Building information modeling and safety management: A systematic review

Abstract

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in building construction remains a worldwide problem in terms of workplace injury, illness and fatality statistics. Construction Safety requires care and planning throughout the project life-cycle, from the design phase to maintenance. Initial attempts to improve OHS consider the safety aspects in the design phase and the development of manual safety processes in the execution phase. The application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is currently experiencing rapid growth in construction operations, planning and management, as well as in Safety Management. Thanks to the use of this new tool, we can expect to see a change in the way that safety is addressed, as seen in the literature review, based on the large number of contributions in recent years. This study reviews the existing literature surrounding BIM and Construction Safety in order to explore both useful findings and the gaps in knowledge for future research. The main result shows that the growing implementation of BIM in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is changing the way safety can be approached. Potential safety hazards can be automatically identified and corresponding prevention methods can be applied using an automated approach. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd