A review of the challenges to integrating BIM and building sustainability assessment

Abstract

Building sustainability assessment (BSA) is perceived as one of the major pillars of sustainable development, its adoption is increasing and many governments are embracing them. However, in order to meet the requirements of these processes, complicated tasks which consume considerable amounts of resources are involved. On the other hand, BIM has been acknowledged as a key solution to industry issues and a leading driver for innovation. However, the utilization of BIM to support BSA is still at a premature stage compared to other BIM applications. This paper aims to review relevant literature to determine the research trends within the field and identify the possible reasons behind the slow and reluctant development of this synergy. A three-step systematic literature review approach is adopted. First, literature was surveyed to identify all published Green-BIM studies within the past ten years. Second, identified publications are filtered according to pre-defined criteria to select the most-relevant. The last step involves the analysis of the filtered articles and the categorisation of the findings. The review has indicated a significant research tendency towards the area of Green BIM. However, it was apparent that BIM has yet to be properly aligned with BSA practices. A range of challenges facing the BIM-based BSA process has been identified and classified into three-major classes: BIM-related, BSA-related and Organisation-related.