Research trend of the application of information technologies in construction and demolition waste management

Abstract

Information technologies are increasingly adopted across the world to promote the efficiency of construction and demolition (C&D) waste management and alleviate the environmental and social effects of waste disposal. In addressing management issues of C&D waste by information technologies, several studies have been published by international peer-reviewing journals related to construction management over the past decades. However, a systematic summary on the research development in information technologies used in C&D waste management discipline is lacking. Therefore, this study examines the latest research situation in this discipline by analysing published construction management research in peer-reviewing journals in the period of 2000–2019, and 57 related papers are collected by filtering. The characteristics of the collected papers are classified according to the following criteria: application scenarios in C&D waste management and different technologies. Eight categories of present advanced technologies used in C&D waste management are identified, namely, building information modelling, geographic information system, big data, radio frequency identification, image recognition technology, image analysis, global positioning system and barcode technology. A critical analysis of the identified technologies is conducted in accordance with their characteristics and applications. This study also performs the scientometric analysis of the collected papers by VOSviewer. The limitations of information technologies and the recommendations for potential future research directions are presented on the basis of the analytical review.