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

Abstract

The transport sector accounts for a large share of global Co2 emissions. To mitigate the impact of climate change, several sustainability-oriented large-scale infrastructure projects such as electric road systems and expanding rail systems have recently been on the policy agenda. A parallel development that is expected to accelerate the transition of the transport sector is digitalization, which, although ongoing for many decades, has recently been augmented by concepts such as artificial intelligence (AI) and smart city technologies. The integration of these digitalization tools at the organizational level poses not only opportunities but also some challenges for the actors involved in infrastructure projects. An approach that is currently promoted in the infrastructure sector is the Building Information Model (BIM), which is a decision-making instrument that leverages various digitalization tools and applications. However, although the economic implications of BIM are widely discussed in the literature, the (inter-) organizational dynamics involving multiple actors in infrastructure projects are not fully grasped. Large infrastructure projects are sociotechnical endeavors embedded in complex institutional frames; hence the institutional norms, practices and logics in them are significant. Responding to this, this paper adopted an institutional analysis and put the BIM approach in the (inter-) organizational context in infrastructure delivery. Drawing on empirical data from three organizations in infrastructure delivery in Spain, this paper analyzed the tensions among actors during BIM adoption and implementation.

Adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the Development of Smart Buildings: A Review of Enabling Applications and Challenges

“…e airport lifecycle was divided into design, construction, and operation [47]. Hetemi et al [65] proposed that the coordination of different phases of BIM projects should be ensured in the case study, such as planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation.…”

“…Lin et al [93] proposed a smart data retrieval and representation method for cloud BIM applications and applied it to the construction of the Kunming Airport terminal. In a more recent study, Keskin and Salman [47] proposed a new method to guide the management of airport operators with BIM as the center research studies should pay more attention to BIMbased small airport projects and further determine the procedures related to BIM implementation in the airport operation process [47,65]. However, most of these studies are still in the stage of proposing the framework.…”

Facilitating Digital Transformation in Construction—A Systematic Review of the Current State of the Art

“…This author used MS Excel to tabulate the digital technologies in "rows" and "construction activity fields" in columns for cross analysis and descriptions. The construction activity fields refer to project-based tasks such as physical construction (Koseoglu et al, 2019) and organization processes such as interfirm relations (Hetemi et al, 2020) that feature in project delivery and asset lifecycle. The last step involved formation of concepts.…”

“…Both the authors were involved, using the table produced in the previous step to extract the applications of digital technologies to specific construction activity fields in the publications. There was need to reconcile construction activity field of application of a digital technology, for instance, whether BIM is applicable to either one or both supply chain integration and interfirm relations (Hetemi et al, 2020). The authors extracted both activity fields and retained because the same digital technology (e.g., BIM) was applied to the activity fields in other publications in the sample [e.g., Berlak et al, 2020].…”

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

“…This means that BIM needs to be integrated into the whole lifecycle of construction projects. Consequently, BIM contributes to the sustainable development of the AEC industry from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives, but also the organizational one [11].…”