A bibliometric study on technology usage for occupational safety and health risk assessment in construction industry

Abstract

The recent research efforts in the use of visual imaging techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT) provide the opportunity to enhance risk assessment methods. However, our understanding of enabling technologies to enhance construction occupational safety and health is still insufficient. This paper uses bibliometric approaches to comprehensively review construction occupational safety and health hazards. The bibliometric data of the publication titles, abstracts, keywords, citation counts, and impact factors were thoroughly examined to understand the literature landscape and identify the predominant research themes for possible future research trends in construction risk assessment. Different risk analysis and assessment (RAA) models adopt different approaches tailored to identify and evaluate risk exposures, including the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model and the Building Information Management (BIM) system. The adoption of technologies in construction safety and health risk assessment has significantly increased over the past decade, particularly between 2020 and February 2025, highlighting its interdisciplinary applications and focus on safety training methods. Future research should focus on enhancing safety management by integrating VR and wearable sensors, while expanding data sources and interdisciplinary approaches, especially in response to COVID-19 challenges.