerated schedules, and limited or conflicting information. The significant disciplines such as architectural, structural and MEP designs should be well-coordinated, as two things can't take place at the same place and time. BIM additionally is able to aid in collision detection, identifying the exact location of discrepancies.


title: Building information modeling

text: The BIM concept envisages virtual construction of a facility prior to its actual physical construction, in order to reduce uncertainty, improve safety, work out problems, and simulate and analyze potential impacts. Sub-contractors from every trade can input critical information into the model before beginning construction, with opportunities to pre-fabricate or pre-assemble some systems off-site. Waste can be minimised on-site and products delivered on a just-in-time basis rather than being stock-piled on-site.


title: Building information modeling

text: Quantities and shared properties of materials can be extracted easily. Scopes of work can be isolated and defined. Systems, assemblies and sequences can be shown in a relative scale with the entire facility or group of facilities. BIM also prevents errors by enabling conflict or 'clash detection' whereby the computer model visually highlights to the team where parts of the building (e.g.:structural frame and building services pipes or ducts) may wrongly intersect.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM can bridge the information loss associated with handling a project from design team, to construction team and to building owner/operator, by allowing each group to add to and reference back to all information they acquire during their period of contribution to the BIM model. This can yield benefits to the facility owner or operator.


title: Building information modeling

text: For example, a building owner may find evidence of a leak in his building. Rather than exploring the physical building, he may turn to the model and see that a water valve is located in the suspect location. He could also have in the model the specific valve size, manufacturer, part number, and any other information ever researched in the past, pending adequate computing power. Such problems were initially addressed by Leite and Akinci when developing a vulnerability representation of facility contents and threats for supporting the identification of vulnerabilities in building emergencies.


title: Building information modeling

text: Dynamic information about the building, such as sensor measurements and control signals from the building systems, can also be incorporated within BIM software to support analysis of building operation and maintenance.


title: Building information modeling

text: There have been attempts at creating information models for older, pre-existing facilities. Approaches include referencing key metrics such as the Facility Condition Index (FCI), or using 3D laser-scanning surveys and photogrammetry techniques (separately or in combination) or digitizing traditional building surveying methodologies by using mobile technology to capture accurate measurements and operation-related information about the asset that can be used as the basis for a model. Trying to model a building constructed in, say 1927, requires numerous assumptions about design standards, building codes, construction methods, materials, etc., and is, therefore, more complex than building a model during design.


title: Building information modeling

text: One of the challenges to the proper maintenance and management of existing facilities is understanding how BIM can be utilized to support a holistic understanding and implementation of building management practices and "cost of ownership" principles that support the full product lifecycle of a building.  An American National Standard entitled "APPA 1000 – Total Cost of Ownership for Facilities Asset Management" incorporates BIM to factor in a variety of critical requirements and costs over the life-cycle of the building, including but not limited to: replacement of energy, utility, and safety systems; continual maintenance of the building exterior and interior and replacement of materials; updates to design and functionality; and recapitalization costs.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM in green building, or "green BIM", is a process that can help architecture, engineering and construction firms to improve sustainability in the built environment. It can allow architects and engineers to integrate and analyze environmental issues in their design over the life cycle of the asset.


title: Building information modeling

text: China began its exploration on informatisation in 2001. The Ministry of Construction announced BIM was as the key application technology of informatisation in ""Ten new technologies of construction industry"" (by 2010). The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) clearly announced BIM technology as a national key research and application project in ""12th Five-Year" Science and Technology Development Planning." Therefore, the year 2011 was described as ""The First Year of China's BIM"".


title: Building information modeling

text: In 2006 the Hong Kong Housing Authority introduced BIM, and then set a target of full BIM implementation in 2014/2015. BuildingSmart Hong Kong was inaugurated in Hong Kong SAR in late April 2012. The Government of Hong Kong mandates the use of BIM for all government projects over HK$30M since 1 January 2018.


title: Building information modeling

text: India Building Information Modelling Association (IBIMA) is a national-level society that represents the entire Indian BIM community. In India BIM is also known as VDC: Virtual Design and Construction. Due to its population and economic growth, India has an expanding construction market. In spite of this, BIM usage was reported by only 22% of respondents in a 2014 survey. In 2019, government officials said BIM could help save up to 20% by shortening construction time, and urged wider adoption by infrastructure ministries.


title: Building information modeling

text: The Iran Building Information Modeling Association (IBIMA) was founded in 2012 by professional engineers from five universities in Iran, including the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Amirkabir University of Technology. While it is not currently active, IBIMA aims to share knowledge resources to support construction engineering management decision-making.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM implementation is targeted towards BIM Stage 2 by the year 2020 led by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB Malaysia). Under the Construction Industry Transformation Plan (CITP 2016–2020), it is hoped more emphasis on technology adoption across the project life-cycle will induce higher productivity.


title: Building information modeling

text: The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has announced that BIM would be introduced for architectural submission (by 2013), structural and M&E submissions (by 2014) and eventually for plan submissions of all projects with gross floor area of more than 5,000 square meters by 2015. The BCA Academy is training students in BIM.


title: Building information modeling

text: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) has announced "Start of BIM pilot project in government building and repairs" (by 2010). Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) released the BIM guidelines (by 2012), which showed the agenda and expected effect of BIM to architects. MLIT announced " BIM will be mandated for all of its public works from the fiscal year of 2023, except those having particular reasons". The works subject to WTO Government Procurement Agreement shall comply with the published ISO standards related to BIM such as ISO19650 series as determined by the Article 10 (Technical Specification) of the Agreement.


title: Building information modeling

text: Small BIM-related seminars and independent BIM effort existed in South Korea even in the 1990s. However, it was not until the late 2000s that the Korean industry paid attention to BIM. The first industry-level BIM conference was held in April 2008, after which, BIM has been spread very rapidly. Since 2010, the Korean government has been gradually increasing the scope of BIM-mandated projects. McGraw Hill published a detailed report in 2012 on the status of BIM adoption and implementation in South Korea.


