Effectiveness of BIM-based visualization technologies for construction site health and safety management: A Meta-synthesis Approach

Abstract

Drawing from existing studies, this study presents a meta-synthesis aimed to examine the effectiveness of BIM-based visualization systems for health and safety management on construction job sites in comparison to other methods. A systematic review and qualitative method of methasynthensis was conducted. An online literature search was conducted in December 2019 to obtain 64 studies published on BIM and visualization technologies in the construction environment from the Scopus database. For further selection and inclusion, the abstracts, titles, and keywords of the 64 papers were reviewed, and three filter criteria were applied to eliminate unnecessary papers that did not align with the research subject and theme. After filtration, a total of 45 publications were selected. A synthesis was conducted on a set of 6 papers on BIM and visualization technologies for construction safety management. The study identified key themes and categories and observable patterns among studies. The qualitative review revealed that the number of accidents, injuries, and property damaged was significantly lower when BIM combined with visualization systems were used. Additionally, many of the studies justified the use of visualization technologies linked with BIM. These studies showed that the integration allowed safety managers to develop adequate safety plans, inspect construction projects, collect, and analyze data on safety violations, and monitor hazardous situations in real-time.