Construction Industry 4.0 and Sustainability: An Enabling Framework

Abstract

Governments worldwide are taking actions to address the construction sector's sustainability concerns, including high carbon emissions, health and safety risks, low productivity, and increasing costs. Applying Industry 4.0 technologies to construction (also referred to as Construction 4.0) could address some of these concerns. However, current understanding about this is quite limited, with previous work being largely fragmented and limited both in terms of technologies as well as their interrelationships with the triple bottom line of sustainability perspectives. The focus of this study is therefore on addressing these gaps by i) proposing a comprehensive multidimensional Construction 4.0 sustainability framework that identifies and categorizes the key Construction 4.0 technologies and their positive and negative impacts on environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and then ii) establishing its applicability/usefulness through an empirical, multi-methodology case study assessment of the UAE's construction sector. The findings indicate Construction 4.0's positive impacts on environmental and economic sustainability far outweigh its negative effects, though these impacts are comparable with regards to social sustainability. On Construction 4.0 technologies itself, their application was found to be non-uniform, with greater application seen for building information modeling and automation vis-à-vis others such as cyber-physical systems and smart materials, with significant growth expected in the future for blockchain-and 3D-printing-related technologies. The proposed novel framework could enable the development of policy interventions and support mechanisms to increase Construction 4.0 deployment while addressing its negative sustainability-related impacts. The framework also has the potential to be adapted and applied to other country and sectoral contexts.

An enabling Framework for Blockchain in Tourism

“…The 'Use Layer' layer of the framework represents the uses of blockchain solutions in tourism (e.g., smart contracts, baggage tracking) across the different travel stages. Identifying these uses was a significant undertaking, given that the central task of developing any technology-enabled framework is identifying key technology solutions for inclusion (You and Feng 2020;Balasubramanian et al 2021bBalasubramanian et al , 2022.…”

The Need for a Human Centric Approach in C4.0 Technologies

“…Q11: What if this "hindrance" is the solution for a successful and healthy adoption? Balasubramanian et al (2021) studied the current and future state of C4.0 technologies in the industry and how they are disrupting the sector. The authors used extensive literature review and surveys to assess different technologies.…”

“…Whether due to industry 4.0 technologies (Morrar et al 2017;Berriman 2017) or construction 4.0 technologies, jobs of manual workers and blue collars are anticipated to become redundant and automated. (Ness, 2009;Forcael et al, 2020;Chan, 2020;Balasubramanian et al 2021). On the other hand, other studies reflect optimism regarding the impact on jobs.…”

“…On the other hand, other studies reflect optimism regarding the impact on jobs. During the interviews conducted by Balasubramanian et al (2021), some interviewees mentioned initiatives in their companies to upskill blue collar workers to knowledge workers, where their jobs will not be as physically intensive as before. Blue collar workers would shift from an unsafe and harsh environment to a safer and more controlled one.…”

Perspective Chapter: Roadmap to a Holistic Highway Digital Twin – A Why, How, and Why Framework

“…Thus, the pandemic has accelerated the shift toward social infrastructure projects targeting urbanization, healthcare, infrastructure, and Global Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH) projects, which will help cities to face future pandemics [4,5]. This shift motivated governments to upgrade systems to achieve a more resilient and sustainable infrastructure ecosystem and consider implementing and adopting technologies within the architectural, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry [6,7]. Some governments started this shift before the pandemic to help overcome the challenges of the AECO industry and improve the industry's digitization capability.…”