title: Building information modeling

text: Dubai Municipality issued a circular (196) in 2014 mandating BIM use for buildings of a certain size, height or type. The one page circular initiated strong interest in BIM and the market responded in preparation for more guidelines and direction. In 2015 the Municipality issued another circular (207) titled 'Regarding the expansion of applying the (BIM) on buildings and facilities in the emirate of Dubai' which made BIM mandatory on more projects by reducing the minimum size and height requirement for projects requiring BIM. This second circular drove BIM adoption further with several projects and organizations adopting UK BIM standards as best practice. In 2016, the UAE's Quality and Conformity Commission set up a BIM steering group to investigate statewide adoption of BIM.


title: Building information modeling

text: Austrian standards for digital modeling are summarized in the ÖNORM A 6241, published on 15 March 2015. The ÖNORM A 6241-1 (BIM Level 2), which replaced the ÖNORM A 6240-4, has been extended in the detailed and executive design stages, and corrected in the lack of definitions. The ÖNORM A 6241-2 (BIM Level 3) includes all the requirements for the BIM Level 3 (iBIM).


title: Building information modeling

text: The Czech BIM Council, established in May 2011, aims to implement BIM methodologies into the Czech building and designing processes, education, standards and legislation.


title: Building information modeling

text: In Estonia digital construction cluster (Digitaalehituse Klaster) was formed in 2015 to develop BIM solutions for the whole life-cycle of construction. The strategic objective of the cluster is to develop an innovative digital construction environment as well as VDC new product development, Grid and e-construction portal to increase the international competitiveness and sales of Estonian businesses in the construction field. The cluster is equally co-funded by European Structural and Investment Funds through Enterprise Estonia and by the members of the cluster with a total budget of 600 000 euros for the period 2016–2018.


title: Building information modeling

text: The French arm of buildingSMART, called Mediaconstruct (existing since 1989), is supporting digital transformation in France. A building transition digital plan – French acronym PTNB – was created in 2013 (mandated since 2015 to 2017 and under several ministries). A 2013 survey of European BIM practice showed France in last place, but, with government support, in 2017 it had risen to third place with more than 30% of real estate projects carried out using BIM. PTNB was superseded in 2018 by Plan BIM 2022, administered by an industry body, the Association for the Development of Digital in Construction (AND Construction), founded in 2017, and supported by a digital platform, KROQI, developed and launched in 2017 by CSTB (France's Scientific and Technical Centre for Building).


title: Building information modeling

text: In December 2015, the German minister for transport Alexander Dobrindt announced a timetable for the introduction of mandatory BIM for German road and rail projects from the end of 2020. Speaking in April 2016, he said digital design and construction must become standard for construction projects in Germany, with Germany two to three years behind The Netherlands and the UK in aspects of implementing BIM. BIM was piloted in many areas of German infrastructure delivery and in July 2022 Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, announced that, from 2025, BIM will be used as standard in the construction of federal trunk roads in addition to the rail sector.


title: Building information modeling

text: In November 2017, Ireland's Department for Public Expenditure and Reform launched a strategy to increase use of digital technology in delivery of key public works projects, requiring the use of BIM to be phased in over the next four years.


title: Building information modeling

text: Through the new D.l. 50, in April 2016 Italy has included into its own legislation several European directives including 2014/24/EU on Public Procurement. The decree states among the main goals of public procurement the "rationalization of designing activities and of all connected verification processes, through the progressive adoption of digital methods and electronic instruments such as Building and Infrastructure Information Modelling". A norm in 8 parts is also being written to support the transition: UNI 11337-1, UNI 11337-4 and UNI 11337-5 were published in January 2017, with five further chapters to follow within a year.


title: Building information modeling

text: In early 2018 the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport issued a decree (DM 01/12/17) creating a governmental BIM Mandate compelling public client organisations to adopt a digital approach by 2025, with an incremental obligation which will start on 1 January 2019.


title: Building information modeling

text: Lithuania is moving towards adoption of BIM infrastructure by founding a public body "Skaitmeninė statyba" (Digital Construction), which is managed by 13 associations. Also, there is a BIM work group established by Lietuvos Architektų Sąjunga (a Lithuanian architects body). The initiative intends Lithuania to adopt BIM, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and National Construction Classification as standard. An international conference "Skaitmeninė statyba Lietuvoje" (Digital Construction in Lithuania) has been held annually since 2012.


title: Building information modeling

text: On 1 November 2011, the Rijksgebouwendienst, the agency within the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment that manages government buildings, introduced the Rgd BIM Standard, which it updated on 1 July 2012.


title: Building information modeling

text: In Norway BIM has been used increasingly since 2008. Several large public clients require use of BIM in open formats (IFC) in most or all of their projects. The Government Building Authority bases its processes on BIM in open formats to increase process speed and quality, and all large and several small and medium-sized contractors use BIM. National BIM development is centred around the local organisation, buildingSMART Norway which represents 25% of the Norwegian construction industry.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIMKlaster (BIM Cluster) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation established in 2012 with the aim of promoting BIM development in Poland. In September 2016, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Construction began a series of expert meetings concerning the application of BIM methodologies in the construction industry.


title: Building information modeling

text: Created in 2015 to promote the adoption of BIM in Portugal and its normalisation, the Technical Committee for BIM Standardisation, CT197-BIM, has created the first strategic document for construction 4.0 in Portugal, aiming to align the country's industry around a common vision, integrated and more ambitious than a simple technology change.


title: Building information modeling

text: The Russian government has approved a list of the regulations that provide the creation of a legal framework for the use of information modeling of buildings in construction and encourages the use of BIM in government projects.


title: Building information modeling

text: The BIM Association of Slovakia, "BIMaS", was established in January 2013 as the first Slovak professional organisation focused on BIM. Although there are neither standards nor legislative requirements to deliver projects in BIM, many architects, structural engineers and contractors, plus a few investors are already applying BIM. A Slovak implementation strategy created by BIMaS and supported by the Chamber of Civil Engineers and Chamber of Architects has yet to be approved by Slovak authorities due to their low interest in such innovation.


