BIM and LCA Integration: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

<jats:p>To foster sustainable development, the environmental impacts of the construction sector need to be reduced substantially. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the established methodology for the quantification of environmental impacts, and therefore has been increasingly applied to assess the environmental performance of buildings. By coupling LCAs with digital design tools, e.g., building information modeling (BIM), the identification of environmental hotspots and their mitigation is possible during the design process. The objective of the study is to identify the current integration approaches, and determine the pros and cons of the integration process from different viewpoints, namely, technical, informational, organizational and functional issues. Therefore, a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) was performed. We identified 60 relevant BIM-LCA case studies and analyzed the applied BIM-LCA workflows in detail. A total of 16 of the reviewed studies applied LCA during the early design stage. These studies used a manual or semiautomatic data exchange between the BIM models and LCA tools. In most cases, contemporary BIM-LCA workflows utilized conventional spreadsheets (e.g., Excel sheets in 16 cases). However, the analysis shows that an automated link between LCA and BIM can be achieved when overcoming the technical, organizational and informational issues discussed in the paper. This could enable the streamlining of LCA applications in design practice, and thus support the necessary improvements in the environmental performance of buildings.</jats:p>

Recommendations for Developing a BIM for the Purpose of LCA in Green Building Certifications

“…However, the BIM can be used only as a platform for BoQ, and thus a manual process of the evaluation can be used. Although this process is manual and time consuming, it is still the most common way of work as is shown in the aforementioned systematic literature review [29]. This process is possible; however, it leads to wide range of results [61,62].…”

“…However, few studies [25,27] have focused on a specifically relevant workflow. The most recent systematic literature review of integrating BIM and LCA was published by Obrecht et al [29], which summarizes the topic from various perspectives and gives structured overview.…”

How to Obtain Accurate Environmental Impacts at Early Design Stages in BIM When Using Environmental Product Declaration. A Method to Support Decision-Making

“…The use of BIM to conduct LCA can, for example, speed up the extraction of the bill of material quantities [29][30][31]. Existing reviews [30,32] show growing interest in the field, which is revealed, inter alia, by the increasing number of publications. Among existing BIM-based LCA studies, the comparison of different data sources at early and detailed stages of design in BIM has been addressed.…”

A Comparative Study of the Use of Building Information Modeling in Teaching Engineering Projects

“…BIM has important implications and advantages for the efficient design of structures and facilities [30][31][32][33]; thus, its inclusion in industrial engineering training can be of great assistance in the current conception and implementation of technical industrial projects. Despite the advantages of a multidisciplinary approach to BIM training and implementation [9,34] and the relationship between the product-process concept, development, and implementation of industrial engineering projects and the BIM approach [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47], there are few reports on the introduction of BIM in industrial engineering degrees compared to the experience of BIM implementation in degrees related to architecture or construction engineering. The literature shows a general framework for the academic implementation of BIM in architecture, engineering, and construction [38,39] or a specific framework in architecture [40,41].…”

“…Nascimento et al proposed a methodology for the interdisciplinary management of construction projects by integrating BIM and lean thinking, which is widely used in industrial engineering projects, to improve the production planning and control of pipe-rack modules in an industrial facility [46]. From the perspective of sustainable development civil engineering projects, there are different approaches to integrating BIM and the LCA methodology used in industrial engineering projects [47]. All of these approaches could be implemented to include BIM in engineering project subjects.…”