Critical Success Factors for Building Information Modeling Implementation as a Sustainable Construction Practice in the UAE

Abstract

The building sector is widely acknowledged as a driving force behind national prosperity. However, there are considerable challenges to the construction industry’s transition to sustainable practices, including regarding building information modelling (BIM) technologies. The United Arab Emirates has made significant progress in the Middle East in adopting BIM technologies. Green building approaches have been advanced through their incorporation into environmentally conscious building practices, with a large body of literature responding to this issue. Several projects in the United Arab Emirates have, however, made use of the complementary nature of BIM and UAE sustainable policies. However, not everybody has employed the full potential of BIM implementation in sustainable construction. This paper aims to identify and prioritize the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective BIM implementation as a sustainable construction practice in the UAE and examine their ranking and relationships. A list of critical success factors was gathered from a review of previous literature to identify the essential factors for successful implementation. A standardized questionnaire was distributed to consulting organizations and engineering enterprises to verify the existence of these CSFs and measure their importance in the context of the UAE’s construction industry. The survey data was analyzed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique to elaborate and validate the results, which was specifically applicable to the needs of this study. The results from the AHP analysis show that the social aspects were ranked as the highest critical success factor compared to the other criteria, namely economic, environmental, and information technology. Within this criterion, it was found that effective communication among stakeholders is the most important element, as subject matter experts feel that it is imperative to have buy-in from all or most of the construction project stakeholders to achieve the strategic goal of implementing BIM. Equally anticipated are both an effective corporate framework to back up the BIM system and government funding to build the BIM system.