title: Building information modeling

text: A July 2015 meeting at Spain's Ministry of Infrastructure [Ministerio de Fomento] launched the country's national BIM strategy, making BIM a mandatory requirement on public sector projects with a possible starting date of 2018. Following a February 2015 BIM summit in Barcelona, professionals in Spain established a BIM commission (ITeC) to drive the adoption of BIM in Catalonia.


title: Building information modeling

text: Since 2009 through the initiative of buildingSmart Switzerland, then 2013, BIM awareness among a broader community of engineers and architects was raised due to the open competition for Basel's Felix Platter Hospital where a BIM coordinator was sought. BIM has also been a subject of events by the Swiss Society for Engineers and Architects, SIA.


title: Building information modeling

text: In May 2011 UK Government Chief Construction Adviser Paul Morrell called for BIM adoption on UK government construction projects. Morrell also told construction professionals to adopt BIM or be "Betamaxed out". In June 2011 the UK government published its BIM strategy, announcing its intention to require collaborative 3D BIM (with all project and asset information, documentation and data being electronic) on its projects by 2016. Initially, compliance would require building data to be delivered in a vendor-neutral 'COBie' format, thus overcoming the limited interoperability of BIM software suites available on the market. The UK Government BIM Task Group led the government's BIM programme and requirements, including a free-to-use set of UK standards and tools that defined 'level 2 BIM'. In April 2016, the UK Government published a new central web portal as a point of reference for the industry for 'level 2 BIM'. The work of the BIM Task Group now continues under the stewardship of the Cambridge-based Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), announced in December 2017 and formally launched in early 2018.


title: Building information modeling

text: Outside of government, industry adoption of BIM from 2016 has been led by the UK BIM Alliance, an independent, not-for-profit, collaboratively-based organisation formed to champion and enable the implementation of BIM, and to connect and represent organisations, groups and individuals working towards digital transformation of the UK's built environment industry. The UK BIM Alliance's executive team directs activities in three core areas: engagement, implementation and operations (internal support and secretariat functions). In November 2017, the UK BIM Alliance merged with the UK chapter of BuildingSMART. In October 2019, CDBB, the UK BIM Alliance and the BSI Group launched the UK BIM Framework. Superseding the BIM levels approach, the framework describes an overarching approach to implementing BIM in the UK, giving free guidance on integrating the international ISO 19650 series of standards into UK processes and practice.


title: Building information modeling

text: National Building Specification (NBS) has published research into BIM adoption in the UK since 2011, and in 2020 published its 10th annual BIM report. In 2011, 43% of respondents had not heard of BIM; in 2020 73% said they were using BIM.


title: Building information modeling

text: Several organizations support BIM adoption and implementation in Canada: the Canada BIM Council (CANBIM, founded in 2008), the Institute for BIM in Canada, and buildingSMART Canada (the Canadian chapter of buildingSMART International).


title: Building information modeling

text: The Associated General Contractors of America and US contracting firms have developed various working definitions of BIM that describe it generally as:


title: Building information modeling

text: Although the concept of BIM and relevant processes are being explored by contractors, architects and developers alike, the term itself has been questioned and debated with alternatives including Virtual Building Environment (VBE) also considered. Unlike some countries such as the UK, the US has not adopted a set of national BIM guidelines, allowing different systems to remain in competition. In 2021, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) looked at applying UK BIM experiences to developing shared US BIM standards and processes. The US National BIM Standard had largely been developed through volunteer efforts; NIBS aimed to create a national BIM programme to drive effective adoption at a national scale.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM is seen to be closely related to Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) where the primary motive is to bring the teams together early on in the project. A full implementation of BIM also requires the project teams to collaborate from the inception stage and formulate model sharing and ownership contract documents.


title: Building information modeling

text: The American Institute of Architects has defined BIM as "a model-based technology linked with a database of project information", and this reflects the general reliance on database technology as the foundation. In the future, structured text documents such as specifications may be able to be searched and linked to regional, national, and international standards.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM has the potential to play a vital role in the Nigerian AEC sector. In addition to its potential clarity and transparency, it may help promote standardization across the industry. For instance, Utiome suggests that, in conceptualizing a BIM-based knowledge transfer framework from industrialized economies to urban construction projects in developing nations, generic BIM objects can benefit from rich building information within specification parameters in product libraries, and used for efficient, streamlined design and construction. Similarly, an assessment of the current 'state of the art' by Kori found that medium and large firms were leading the adoption of BIM in the industry. Smaller firms were less advanced with respect to process and policy adherence. There has been little adoption of BIM in the built environment due to construction industry resistance to changes or new ways of doing things. The industry is still working with conventional 2D CAD systems in services and structural designs, although production could be in 3D systems. There is virtually no utilisation of 4D and 5D systems.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM Africa Initiative, primarily based in Nigeria, is a non-profit institute advocating the adoption of BIM across Africa. Since 2018, it has been engaging with professionals and the government towards the digital transformation of the built industry. Produced annually by its research and development committee, the African BIM Report gives an overview of BIM adoption across the African continent.


title: Building information modeling

text: The South African BIM Institute, established in May 2015, aims to enable technical experts to discuss digital construction solutions that can be adopted by professionals working within the construction sector. Its initial task was to promote the SA BIM Protocol.


title: Building information modeling

text: There are no mandated or national best practice BIM standards or protocols in South Africa. Organisations implement company-specific BIM standards and protocols at best (there are isolated examples of cross-industry alliances).


title: Building information modeling

text: In February 2016, Infrastructure Australia recommended: "Governments should make the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) mandatory for the design of large-scale complex infrastructure projects. In support of a mandatory rollout, the Australian Government should commission the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council, working with industry, to develop appropriate guidance around the adoption and use of BIM; and common standards and protocols to be applied when using BIM".


title: Building information modeling

text: In 2015, many projects in the rebuilding of Christchurch were being assembled in detail on a computer using BIM well before workers set foot on the site. The New Zealand government started a BIM acceleration committee, as part of a productivity partnership with the goal of 20 per cent more efficiency in the construction industry by 2020.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM is a relatively new technology in an industry typically slow to adopt change. Yet many early adopters are confident that BIM will grow to play an even more crucial role in building documentation.


