Identification of relevant project documents to 4D BIM uses for a synchronous collaborative decision support

Abstract

Currently, the main use of 4D BIM is for visualization of the planned construction process. However, other uses have not yet been fully integrated into construction practices. This paper presents a review of existing context to envisage ways of fostering the implementation of all 4D uses, and also to propose 4D BIM as a support to the decision-making process. Further the research will be completed by survey responses. In order to fully understand and efficiently implement 4D BIM models and methods, we need to develop a precise knowledge of which digital documents should be used and how they influence the decision-making process. This paper studies the convergence between 4D BIM uses and the project digital documents uses. We hypothesize that a construction simulation visualization of the 4D model is a useful source of information and a support for decision-making during a collaborative session. The visualized information and model development level correspond to the decision-making objectives.