Dr Henry Abanda

The digital twin, as an important enabling tool for digital transformation, has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners since its definition was formalised. Especially in the global context impacted by Covid-19, the applications of the digital twin have offered opportunities for many industries. While the digital twin has already widely used in many sectors such as manufacturing, the construction industry, one of the key engines of economic development, is still lagging in the digital twin adoption. This study uses the systematic literature review to assess the applications of digital twin in manufacturing and construction respectively, the benefits it brings, and the impediments to its application. Based on this, a comparison is made of digital twin applications in the manufacturing and construction industries to draw lessons. This study concluded that although the use of digital twin in manufacturing is better than construction overall, it is still not reaching its full potential. Despite many benefits brought by the digital twin to construction during the project lifecycle, the construction sector faces even greater challenges than manufacturing in digital twin adoption. By comparison, this study drew five lessons to drive better adoption of the digital twin. The construction industry needs to accelerate the deployment of relevant hardware, promote the standard unification of digital twin, explore the whole lifecycle application of the digital twin, enhance data protection, and embrace changes. This study was limited in the scope of data collection. Future research could focus on gathering information from specific case studies, to produce more comprehensive perspectives.

The transition from nearly zero-emission building (NZEB) to positive energy building (PEB) models is a new trend, justified by the need to increase the efforts to address the climate change targets and the ambition for a clean energy transition in the construction sector. In line with this scenario, this study assumes that PEB may be applied to meet climate change targets and promote new approaches to urban regeneration plans. It focuses on the functional and energy regeneration of abandoned buildings, considering that many abandoned European buildings are often located in a strategic part of the city. Therefore, the research question is as follows: to what extent can abandoned buildings be converted into a PEB? What would be the meaning of this new association? In order to answer this question, this study developed a procedure to transform an abandoned building into a PEB, implemented through a case study of a former Italian industrial site. Findings pointed out the variables impacting PEB configuration and were used to support a
discussion, stressing how rethinking abandoned buildings as PEB may drive new trends to synchronise the socio-technical evolution of energy infrastructure and urban regeneration plans.

The construction industry is facing enormous pressure to adopt digital solutions to solve the industry's inherent problems. The digital twin has emerged as a solution that can update a BIM model with real-time data to achieve cyber-physical integration, enabling real-time monitoring of assets and activities and improving decision-making. The application of digital twins in the construction industry is still in its nascent stages but has been steadily growing over the past few years. A wide variety of emerging technologies are being used in the development of digital twins in diverse applications in construction but it is not immediately clear from the literature which ones are key to the successful development of digital twins, necessitating a systematic literature review with a focus on technologies. This paper aims to identify the key technologies used in the development of digital twins in construction in the existing literature, the research gaps and the potential areas for future research. This is achieved by conducting a systematic review of studies with demonstrative case studies and experimental setups in construction. Based on the observed research gaps, prominent future research directions are suggested, focusing on technologies in data transmission, interoperability and data integration and data processing and visualisation.

Analyses in the past decade and more recently, catastrophic events, including extreme temperatures, unpredictable weather patterns, floods, and wildfires caused by climate change, have become too common worldwide. There is overwhelming evidence that country commitments expressed in National Determined Contributions (NDCs) can contribute to stabilizing or reversing the course of impacts of climate change. With the multiplicity of NDC measures, compounded by their complexities and limited resources, multi-criteria decision-making tools can be used in making informed decisions about their development. Furthermore, while many countries are blessed with an abundance of sustainable resources and technologies to feed into NDCs, a major challenge is prioritizing them as part of the national and global climate change mitigation and adaptation agenda. Many multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods and tools have been developed over the years. However, their implementation in practice for prioritising NDC measures is still not well-known despite their high acceptance in academic literature. This study adopts a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature from the Web of Science and grey literature from the recently launched Technology Needs Assessment database to fully understand the MCDM tools used in evaluating NDC projects from academic versus practice perspectives. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method adopted, culminated in the identification of 464 peer-reviewed journal articles and 50 TNA reports used in the analysis. The results indicate amongst the many MCDM techniques in peer-reviewed literature, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is the most widely used in research, while simplified MCDM methods are the most used in practice.