title: Building information modeling

text: BIM also contains most of the data needed for building performance analysis. The building properties in BIM can be used to automatically create the input file for building performance simulation and save a significant amount of time and effort. Moreover, automation of this process reduce errors and mismatches in the building performance simulation process.


title: Building information modeling

text: Some purposes or uses of BIM may be described as 'dimensions'. However, there is little consensus on definitions beyond 5D. Some organisations dismiss the term; for example, the UK Institution of Structural Engineers does not recommend using nD modelling terms beyond 4D, adding "cost (5D) is not really a 'dimension'."


title: Building information modeling

text: 3D BIM, an acronym for three-dimensional building information modeling, refers to the graphical representation of an asset's geometric design, augmented by information describing attributes of individual components. 3D BIM work may be undertaken by professional disciplines such as architectural, structural, and MEP, and the use of 3D models enhances coordination and collaboration between disciplines. A 3D virtual model can also be created by creating a point cloud of the building or facility using laser scanning technology.


title: Building information modeling

text: 4D BIM, an acronym for 4-dimensional building information modeling, refers to the intelligent linking of individual 3D CAD components or assemblies with time- or scheduling-related information. The term 4D refers to the fourth dimension: time, i.e. 3D plus time.


title: Building information modeling

text: 4D modelling enables project participants (architects, designers, contractors, clients) to plan, sequence the physical activities, visualise the critical path of a series of events, mitigate the risks, report and monitor progress of activities through the lifetime of the project. 4D BIM enables a sequence of events to be depicted visually on a time line that has been populated by a 3D model, augmenting traditional Gantt charts and critical path (CPM) schedules often used in project management. Construction sequences can be reviewed as a series of problems using 4D BIM, enabling users to explore options, manage solutions and optimize results.


title: Building information modeling

text: As an advanced construction management technique, it has been used by project delivery teams working on larger projects. 4D BIM has traditionally been used for higher end projects due to the associated costs, but technologies are now emerging that allow the process to be used by laymen or to drive processes such as manufacture.


title: Building information modeling

text: 5D BIM, an acronym for 5-dimensional building information modeling refers to the intelligent linking of individual 3D components or assemblies with time schedule (4D BIM) constraints and then with cost-related information. 5D models enable participants to visualise construction progress and related costs over time. This BIM-centric project management technique has potential to improve management and delivery of projects of any size or complexity.


title: Building information modeling

text: In June 2016, McKinsey & Company identified 5D BIM technology as one of five big ideas poised to disrupt construction. It defined 5D BIM as "a five-dimensional representation of the physical and functional characteristics of any project. It considers a project’s time schedule and cost in addition to the standard spatial design parameters in 3-D."


title: Building information modeling

text: 6D BIM, an acronym for 6-dimensional building information modeling, is sometimes used to refer to the intelligent linking of individual 3D components or assemblies with all aspects of project life-cycle management information. However, there is less consensus about the definition of 6D BIM; it is also sometimes used to cover use of BIM for sustainability purposes.


title: Building information modeling

text: In the project life cycle context, a 6D model is usually delivered to the owner when a construction project is finished. The "As-Built" BIM model is populated with relevant building component information such as product data and details, maintenance/operation manuals, cut sheet specifications, photos, warranty data, web links to product online sources, manufacturer information and contacts, etc. This database is made accessible to the users/owners through a customized proprietary web-based environment. This is intended to aid facilities managers in the operation and maintenance of the facility.


title: Building information modeling

text: The term is less commonly used in the UK and has been replaced with reference to the Asset Information Requirements (AIR) and an Asset Information Model (AIM) as specified in BS EN ISO 19650-3:2020.


title: Exploits of a Young Don Juan

text: Exploits of a Young Don Juan (, , also known as What Every Frenchwoman Wants) is a 1986 French-Italian erotic coming of age film written and directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi.


title: Exploits of a Young Don Juan

text: Roger comes home from boarding school at the age of 16 during his vacation and this story describes how his puberty hit hard in a house filled with beautiful women


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: The Lucky One is a 2012 American romantic drama film directed by Scott Hicks and released in April 2012. It is an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ 2008 novel of the same name.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: The film stars Zac Efron as Logan Thibault, a US Marine who finds a photograph of a young woman while serving in Iraq, carries it around as a good luck charm, and later tracks down the woman, with whom he begins a relationship.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: Logan Thibault (Zac Efron), a US Marine serving in Iraq, witnesses a Marine called "Aces" die attempting to aid one of his men during an ambush. The following morning, he finds a picture of a young woman on the ground just before a mortar attack destroys where he had been sitting, killing many around him. Unsuccessful at finding the photo's owner, he keeps it. Logan's squad-mate declares the woman in the picture as his "guardian angel," just before an explosion destroys their Humvee.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: Logan returns to Colorado to live with his sister's family, who have been looking after his dog, Zeus. Suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and survivor guilt, he decides it is best to leave and departs to search for the woman in the photo. Logan and Zeus walk to Louisiana, where a lighthouse in the picture has provided a clue. He shows the photo around town and a local resident tells him that the woman used to be married to his friend, a local deputy sheriff.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: Logan finds the woman, Beth Green (Taylor Schilling), but has difficulty explaining why he is there. She assumes he wants a job, and her grandmother, Ellie (Blythe Danner) hires him. At first, Beth is irritated by Logan's presence, but she begins to warm to him as his calm demeanor, willingness to work, and competence in repairing machinery are demonstrated. Logan develops a supportive relationship with Beth's son, Ben, who is without a positive male influence since the death of Beth's brother, Drake.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: Beth's former husband, Sheriff's Deputy Keith Clayton (Jay R. Ferguson)—the son of the town's judge—is immediately suspicious of Logan. He is brusque and overbearing with the former Marine. He discourages Ben from playing the violin around him, leading to Ben practicing in his tree house. When Ben returns bloodied from a charity baseball game, Beth and Keith have an argument, and he threatens to use his connections to take full custody of Ben. She is anxious about Keith's short temper and is fearful of losing her son to him.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: On the anniversary of Drake's death, Beth becomes distraught and Logan calms her down. Keith tries to stop the budding relationship between Beth and Logan, but Beth stands up to Keith, showing that she is not intimidated by him anymore. Keith learns that Logan was asking about her when he first arrived in town and steals the photo, telling Beth that Logan has been stalking her. Her trust destroyed, she is distraught and sends Logan away. Ellie tries to soften Beth, explaining to her that it isn't Logan's fault he survived and Drake did not.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: An intoxicated Keith sees Logan walking with his dog and angrily confronts him, drawing his gun while people on the street begin to panic and run. Logan disarms him, turning the weapon over to another officer. He then heads home to pack, finding a photo of Beth's brother, Drake, inside a book Ben had given him. The tattoo on Drake's forearm says "Aces" and he realizes that Drake was the sergeant from the night raid. He returns to Beth's house to tell her what he knows of how Drake died.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: At Judge Clayton's, Keith is shocked and embarrassed over what he did though his father tells him it will all blow over before the election. Keith walks out into a gathering storm, leaving his badge behind, and goes to Beth to plead for reconciliation. When she gently but firmly refuses, he threatens to take Ben away. Ben overhears and runs out into the storm, followed by Keith and Beth, just as Logan arrives. Ellie urges Logan to follow. Ben is en route to the treehouse, but the rope bridge gives way and he falls into the river along with his father, just as Beth and Logan arrive. Keith, caught in the rope of the bridge, calls to Logan who grabs Ben and hands him to Beth. Before Logan can return for Keith, the treehouse falls on him and he is swept away in the raging river to his death.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: Back home, Beth thanks Logan for saving her son. Logan explains that Drake died saving one of his own men. He starts to leave, but Beth runs after him and says that he belongs with them. Later, Logan, Beth, Zeus, and Ben celebrate Ben's 9th birthday together.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: "The Lucky One" has grossed $60,457,138 in North America and $38,900,000 in other territories for a worldwide total of $99,357,138.


