Integration of Digital Strategies and Methods to Support Sustainability in the Built Environment

Dear Colleagues,

To achieve the green transition of the built environment, many countries have developed various strategies and methods aiming to improve the sustainability and life-cycle performance of constructions. In addition to the green transition, the digital transition meaningfully affects the construction sector and highlights complex challenges in the transformation of the built environment. Digitalization has become a significant tool to support the supply, integration, and management of information throughout the construction life-cycle.

Since eco-friendly features are increasingly required, a growing number of construction projects, scholarly research and experiments have documented the synergies between digitalization and sustainable design and construction, especially regarding how digital strategies and methods can help to achieve more sustainable project outcomes and improve construction performance. The practical implementation of digitalization by project teams in the pursuit of sustainable design and construction has attacted much attention in the research community because the diverse project information included in the digital model can be extracted for performance simulations, design reviews, quantity take-off and documentation generation, which are critical issues when aiming to achieve sustainability.

This Special Issue is focused on novel developments in the field of the different integration methods for digitalization and sustainability within the broader scope of the socio-economic, scientific, and integrated approaches to sustainable development. Original research articles and reviews are welcome in this Special Issue. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• BIM-based innovations and sustainability;
• Technological innovations for sustainability;
• Building performance simulation;
• Digital technologies and lean construction;
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) and/or life-cycle cost (LCC);
• Building certification/sustainability assessments;
• Tool development and parametric scripting;
• BIM-based workflows for integrating sustainability assessments in the early design process;
• Optimization approaches to life-cycle environmental performance, including AI;
• Automation and robotics;
• Digital Twins for sustainability.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Stefano Cascone
Guest Editor

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