Purpose - In the COVID-19 era, where blended learning is gaining popularity, research-informed teaching could be one of the alternatives or options to assess students' progress in Higher Education institutions. In the past, educators have assessed students' research skills gained from research-informed teaching through coursework components or assignments. However, whether the assignments can be converted into peer-reviewed output acceptable in a reputable journal or conference has hardly been investigated. This study explores how research-informed teaching has been rolled out in undergraduate/postgraduate BIM related modules/programmes in the School of the Built Environment, Oxford Brookes University and which has culminated in high quality published outputs.

Design/methodology/approach - The method used is purely qualitative in-depth interviews, where students who have published were tracked and invited to share their experiences. In total, nine former students of the 12 invited, participated in the interviews. Inductive content analysis, a suitable qualitative data analysis technique was used in analysing the feedback from the interviews.

Findings - The main finding is that research-informed teaching can be done in a technical and complex BIM discipline and students' coursework components or assignments can further be converted into published outputs. 

Research limitations/implications - The main limitation of this study was that the sample was small. That notwithstanding, it has provided valuable insights into the understanding of student's ability to undertake research while studying and experiences of how educators can deliver research-informed teaching to students in Higher Education institutions. 

​​​​​​​Originality/value - The study adds to the existing body of literature about undergraduate and postgraduate research-informed teaching and goes further to provide strong evidence through published outputs thereby confirming that students at both levels can indeed conduct and publish peer-reviewed research articles while undertaking their studies.

Post-conflict reconstruction has been one of the most challenging themes for the AEC industry, urban designers and planners, and related decision makers, especially in complex urban contexts with sever destruction of existing infrastructure. The city of Mosul in Iraq is a case where there is an urgent need for reconstruction, in particular the housing sector after the massive destruction caused by the ISIS war 2014-2017. The war left the city with massive destruction in the infrastructure and with around 1M displaced seeking shelters in the neighbouring cities, most of them under the poverty line. The governmental efforts along with the NGOs are continuing to plan the return of the displaced. However, these plans are limited by economic drivers and lack an active participation of the displaced in planning the post-war housing sector of Mosul city. This paper is part of a comprehensive research that discusses a methodological framework for the reconstruction of Mosul city, specifically the housing sector.  This study highlights the involvement of the displaced families in developing possible post-war housing paradigms based on their needs, requirements and desires. The main contributions include identifying the essential housing requirements, based on a sample from the displaced, as end-users. Most importantly, the study concludes with three developed housing paradigms.

Post-conflict reconstruction has been one of the most challenging themes for the AEC industry, urban designers and planners, and related decision-makers, especially in complex urban contexts with severe destruction in terms of infrastructure. The city of Mosul in Iraq is a case where there is an urgent need for reconstruction, in particular the housing sector after the enormous destruction caused by the ISIS war of 2014–2017. Today, advanced technologies in construction present opportunities to address post-conflict reconstruction challenges. BIM has been used in recent years since it is an integrated and effective process for planning, monitoring and managing contemporary construction projects. Nevertheless, BIM has not been investigated properly in planning and managing post-conflict reconstruction, especially in developing countries. This paper discusses the potential of adopting BIM in post-conflict reconstruction through investigating the validity of the BIM process in planning and assessing possible housing solutions for the reconstruction of Mosul city, using BIM applications. The main findings suggest that BIM applications present significant potential in the process of planning, assessing and managing the reconstruction of post-conflict contexts in developing countries, where conventional methods are limited, dysfunctional and inefficient.

The relative low capital cost and contributions to mitigating global warming have favoured the continuous construction and operation of nuclear power plants across the world. One critical phase in the operation of nuclear plants for ensuring safety and security of radioactive products and by-products is decommissioning. With the advent of digital twinning in the building information modelling (BIM) methodology, efficiency and safety can be improved from context-focus access to regulations pertaining demolition of structures, and cleaning-up of radioactivity inherent in nuclear stations. A BIM-driven framework to achieve a more regulation-aware and safer decommissioning of nuclear plants is proposed.