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: In its opening weekend, the film grossed $22,518,358, finishing second at the box office behind "Think Like a Man" ($33,636,303).


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: "The Lucky One" received mostly negative reviews from critics. At Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "negative" rating of 20%, based on 148 reviews and an average rating of 4.3/10, with the critical consensus saying, "While it provides the requisite amount of escapist melodrama, "The Lucky One" ultimately relies on too many schmaltzy clichés to appeal to anyone not already familiar with the Nicholas Sparks formula". It also has a score of 39 on Metacritic based on 35 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: The Lucky One (film)

text: "The Lucky One" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 28, 2012, and grossed over 31 millions on sales.


title: Tiraspol

text: Tiraspol or Tirișpolea (, Moldovan Cyrillic: Тираспол, ; , ; ) is the capital of Transnistria ("de facto"), a breakaway state of Moldova, where it is the third largest city. The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a regional hub of light industry, such as furniture and electrical goods production.


title: Tiraspol

text: The modern city of Tiraspol was founded by the Russian generalissimo Alexander Suvorov in 1792, although the area had been inhabited for thousands of years by varying ethnic groups. The city celebrates its anniversary every year on 14 October.


title: Tiraspol

text: The toponym consists of two ancient Greek words: Τύρας, "Tyras", the Ancient name for the Dniester River, and "polis", i.e., a city (state).


title: Tiraspol

text: Tyras (Τύρας), also spelled "Tiras", was a colony of the Greek city Miletus, probably founded about 600 BC, situated some from the mouth of the Tiras River (Dniester). Of no great importance in early times, in the 2nd century BC it fell under the dominion of indigenous kings whose names appear on its coins. It was destroyed by the Thracian Getae about 50 BC.


title: Tiraspol

text: In 56 AD, the Romans restored the city and made it part of the colonial province of Lower Moesia. A series of its coins exist that feature heads of Roman emperors from Domitian to Severus Alexander. Soon after the time of the latter, the city was destroyed again, this time by the invasion of the Goths. Its government was in the hands of five archons, a senate, a popular assembly and a registrar. The images on its coins from this period suggest a trade in wheat, wine and fish. The few inscriptions extant are mostly concerned with trade.


title: Tiraspol

text: Such ancient archeological remains are scanty, as the city site was built over by the great medieval fortress of Monocastro or Akkerman. During the Middle Ages, the area around Tiraspol was a buffer zone between the Tatars and the Moldavians, and inhabited by both ethnic groups.


title: Tiraspol

text: The Russian Empire conquered its way to the Dniester River, taking territory from the Ottoman Empire. In 1792 the Russian army built fortifications to guard the western border near a Moldavian village named Sucleia. Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov is considered the founder of modern Tiraspol; his statue is the city's most distinctive landmark. The city took its name from "Tyras", the Greek name of the Dniester River on which it stands.


title: Tiraspol

text: In 1828, the Russian government established a customs house in Tiraspol to try to suppress smuggling. The customs house was subordinated to the chief of the Odessa customs region. It began operations with 14 employees. They inspected shipments of bread, paper, oil, wine, sugar, fruits and other goods.


title: Tiraspol

text: After the Russian Revolution, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created in Ukraine in 1924, with Balta as its capital. The republic had Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian as its official languages. Its capital was moved in 1929 to Tiraspol, which remained the capital of the Moldavian ASSR until 1940.


title: Tiraspol

text: In 1940, following the secret provisions of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the USSR forced Romania to cede Bessarabia. It integrated Tiraspol, until then part of the Ukrainian SSR, into the newly formed Moldavian SSR. On 7 August 1941, following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, the city was taken over by Romanian troops. Later that month, on 19 August, the Tiraspol Agreement establishing the Transnistria Governorate was signed. During the occupation, Tiraspol was under Romanian administration. During that period almost all of its Jewish population died: they were slain "in situ" or deported to German Nazi death camps, where they were murdered.


title: Tiraspol

text: In 1941, before the occupation, the newspaper "Dnestrovskaya Pravda" was founded by the Tiraspol City Council of popular deputies. This is the oldest periodical publication in the region. On 12 April 1944, the city was retaken by the Red Army and became again part of Moldavian SSR.


