Development of a BIM-enabled and cloud-based sustainability assessment system for buildings in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Nigeria

Timothy O. Olawumi
2022 figshare.com  
The increasing urbanization of the built environment has bolstered the need of promoting sustainable practices and Building Information Modelling (BIM) initiative in building and construction projects. However, there has not been a unified adoption and implementation of BIM initiative and sustainability in most countries and the built environment as a whole – most notably within the sub-Saharan region of Africa due to several factors. Moreover, based on the extant literature, the existing green
more » ... rating tools have been found to be inadequate to fully address the greenness and evaluate the sustainability performance of buildings. Hence, these generate several hindrances to the current drive for a holistic implementation of sustainability practices and innovative technologies such as BIM in the construction industry. Therefore, this research study aims to develop a green-BIM assessment model and cloud-based sustainability decision support system for evaluating buildings' compliance to sustainability principles with a view to integrating smart sustainable practices in building construction and management, improving operational efficiency, and enhancing the overall implementation of sustainable development in the built environment. The scope of study mainly focuses on developing countries located in the sub-Saharan region of Africa – using Nigeria, the largest economy in the region as a case study – with practical applications to other regions. The following research objectives was set out in fulfilling the study's aim: (1) To identify and assess the inherent benefits, barriers, and critical success factors (drivers) associated with integrating BIM and sustainability principles in building projects. (2) To establish the relative weightings of the key sustainability indicators, sustainability attributes, and sub-attributes for buildings. (3) To develop a sustainability evaluation index for buildings using the Generalized Choquet Fuzzy Integral method. (4) To develop a cloud-based sustainability decision support system ( [...]
doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.19606420.v1 fatcat:pincpr2rinhntfxjco4a2qxdxm