The urgent need to improve performance in the construction industry has led to the adoption of many innovative technologies. 3D laser scanners are amongst the leading technologies being used to capture and process assets or construction project data for use in various applications. Due to its nascent nature, many questions are still unanswered about 3D laser scanning, which in turn contribute to the slow adaptation of the technology. Some of these include the role of 3D laser scanners in capturing and processing raw construction project data. How accurate are the 3D laser scanner or point cloud data? How does laser scanning fit with other wider emerging technologies such as building information modeling (BIM)? This study adopts a proof-of-concept approach, which in addition to answering the aforementioned questions, illustrates the application of the technology in practice. The study finds that the quality of the data, commonly referred to as point cloud data, is still a major issue as it depends on the distance between the target object and 3D laser scanner’s station. Additionally, the quality of the data is still very dependent on data file sizes and the computational power of the processing machine. Lastly, the connection between laser scanning and BIM approaches is still weak as what can be done with a point cloud data model in a BIM environment is still very limited. The aforementioned findings reinforce existing views on the use of 3D laser scanners in capturing and processing construction project data

The havoc caused by COVID-19 has further strengthen the case for greening cities and ensuring a quicker economic recovery much desired by various governments. To this end, the appetite for Distributed Renewable and Interactive Energy Systems (DRIES) as a preferred option to retrofit cities has grown amongst policy makers. However, DRIE sources are complex and disparate presenting challenges integrating into a unified system for urban retrofitting. Yet, integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) and DRIES provide possibilities of effective assessment. Research of BIM applications at a city level is still very sketchy talk less in the domain of DRIES. This study investigates the opportunities and barriers of the application of BIM for the performance assessment of DRIES in the context of the transforming our environments into lowcarbon cities. A systematic literature review and case study review were used to achieve the aim of this study.

Environmental assessment is a critical activity for ensuring buildings are performing according to specified requirements, and efficient, seamless exchange of building information is crucial for environmental assessment. Therefore, all those involved in built environment issues should be able to access and share not only building information but also data about products, especially environmental assessment results for the products used in building projects. Of the several approaches that have been proposed to achieve efficient information exchange, semantic web technologies are amongst the most promising due to their capability to share data and enhance interoperability between the most heterogeneous systems. This study proposes an approach that can be used to make environmental data available in the early phases of the building lifecycle. It relies on Semantic Web techniques, especially Linked Data principles, while building on emerging Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology to propose an approach that facilitates information exchange to enhance the sustainability assessment of buildings. The paper ends with an illustration of how lifecycle inventory databases can be integrated, linked to BIM software and used in exchanging environmental building data.

Positive Energy Block (PEBock) is a new paradigm towards low carbon cities. However, there is paucity of literature about methods and tools on how to develop PEBlock in practice. This study deals with this gap by developing a multi-criteria decision making optimisation framework for PEBlocks for cities. A case study method is adopted to assess a PEBlock scenario based on adaptable criteria and actions applied to a block composed of three buildings where only one will act as a positive node of the future energy network. Findings point out the flexibility of PEBlock scenarios, weighting each criterion and action and delivering a procedure to drive the transformation of a group of existing buildings into a PEBlock. This study contributes to understanding the emerging properties concerning PEBlocks, discussing its features and stressing main peculiarities compared to other models (e.g. positive energy districts) and concepts (e.g. net-zero energy concept). It also emphasises PEBlock as a feasible and reliable energy infrastructure to support the organisation of new forms of energy organisations (e.g. self-organised energy communities), drawing future developments and implications.