title: Tiraspol

text: On 27 January 1990, the citizens in Tiraspol passed a referendum declaring the city as an independent territory. The nearby city of Bendery also declared its independence from Moldova. As the Russian-speaking independence movement gained momentum, some local governments banded together to resist pressure from the Moldovan government for nationalization.


title: Tiraspol

text: On 2 September 1990, Tiraspol was proclaimed the capital of the new Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The new republic was not officially recognized by Soviet authorities; however, it received support from some important Soviet leaders, such as Anatoly Lukyanov. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the territory east of the Dniester River declared independence as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), with Tiraspol as its capital. It was not recognized by the international community.


title: Tiraspol

text: On 1 July 2005, the Lucian Blaga Lyceum, a high school with Romanian as its language of instruction, was registered as a Transnistrian non-governmental establishment. The registration of six Romanian language schools has been the subject of negotiations with the government since 2000. The tension increased in the summer of 2004, when the Transnistrian authorities forcibly closed the schools that taught using the Latin script. According to the official PMR view, this is considered as Romanian. "Moldovan", written in the Cyrillic script, is one of the three official languages in the PMR; Romanian is not. Some economic measures and counter-measures were taken on both banks of the Dniester.


title: Tiraspol

text: Tensions have been seen in terrorist incidents. On 6 July 2006, an explosion, believed to be caused by a bomb, killed at least eight people in a minibus. Later on 13 August, a grenade exploded in a trolleybus, killing two and injuring ten. The 2022 Tiraspol bombing happened on the 25 April 2022 during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine when several explosions were reported near the Ministry of State Security (Transnistria) in Tiraspol. Firefighters were on the scene but there were no casualties.


title: Tiraspol

text: Tiraspol features a humid continental climate that closely borders an oceanic climate and has transitional features of the humid subtropical climate due to its warm summers. Summers are mild, with average monthly temperatures at around in July and August. Winters are cold, with average temperatures in the coldest month (January) at . Precipitation is relatively evenly spread throughout the year, though there is a noticeable increase in monthly precipitation in June and July. Tiraspol on average sees nearly of precipitation per year.


title: Tiraspol

text: The population of the city was about 190,000 in 1989 and about 203,000 in 1992. 41% were Russians, 32% Ukrainians (both Eastern Slavic) and 18% were Moldovans (Romanians).


title: Tiraspol

text: As result of the political and economic situation that followed the proclamation of the independent (unrecognized) Transnistria, as well as large Jewish emigration in the early 1990s, the population of the city fell below its 1989 number and the 2004 Transnistrian census put its population at 158,069.


title: Tiraspol

text: The Latin Catholic minority was served by its own Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiraspol (originally called Cherson), which at times also covered part of neighbouring Romania and Russia, until its 2002 suppression and merger into the Russian Diocese of Saint Clement at Saratov.


title: Tiraspol

text: The statue of Alexander Suvorov was erected in the central square in 1979 in commemoration of his 250th anniversary. In front of the Transnistrian Government building there is a statue of Vladimir Lenin. On the opposite side of the central square, a monument plaza features a Soviet T-34 tank, commemorating the Soviet victory in World War II, an eternal flame to those who fell defending the city in 1941 and liberating it in 1944, as well as several monuments dedicated to more recent conflicts, including the Soviet–Afghan War and the War of Transnistria.


title: Tiraspol

text: The two main football clubs are Sheriff Tiraspol and FC Tiraspol. Sheriff is the most successful Moldovan football club of recent history, winning 14 league titles since the 2000–2001 season, and 6 Moldovan Cups. Noted for their last-minute 2–1 Champions League victory against Real Madrid on 28 September 2021. A third club, CS Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol, withdrew from competition prior to the 2009–2010 season. Tiraspol is home to the Sheriff Stadium, the largest capacity stadium in the region, with a capacity of 14,300 seats.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate (Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. All countries require registration plates for road vehicles such as cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Whether they are required for other vehicles, such as bicycles, boats, or tractors, may vary by jurisdiction. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric ID that uniquely identifies the vehicle or vehicle owner within the issuing region's vehicle register. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, while in others it is unique within a state or province. Whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. There are also electronic license plates.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In Europe, most governments require a registration plate to be attached to both the front and rear of a vehicle, although certain jurisdictions or vehicle types, such as motorcycles, require only one plate, which is usually attached to the rear of the vehicle. Special vehicles such as agricultural and construction equipment might have the license plate attached to other parts of the vehicle. National databases relate this number to other information describing the vehicle, such as the make, model, colour, year of manufacture, engine size, type of fuel used, mileage recorded (and other similar data in jurisdictions where vehicles are regularly inspected for roadworthiness every year or two), vehicle identification number (chassis number), and the name and address of the vehicle's registered owner or keeper.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In the vast majority of jurisdictions, the government holds a monopoly on the manufacturing of vehicle registration plates for that jurisdiction. Either a government agency or a private company with express contractual authorization from the government makes plates as needed, which are then mailed to, delivered to, or picked up by the vehicle owners. Thus, it is normally illegal for private citizens to make and affix their own plates, because such unauthorized private manufacturing is equivalent to forging an official document. Alternatively, the government will merely assign plate numbers, and it is the vehicle owner's responsibility to find an approved private supplier to make a plate with that number.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In some jurisdictions, plates will be permanently assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. If the vehicle is either destroyed or exported to a different jurisdiction, the plate number is retired or reissued; exported vehicles must be re-registered in the jurisdiction of import. China requires the re-registration of any vehicle that crosses its borders from another country, such as for overland tourist visits, regardless of the length of time it is due to remain there; this has to be arranged with prior approval. Other jurisdictions follow a "plate-to-owner" policy, meaning that when a vehicle is sold the seller removes the current plate(s) from the vehicle. Buyers must either obtain new plates or attach plates they already hold, as well as register their vehicles under the buyer's name and plate number. A person who sells a car and then purchases a new one can apply to have the old plates put onto the new car. One who sells a car and does not buy a new one may, depending on the local laws involved, have to turn the old plates in or destroy them, or may be permitted to keep them. Some jurisdictions permit the registration of the vehicle with "personal" ("vanity" or "cherished mark") plates.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In some jurisdictions, plates require periodic replacement, often associated with a design change of the plate itself. Vehicle owners may or may not have the option to keep their original plate number, and may have to pay a fee to exercise this option. Alternately, or additionally, vehicle owners have to replace a small decal on the plate or use a decal on the windshield to indicate the expiration date of the vehicle registration, periodic safety and/or emissions inspections or vehicle taxation. Other jurisdictions have replaced the decal requirement through the use of computerization: a central database maintains records of which plate numbers are associated with expired registrations, communicating with automated number plate readers to enable law-enforcement to identify expired registrations in the field.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Plates are usually fixed directly to a vehicle or to a plate frame that is fixed to the vehicle. Sometimes, the plate frames contain advertisements inserted by the vehicle service centre or the dealership from which the vehicle was purchased. Vehicle owners can also purchase customized frames to replace the original frames. In some jurisdictions registration plate frames are illegal or have design restrictions. For example, many states, like Texas, allow plate frames but prohibit plate frames from covering the name of the state, province, district, Native American tribe or country that issued the license plate (when that information appears on the plate). Plates are designed to conform to standards with regard to being read by eye in day or at night, or by electronic equipment. Some drivers purchase clear, smoke-colored or tinted covers that go over the registration plate to prevent electronic equipment from scanning the registration plate. Legality of these covers varies. Some cameras incorporate filter systems that make such avoidance attempts unworkable, usually with infra-red filters.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Vehicles pulling trailers, such as caravans and semi-trailer trucks, are typically required to display a third registration plate on the rear of the trailer.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: An engineering study by the University of Illinois published in 1960 recommended that the state of Illinois adopt a numbering system and plate design "composed of combinations of characters which can be perceived quickly and accurately, are legible at a distance of approximately under daylight conditions, and are readily adapted to filing and administrative procedures". It also recommended that a standard plate size of by be adopted through the United States to replace the earlier by size to allow longer registration numbers to be displayed without excessively tight spacing or excessively thin or narrow characters.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In order to combat registration plate fraud, from the 1920s several jurisdictions developed their own anti-fraud typefaces so that characters cannot be painted or modified to resemble other characters. Since the 1990s, many jurisdictions have adopted the FE-Schrift typeface.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: English uses 10 digits and 26 letters (languages such as German, Icelandic and Danish allow for extra letters), so assuming that the letters vs. numbers must appear in particular locations, (common on plates in most jurisdictions, for instance 4 numbers and 2 letters where the letters must come first, allowing AB1234 but excluding A12B34). Allowing for repeating letters and numbers, the combinations for each of these will be:


