Enabling technologies for circular economy in the construction sector

Abstract

Enabling Technologies have the potential to transform both the physical flow of materials and resources (production and construction methods), and the intangible organisational and managerial relationships (exchange and monitoring of data and relationships along the entire chain of value). They should, therefore, be considered important in supporting change processes aimed at the circular use of resources. This paper presents some research and experiments, at European and Italian level, aimed at developing and applying Enabling Technologies for circular economy, and at aligning them with the needs and challenges of society, by directly involving actors of the building sector ecosystem in moments of discussion and co-creation to define potential strategies and operational actions for innovation in the sector.

Barriers to Adopting Digital Technologies to Implement Circular Economy Practices in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Need for new organisational role and training: There is a tremendous need for new professional figures with competency in both information technology and building to aid in the development of a suitable path for the uptake of DT-enabled CE in the construction industry [14]. Additionally, new positions and operators with various responsibilities are required to support the professionals in reaching CE.…”

“…Thus, addressing these concerns has become imperative in the construction industry to achieve the goals related to sustainability [1,4]. Researchers have highlighted that to ensure the sustainable use of resources and energy, the linear economic model must be rethought in terms of the circular economy (CE) [4,6,13,14]. Similarly, ref.…”

“…Yet, this transformation can only be accomplished with the right technology and approaches [1]. It demands innovation in the construction industry's production and consumption with their associated technologies [14].…”

“…Digital technologies are revolutionising the value of co-creation and collaboration beyond historical industry boundaries, with the potential to significantly impact the construction industry's ability to realise the importance of applying circular economy principles [2][3][4]6,9,14,16,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Advanced digital tools are being implemented across industries, owing to the boost given by the fourth industrial revolution [4].…”

“…Significant technological developments have recently opened the chance for the construction industry to invest in state-of-the-art technologies [25]. Thus, the construction sector is undergoing a gradual yet continuous transformation to adopt novel technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins, BIM (building information modelling), material passport (MP), IoT (internet of things), digital market place (DMP), big data analytics, blockchain [3,4,9,12,14,21,24,26], radio frequency identification (RFID) [2,24], 3D printing [4,19], cloud computing and augmented and virtual reality [4], object detection and computer vision [9] and geographic information system (GIS), and modelling and simula-tion [24] to commit to the built environments' circularity, efficiency, productivity, precision, and safety. As a result, to facilitate this digital transformation, enormous amounts of data are generated, and systematic data analysis and predictive modelling can be used to produce creative structural and architectural designs, increase construction speeds, improve payback periods, lower construction and operational costs, and reduce embodied and operational energy requirements [21].…”