Interactions and collaboration between parties in construction projects are often characterised by misunderstandings and poor information exchange. Game engine technologies, when employed with building information modelling (BIM), can help address these shortcomings. Quite often, the visualisation capabilities of BIM models are not explored fully partly because of their limited interactive capability. While game engines are powerful in visualisation and interactions in the gaming industry, the literature suggests a lack of understanding of the applicability of the same in construction. This study investigates the potential of the use of game engines in construction practice which culminated in a framework that can guide the implementation of the same in enhancing interactive building walkthroughs.

Purpose. To reach its full potential, Building Information Modelling (BIM) should be implemented throughout the supply chain. This study explores BIM implementation and adoption among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector. The paper addresses two key issues; the slow rate and lack of homogeneity of BIM adoption in the SME sector.

Design/methodology/approach. The study employs qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate BIM uptake and test for correlations between organisational features and BIM aspects. The sample includes data from SMEs, based in the South East of England, analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings. The results show that, although SMEs have some understanding of BIM related concepts, their familiarity with existing BIM software support systems is particularly low. Limited financial capacity is identified as the main barrier to BIM adoption while knowledge exchange initiatives as the most useful measure in facilitating further implementation. The variations of SMEs in the adoption and implementation of BIM are mostly affected by company size, professional discipline and offered services. The paper also demonstrates that a one-size-fits-all approach to BIM implementation in the AEC sector has limited potential.

Originality/value. The heterogeneity of SMEs in the AEC sector has been considered to a very limited extent. This paper considers the nature, characteristics and core business areas of SMEs as factors affecting BIM adoption and implementation.

Purpose. The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has led to the need for prequalification and selection of organisations capable of working within a BIM environment. Several criteria have been proposed for the assessment of an organisations BIM capability during the prequalification and selection phase of projects. However, no studies have sought to empirically establish whether organisations selected on the basis of such criteria have actually been the most successful at delivering BIM on projects. The aim of the study is to address the aforementioned gap through a comparison of predicted BIM capability and post-selection performance. Design/methodology/approach. BIM capability of firms in a case study was predicted using 28 BIM pre-qualification and selection criteria, prioritised based on their perceived contribution to BIM delivery success from a survey of practitioners on BIM-enabled projects. The comparison of predicted BIM capability and post-selection performance was on the other hand achieved through the application of the Technique to Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution and Fuzzy Sets Theory (Fuzzy-TOPSIS). Findings. Findings underscore the reliability of the 28 BIM pre-qualification and selection criteria as well as the priority weightings proposed for their use in predicting BIM capability and likelihood of performance. The findings have highlighted the importance of criteria related as previous BIM use experience as well as information processing maturity as critical indicators of the capability of organisations particularly design firms. Originality/value. Overall, the findings highlight the need for prioritisation of BIM pre-qualification and selection criteria on the basis of their actual contribution to delivery success from post-selection evaluation of performance. 

Purpose. This study investigates the transfer of information from the BIM models to either conventional or advanced asset management platforms using Linked Data. To achieve this aim, a process for generating Linked Data in the asset management context and its integration with BIM data is presented. Methodology. The research design employs a participatory action research (PAR) approach. The PAR approach utilised two qualitative data collection methods namely; focus group and interviews to identify and evaluate the required standards for the mapping of different domains. Also prototyping which is an approach of Software Development Methodology (SDM) is utilized to develop the ontologies and Linked Data. Findings. The proposed process offers a comprehensive description of the required standards and classifications in construction domain, related vocabularies and object-oriented links to ensure the effective data integration between different domains. Also the proposed process demonstrates the different stages, tools, best practices and guidelines to develop Linked Data, armed with a comprehensive use case Linked Data generation about building assets that consume energy. Originality/value. The Linked Data generation and publications in the domain of AECO is still in its infancy and it also needs methodological guidelines to support its evolution towards maturity in its processes and applications. This research concentrates on the Linked Data applications with BIM to link across domains where few studies have been conducted.

