An Institutional Approach to Digitalization in Sustainability-Oriented Infrastructure Projects: The Limits of the Building Information Model

Greencoin as an AI-Based Solution Shaping Climate Awareness

Our research aim was to define possible AI-based solutions to be embedded in the Greencoin project, designed as a supportive tool for smart cities to achieve climate neutrality. We used Kamrowska-Załuska's approach for evaluating AI-based solutions' potential in urban planning. We narrowed down the research to the educational and economic aspects of smart cities. Furthermore, we used a systematic literature review. We propose solutions supporting the implementation process of net zero policies benefiting from single actions of urban dwellers based on the Greencoin project developed by us. By following smart city sectors, the paper introduces AI-based solutions which can enrich Greencoin by addressing the following needs: (1) shaping pro-environmental behaviors, (2) introducing instruments to reinforce the urban management process, (3) supporting bottom-up initiatives allowing to shape urban resilience, (4) enhancing smart mobility, (5) shaping local economies supporting urban circularity, and (6) allowing better communication with residents. Our research fills the gap in the limited group of studies focused on shaping climate awareness, enhancing smart governance, and supporting social participation and inclusion. It proves that AI-based educational tools can be supportive when implementing adaptation policies toward climate neutrality based on our proposed AI-based model shaping climate awareness.

The Application of Advanced Information Technologies in Civil Infrastructure Construction and Maintenance

Information technologies have widely been used in the construction and maintenance of civil infrastructure. The advantages of information technologies provided a broader range of methods for infrastructure and enhanced its level of maintenance. However, a systematic summary of the research development of information technologies used in civil infrastructure is limited. This study aims to supplement this field by providing an objective, systematic summary of relevant literature in mainstream journals employing bibliometric retrieval and quantitative analysis from 2010 to 2020. The following results are obtained: (1) This study discusses the application of advanced information technologies in different phases and provides a critical analysis of the application of these existing information technologies, which includes wireless sensor networks (WSN), fiber optic sensing (FOS), building information modelling (BIM), radio frequency identification (RFID) and other advanced information technologies. (2) The digital twins can be used as tools for the planning and management of next-generation smart infrastructure, making the future of civil infrastructure smarter and more sustainable.

Integration and Verification of PLUG-N-HARVEST ICT Platform for Intelligent Management of Buildings

THe energy-efficient operation of microgrids—a localized grouping of consuming loads (domestic appliances, EVs, etc.) with distributed energy sources such as solar photovoltaic panels—suggests the deployment of Energy Management Systems (EMSs) that enable the actuation of controllable microgrid loads coupled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Such tools are capable of optimizing the aggregated performance of the microgrid in an automated manner, based on an extensive network of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Modular adaptable/dynamic building envelope (ADBE) solutions have been proven an effective solution—exploiting free façade areas instead of roof areas—for extending the thermal inertia and energy harvesting capacity in existing buildings of different nature (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.). This study presents the PLUG-N-HARVEST holistic workflow towards the delivery of an automatically controllable microgrid integrating active ADBE technologies (e.g., PVs, HVACs). The digital platform comprises cloud AI services and functionalities for energy-efficient management, data healing/cleansing, flexibility forecasting, and the security-by-design IoT to efficiently optimize the overall performance in near-zero energy buildings and microgrids. The current study presents the effective design and necessary digital integration steps towards the PLUG-N-HARVEST ICT platform alongside real-life verification test results, validating the performance of the platform.

Evaluation of Complexity Issues in Building Information Modeling Diffusion Research

This study aimed to ascertain the research status of complexity issues in building information modeling (BIM) diffusion and identify future research directions in this field. A total of 366 relevant journal articles were holistically evaluated. The visualization analysis indicated that management aspects, emergent trends (such as green building, facility management, and automation), and theme clusters (such as interoperability, waste management, laser scanning, stakeholder management, and energy efficiency) are shaping BIM research towards complexity. Areas such as supply chain, cost, digital twin, and web are also essential. The manual qualitative evaluation classified the complexity issues in BIM diffusion research into three types (complexities of network-based BIM evolution, impact of BIM adoption circumstances, and BIM-based complexity reduction for informed decision making). It was concluded that BIM has been shifting towards information models and systems-based life cycle management, waste control for healthy urban environments, and complex data analysis from a big data perspective, not only in building projects but also in heritage and infrastructure, or at the city scale, for informed decision making and automatic responses. Future research should investigate the co-evolution between collaborative networks and BIM artefacts and work processes, quality improvement of BIM-based complex networks, BIM post-adoption behaviors influenced by complex environmental contexts, and BIM-based complexity reduction approaches.

