Search results

Sustainable construction practice is structured on regulatory and non-regulatory policies in developed and most developing countries. With the gradual uptake of sustainability concerns in the construction industry, this paper aims to identify the strategic need for clear-cut policies to improve sustainable construction practice. Previous studies have harped on the need for regulatory and industrial/organisational policies on improving sustainable construction practice within the Nigerian construction industry.

A questionnaire survey was used to evaluate the perspectives of construction professionals on the policy barriers for sustainable construction practice in Nigeria, and 46 policy barriers were identified. A total of 249 questionnaires were returned and useable for analysis.

Factor analysis revealed four clusters in the policy barriers to sustainable construction practice in the following order of significance: implementation strategies for sustainable construction practice, owners/client inputs for sustainable construction practice, stakeholder’s policy barriers and governmental and regulatory policy barriers.

Mitigating the identified barriers through effective policies will require adequate inputs from all relevant policymaking stakeholders and ensure improved sustainable construction practice among stakeholders and policymakers in the industry. This will in turn set a high standard and promote the practice of sustainable construction.

This study goes a step further in identifying the policy issues needed to ensure a smooth implementation of sustainable construction practice. The research findings will serve as a guide for policymakers in developing countries that through mitigation of the identified barriers, sustainable construction practice will be promoted.

This paper aims to provide a bibliometric analysis of advances in building information modeling (BIM) research globally. It provides a recent state-of-the-art assessment on trends as it relates to the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. Being a vastly emerging research area, there is a need for the appraisal of research trends.

A comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted using a dual step filtering system on an initial volume of 2347 documents in the first stage between 2010 and 2020, and of 311 publications in the final stage of the analyses which emphasized more on 2015–2020 from the WoS database. Frequency analyses on the sources, affiliations, authors and country/ region of publication were assessed in the first stage of the analyses. Co-authorship and evidence of author collaboration were also examined. The second stage included a co-occurrence keyword network analysis. Further, text mining/mapping of the abstract of the documents was performed.

Emerging trends in the field of BIM research include but are not limited to historical building information modeling (h-BIM) applications, the use of blockchain technology, digital twin, Construction Operations Building information exchange (COBiE), Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), dynamo-bim, energy plus software and BIM laser scanning innovations. The possibility of these innovations solving some current BIM challenges were also discussed.

The study provides an insight into the BIM research trends globally while identifying existing challenges. The study uses text mining of unstructured abstracts, which has not been reported in BIM research.