The development and use of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies worldwide is considered crucial towards fulfilling an increasing global energy demand and mitigating climate change. However, the potential of a solar PV-system is location specific, influenced by the local solar resource, energy demand and cost among other factors. The main aim of this study is to conduct a detailed assessment of the potential of solar PV-systems in residential buildings in Lagos Metropolitan Area, Nigeria. Nigeria has enormous solar energy potential, it is the most populous country in Africa and occupies a significant place in the development of Africa. Yet, it is a county with one of the lowest per capita electricity consumption in the world – at 149 kWh per capita for a population of about 170 million, about 7% of Brazil’s and 3% of South Africa’s. To achieve this goal, this study employed the survey of 150 residential buildings in three local government areas (LGAs) in Lagos State, Nigeria to obtain electric load data. HOMER Pro was used to size the PV-systems and to determine the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The computed energy results of the study for the base case scenario revealed the PV array, lead acid battery and the converter (inverter) of the PV-systems to be in the following range: 0.3 to 76 kW; 2 to 176kWh; and 0.1 to 13.2 kW respectively. Economic analysis revealed a LCOE of the systems in the range of 0.398 USD/kWh to 0.743 USD/kWh. The use of PV-system generated electricity in the dwellings has potential for an annual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 31.24 kgCO2eq to 7456.44 kgCO2eq. Clearly, the use of solar PV systems in residential buildings possesses potentials for enabling Nigeria to attain its climate change mitigation targets indicated in her National Determined Contributions (NDCs). 

Globally, the need to check regulation compliance for sustainability has become central in the delivery of construction projects. This is partly due to policies by various governments requiring existing and new buildings to comply with certain standards or regulations. However, the verification of whether a building complies with any particular standard or regulation has proven challenging in practice. The purpose of formal verification is to prove that under a certain set of assumptions, a building will adhere to a certain set of requirements, for example the minimum performance standards of key environmental issues. Compliance checking requires different criteria often difficult to straightforwardly define and combine in an integrated fashion for providing holistic interpretation to facilitate easy decision-making. Such criteria, their various flows and combinations can easily be dealt with using conceptual graph theories and Semantic Web concepts which allow rules to be imbued to facilitate reasoning. The aim of this study is to tap on conceptual graphs and Semantic Web concepts to develop a system for checking Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) sustainability standard compliance in the French construction industry. A conceptual graph-based framework that formally describes BREEAM requirements and visually analyse compliance checking processes has been proposed. When implemented in a software that integrates conceptual graphs and Semantic Web knowledge, automatic reasoning allows both the logical specification and the visual interpretation to be displayed and further provides a semantic support for compliance checking information.

The RIBA Plan of Work together with BIM guidance documents, developed in the UK, are commonly used in Egypt and the Middle East. However, efforts from academics publishing articles about the experiences of the adoption of such BIM standards in Egypt have been very limited. This research investigates the use of a BIM-RIBA Plan of Work in the construction industry in Egypt. The research aim was achieved through literature review and collecting qualitative data from industry practitioners. Focus group interviews was used to collect qualitative data, then analysed through consecutive stages of transcription, coding and structuring. The main finding of this study is that integrating the RIBA Plan of Work in Egypt would be beneficial only if the established construction activities have been further detailed and linked to BIM concepts. A BIM-RIBA Plan of Work has been developed through the identification of main BIM objectives and activities in each stage in the project lifecycle.

impact of orientation on energy consumption in small-scale construction, and assesses how BIM can be used to facilitate this process. The methods adopted are three-fold. Firstly, a real-life building is modelled using Revit, one of the leading BIM tools. Secondly, through green building

Extensible Markup Language, the model is exported to Green Building Studio, one of the leading energy simulation software. Thirdly, in the Green Building Studio, different building orientations are adopted and their impacts of the whole building energy are investigated. Based on the analysis of the energy consumption corresponding to the different orientations, it emerged that a well-orientated building can save a considerable amount of energy throughout its life cycle. Specifically, a total electricity use difference of 17 056 kWh and a total gas use

difference of 27 988 MJ leading to a combined energy cost savings of 878 pound throughout a 30 year period between the best (+180 degrees) and worst (+45 degrees) orientations of the building was achieved.