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: If letters and digits can appear in any order, it is problematic to allow both the letter O and the digit 0 to be used. Even if the license plate uses distinguishable characters for the two, someone transcribing the plate may not know which symbol has which meaning, and the owner of plate EM6F9VO may get in trouble for something the owner of plate EM6F9V0 did. Other letter/number pairs, like I and 1, may be similarly problematic to a lesser degree. Allowing for repeating letters and numbers, the combinations for each of these will be:


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: France was the first country to introduce the registration plate with the enactment of the Paris Police Ordinance on 14 August 1893, followed by Germany in 1896. The Netherlands was the first country to introduce a national registration plate, called a "driving permit", in 1898. Initially these plates were just sequentially numbered, starting at 1, but this was changed in 1906.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In the United States, where each state issues plates, New York State has required plates since 1903 (black numerals on a white background) after first requiring in 1901 only that the owner's initials be clearly visible on the back of the vehicle. At first, plates were not government-issued in most jurisdictions and motorists were obliged to make their own. In 1903, Massachusetts was the first state to issue plates. In 1928, Idaho was the first state to put a logo on the plate (the "Idaho Potato").


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In Spain, the first law to define rules on non-animal vehicle traction was and the registration of vehicles was defined as a provincial task in the .


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: The first Spanish registration plate, PM–1, was issued for a Clément-Talbot on 31 October 1900 in Palma de Mallorca. From 1901 to 1905 256 vehicles were registered.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: The earliest plates were made of enamel on metal or ceramic with no backing, which made them fragile and impractical. Few of these early plates survived. Later experimental materials include cardboard, leather, plastic, and, during wartime shortages, copper and pressed soybeans.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: As of the 21st century, most plates are made out of aluminium. Metal plates are manufactured through one of two processes: embossing or riveting. For embossing, a plate is placed between dies on each side corresponding to the desired characters and compressed by a press. For riveting, holes are drilled through the plate and then individual letters are riveted one-by-one to the plate.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: New technology has allowed for the development of digital license plates. In 2018, Michigan approved Public Act 656, making electronic license plates legal.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Early 20th century plates varied in size and shape from one jurisdiction to the next, such that if someone moved, new holes would need to be drilled into the automobile (often on the bumper) to support the new plate. Standardization of plates came in 1957, when automobile manufacturers came to agreement with governments and international standards organizations. While peculiar local variants exist, there are three basic standards worldwide:


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Algerian registration plates are manufactured according to the same standards as their French counterparts (prior to 2009), using the same font and dimensions – although there has been a recent tendency to apply custom typefaces (impact and century gothic have been observed).


