BIM for sustainable project delivery: review paper and future development areas

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe evolution of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is transforming practice in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. BIM provided revolutionary ways of generating, visualizing, exchanging, predicting and monitoring information. Over the last decade, delivering sustainable projects has become a high priority along with the recognition of the role the BIM plays to improve efficiency. However, BIM-enabled sustainability practices are still relatively immature and inconsistent. Previous research has identified challenges in the delivery of green-rated buildings, that include: dealing with documentation, evidencing requirements, monitoring progress, and decision making. Limited studies focused on linking workflow obstacles of green projects to potential improvements using current BIM capabilities. Through interrogating existing research via a systematic literature review, this paper takes the original approach of constructing an ‘analysis map’ to ‘bridge the gap’ and highlight current limitations and successes between BIM and sustainability practices. The findings are formulated through two parallel investigation tracks: the first is design task/BIM capability analysis, and the second is green project delivery problem/BIM enabled sustainability application. This research highlights future potential investigation areas, which are categorized into six clusters: representation; performance simulation; transaction and exchange; documentation; automation and standardization and guidance.