Construction cost estimation is one of the most important aspects of construction project design. For generations, the process of cost estimating has been manual, time-consuming and error-prone. This has partly led to most cost estimates to be unclear

and riddled with inaccuracies that at times lead to over- or underestimation

of construction cost. The development of standard set of measurement rules that are understandable by all those involved in a construction project, have not totally solved the challenges. Emerging Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies can exploit standard measurement methods to automate cost estimation process and improve accuracies. This requires standard measurement methods to be structured in ontological and machine readable format; so that BIM software packages can easily read them. Most standard measurement methods are still text-based in textbooks and require manual editing into tables or Spreadsheet during cost estimation. The aim of this study is to explore the development of an ontology based on New Rules of Measurement (NRM) commonly used in the UK for cost estimation. The methodology adopted is Methontology, one of the most widely used ontology engineering methodologies. The challenges in this exploratory study are also reported and recommendations for future studies proposed. 

BIM has recently gained ground in developed countries. However, the use of BIM in developing countries including Cameroon is not well-known. In this study, BIM implementation in Cameroon is explored. The research methods used are a pilot study, electronic email surveys and in-depth phone interviews. Altogether, 179 professionals having at least a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the National Advanced School of Engineering Yaoundé I - Cameroon, a leading engineering institution in Francophone Africa, were sampled. Forty six provided feedback yielding a response rate of 25.7%. It emerged that some BIM software are already being used in Cameroon. However, major barriers hindering BIM uptake are high license fee and lack of huge projects that can pay off the cost of investment in BIM. Perhaps, partly because the respondents were highly skilled, it emerged that the lack of expertise was/is not a major problem to use BIM in projects. Although this study is limited to Cameroon, many recommendations could be relevant to other African countries.

The construction industry including its support industries is one of the highest consumers of natural resources. In the act of consumption of natural resources during construction processes, embodied energy and greenhouse gases are emitted which have adverse effects on the natural environment. Thus, recent studies have revealed a significant interest in the quantification of embodied energy and greenhouse gases in construction processes. Unfortunately, current interpretations and quantification procedures of embodied energy and greenhouse gases are quite unclear. More also, while greenhouse gas and embodied energy quantification models are so disaggregated, studies reveal their existence in isolation without any links to other important environmental/construction management variables such as waste, time and cost. The objectives of this study are to identify the gaps in the current computation models, to reveal the relationships between the identified models and to propose a framework towards developing an integrated model for measuring embodied energy, greenhouse gases, construction waste, time and cost. The contributions of this study are three-fold. Firstly, the identification of the different models and variables, such that they can be used in computations, that can lead to consistent and comparable results. Secondly, investigate the relationships amongst embodied energy, greenhouse gases, construction waste, cost and time variables, that can facilitate the quantification process and hence potentially facilitate the engagement into low carbon building design by construction professionals. Lastly, lay the foundation for further research especially with regards to the integration of the different models and variables so that they can be measured simultaneously.

The built environment sector impacts significantly on communities. At the same time, it is the sector with the highest cost and environmental saving potentials provided effective strategies are implemented. The emerging Semantic Web promises new opportunities for efficient management of information and knowledge about various domains. While other domains, particularly bioinformatics have fully embraced the Semantic Web, knowledge about how the same has been applied to the built environment is sketchy. This study investigates the development and trend of Semantic Web applications in the built environment Understanding the different applications of the Semantic Web is essential for evaluation, improvement and opening of new research. A review of over 120 refereed articles on built environment Semantic Web applications has been conducted. A classification of the different Semantic Web applications in relation to their year of application is presented to highlight the trend. Two major findings have emerged. Firstly, despite limited research about easy-to-use applications, progress is being made from often too-common ontological concepts to more innovative concepts such as Linked Data. Secondly, a shift from traditional construction applications to Semantic Web sustainable construction applications is gradually emerging. To conclude, research challenges, potential future development and research directions have been discussed.