Federated Digital Platforms: Value Chain Integration for Sustainable Infrastructure Planning and Delivery

Twenty-first century infrastructure needs to respond to changing demographics, becoming climate neutral, resilient, and economically affordable, while remaining a driver for development and shared prosperity. However, the infrastructure sector remains one of the least innovative and digitalized, plagued by delays, cost overruns, and benefit shortfalls. The authors assessed trends and barriers in the planning and delivery of infrastructure based on secondary research, qualitative interviews with internationally leading experts, and expert workshops. The analysis concludes that the root-cause of the industry’s problems is the prevailing fragmentation of the infrastructure value chain and a lacking long-term vision for infrastructure. To help overcome these challenges, an integration of the value chain is needed. The authors propose that this could be achieved through a use-case-based, as well as vision and governance-driven creation of federated digital platforms applied to infrastructure projects and outline a concept. Digital platforms enable full-lifecycle participation and responsible governance guided by a shared infrastructure vision. This paper has contributed as policy recommendation to the Group of Twenty (G20) in 2021.

BIM-enabled facilities management (FM): a scrutiny of risks resulting from cyber attacks

Purpose

Building information modelling (BIM) creates a golden thread of information of the facility, which proves useful to those with the malicious intent of breaching the security of the facility. A cyber-attack incurs adverse implications for the facility and its managing organisation. Hence, this paper aims to unravel the impact of a cybersecurity breach, by developing a BIM-facilities management (FM) cybersecurity-risk-matrix to portray what a cybersecurity attack means for various working areas of FM.

Design/methodology/approach

This study commenced with exploring cybersecurity within various stages of a BIM project. This showcased a heightened risk of cybersecurity at the post-occupancy phase. Hence, thematic analysis of two main domains of BIM-FM and cybersecurity in the built environment led to the development of a matrix that illustrated the impact of a cybersecurity attack on a BIM-FM organisation.

Findings

Findings show that the existing approaches to the management of cybersecurity in BIM-FM are technology-dependent, resulting in an over-reliance on technology and a lack of cybersecurity awareness of aspects related to people and processes. This study sheds light on the criticality of cyber-risk at the post-occupancy phase, highlighting the FM areas which will be compromised as a result of a cyber-attack.

Originality/value

This study seeks to shift focus to the people and process aspects of cybersecurity in BIM-FM. Through discussing the interconnections between the physical and digital assets of a built facility, this study develops a cyber-risk matrix, which acts as a foundation for empirical investigations of the matter in future research.

The Role of Top Management Team Digitalization and Firm Internationalization for Sustainable Business

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the existence of firm digitalization and firm internationalization in selected companies in the European Union (EU). The study provides evidence that upper echelon characteristics bring new competences and skills, including digital skills, which are essential for company internationalization in the modern world of turmoil, crisis and uncertainty. The research paper argues that top management team (TMT) characteristics, and particularly digitalization awareness and skills among the senior management, are critical factors for driving success in international markets and for the sustainability of the business. The dataset in this paper includes around one hundred executive and non-executive profiles in selected European countries, distributed in different industrial sectors. The empirical data have been collected from available online secondary sources on private companies in Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The paper’s findings suggest that a relationship exists between TMT digitalization and firm internationalization. Additionally, the paper’s results illustrate that the companies with an on board Chief Information Officer or Chief Digitalization Officer tend to be more international in comparison to those which do not possess these two job positions in their top management.

Exploring Cultivation Path of Building Information Modelling in China: An Analysis from the Perspective of an Innovation Ecosystem

Ecosystem theory provides a new perspective for studying the development of the architecture engineering and construction (AEC) industry in the age of information and communication technology (ICT). As an extremely ICT innovation, building information modelling (BIM) not only brings technical benefits to the AEC industry, but changes the innovation paradigm of the AEC industry towards an innovation ecosystem, which improve productivity and sustainability throughout the project life cycle. This article contributes to innovation ecosystem theory by exploring the structure of the BIM ecosystem and deriving its cultivation path. Then, as the leading city in China for developing BIM technologies, Shanghai was selected as the case study to elaborate on the cultivation path of the BIM ecosystem. The results indicate that three layers identified in the structure contribute to the understanding of the boundaries, units, and analytical focus of the BIM ecosystem, with the BIM platform being the core layer. This topology structure, with the BIM platform as the hub, promotes interdependency and symbiosis among participants in the cultivation of the BIM ecosystem, supporting the birth, expansion, maturity, re-innovation (or extinction), and sustainable development of the BIM ecosystem. This research complements and extends literature on the BIM ecosystem, and provides implications as to the construction, cultivation, and sustainability of BIM ecosystems for emerging economy firms.