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Normal vehicles have number plates starting with the letter "B", followed by three digits, followed by three letters. The digits and letters are assigned by a registrar. The three letters never include the letter "Q", to avoid confusion with "O". Botswana number plates have a reflective white front and yellow rear background, and black lettering.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Government vehicles all have the prefix "BX", these number plates have a white reflective background with red lettering at the front and white on red at the rear. After 'BX' are the last two numerals of the date of issue and then up to four serial numbers.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Diplomatic vehicles' number plates start with two numerals which indicate the embassy to which they are attached, then two letters CD (Corps Diplomatique), CC (Consular Corps status) or CT (Foreign Technical and Advisory personnel) and another three digits which are serial. The official car of the Head of Mission uses the letters CMD rather than CD and the private vehicle uses CDA.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Botswana is the former British Protectorate of Bechuanaland, and number-plates then used a 'BP' prefix (then BPA, BPB, etc.) followed by up to three numbers, in white on black background, the plates being made in the characteristic style of South Africa at that time.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Vehicles are fitted with registration plates in the front and rear of the vehicle. Motorcycles (50cc or more) must be licensed and only bear rear plates. Registration is performed at the local police or Gendarmerie station. The first digits of the plate indicate the province in which the vehicle is registered. Only plates which meet government standards and are sold by licensed dealers may be fitted.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Private passenger car registration plates have a white background with black letters and numbers. Plates exist in a long pattern and a rectangular pattern, similar in size and appearance to French plates. The plate is adorned with a small flag of Burkina Faso in the shape of the country, inscribed in a black circle. The letters "BF" appear below the circle, also in black. This circle and BF design is to the right of the long plate and to the upper right of the rectangular plate. Motorcycle plates are similar to rectangular automobile plates, but smaller.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Commercial registration plates are similar in appearance to private plates, but the background is blue, and the writing and circle are white.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Security forces plates are black with white letters. They are adorned with the emblem of the relevant security service.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Vehicles in Cameroon display registration plates. The current scheme of regular license plates was introduced in 1985. It has AB1234V formats or AB123VH where AB is the code region, 1234 is the number, and SH is the series. The regular plate has an orange background with black marks. Since 2005, to reflect the German FE font used, on the left side of the plate are the emblems of the Economic Community of Central African States code and the CMR emblem.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: The current series of vehicle registration plates in Kenya are on a white plate with black lettering and look quite similar to UK suffix style registrations. The format is LLL 000L, where ‘L’ denotes a letter and ‘0’ denotes a digit. The older series of number plates were black with white or silver lettering. The rear plates in the older series of number plates were yellow and black lettering. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics there are over 1,626,380 vehicles on Kenyan roads as at 2011.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: New-style (post-1983, black lettering on white) Moroccan vehicle registrations have one or two numbers to the right of the plate to indicate the town of registration.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Each number is separated by a vertical line. To the left of the plate are a series of up to 5 digits issued consecutively. These are separated from the town of registration digits by a hyphen.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Earlier plates (1972–1983, black lettering on white. Pre-1972, white lettering on black) differed in that they could have either one or two numbers to indicate the town of registration. The group of digits was separated from the rest of the plate by a vertical line.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: The current plates use numerals without script. Earlier plates used numerals and included Arabic script.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: South African number plates are unique in each of the provinces. Each province has its own number plate design and colors, as well as numbering scheme.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: The history of registration plates in Argentina can be broken down in two major phases: the decentralized phase (until 1972) and the centralized one (since 1972). During the decentralized phase, registration plates were assigned by each municipality or by the provinces, while during the second phase, the national state took charge of standardizing and centralizing the design and style.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Argentina has used the ABC 123 format since 1995. However, from 2016, new registration plates with the logo of Mercosur and the AB 123 CD format were implemented. Both formats coexist temporarily.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Bolivia's current registration plate system consists of four numbers followed by three letters. At the top of the plate, "BOLIVIA" is spelled out. At the top left corner, the Bolivian flag may be present, and at the top right corner, a letter denoting the department in which the car is registered, according to the code, is displayed on either a metal tab on older plates or a sticker on newer plates. The current registration plate design consists of a white background with a blue borderline and blue letters and numbers.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Serial digits progress sequentially from right to left, with the 000 AAA format followed by the 1000AAA format and currently the 4000AAA format.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Older plate serials consisted of three numbers followed by three letters (A to Z, except O and Q). They had a white background with black letters and numbers.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Brazil adopted its former system in 1990, which uses the form ABC•1234, with a dot between the letters and the numbers. A combination given to a particular vehicle follows it from first issue to the scrapyard: it cannot be transferred to another vehicle. Above the combination there was a metallic band with the state abbreviation (SP = São Paulo, RJ = Rio de Janeiro, PR = Paraná, AM = Amazonas, etc.) and the name of the municipality in which the vehicle title owner resides. During the first registration of a new vehicle, the registering state issues a registration plate to the vehicle rather than owner, and the serial stays with the vehicle for its life.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Brazil, as a member of Mercosur, from September 2018 on, began a new registration system where plates have a blue band at the top with the logo of Mercosur on the left, the country's name centered and country flag on the right. On the bottom left, there is the international vehicle registration code for Brazil: BR. The plates are always white: the letter coloring indicates the category (e.g., black on white: private; blue on white: official, police, fire departments, etc.; red on white: taxis, buses, paid freight, etc.). A new format based on the previous one, ABC1D23, was implemented. All used cars, when transferred to another owner, must change to the new format keeping their registration, where only its second number (the fifth position of the alphanumeric combination) shall change to a letter, following the pattern: 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, 3=D, ... 9=J. , both formats coexist for the time being.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In Canada, license plates are issued on the provincial or territorial level. Federally issued plates are only used by the Department of National Defence. All provinces issue plates in which the letters and numbers are embossed so that they are slightly raised above its surface. The territory of Nunavut introduced the first flat registration plate in Canada in July 2012.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In the Canadian provinces and territories of Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon, registration plates are currently only required on the rear of the vehicle. The remaining provincesBritish Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontariorequire the registration plates to be mounted on both the front and rear of the vehicle. When a person moves from one province to another, they are normally required to obtain new registration plates issued by the new place of residence.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: In 1956, all North American passenger vehicle registration plates (except for French-controlled St. Pierre and Miquelon), were standardized at a size of , although a smaller size is used for certain vehicle classes, such as motorcycles, and for the state of Delaware's historic alternate black and white plates, which are . The plates of the Northwest Territories are shaped like a polar bear but bolt to the standard holes. Nunavut inherited this design on its creation but switched to rectangular plates in 2012. Canadian Forces vehicles that travel on regular roads display registration plates. These vehicles have registration plates issued by the Department of National Defence. Domestic plates were issued by the DND after 1968.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Most Canadian provinces offer personalized or vanity license plates, where one can display their own unique combination of characters.


title: Vehicle registration plate

text: Private black-on-yellow plates with the ABC·123 format are used in Colombia. The municipality of issuance is embossed at the bottom of the plate.