Digital Twins and Advanced BIM for Lifecycle Sustainability in Construction: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The construction industry has been identified as one of the major contributors to the negative impact on the environment which highlights the importance of well-advanced digital technologies by improving the sustainability during the entire lifecycle. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Digital Twin (DT) technologies are emerging as the potential enablers of data-driven and lifecycle-oriented decision-making. This systematic literature review (SLR) aims to investigate the benefits of applying BIM and DT to enable sustainability of the building lifecycle through a case-by-case critical analysis of existing peer-reviewed literature from 2015–2025. By analyzing 35 SLRs, the study reveals the transition of static BIM to dynamic DT based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the ability of real-time monitoring, prediction and continuous optimization. The research applies mostly to the early planning and design phases of building whereas DT technologies facilitate the sustainability performance into subsequent operational and maintenance phases. Several challenges and barriers have been identified such as data integration problems, lack of interoperability, no industry standards, high cost and lack of skilled personnel. The current research shows the discrepancy of sustainability dimensions in terms of social, economic and environmental considerations. Based on an innovative framework, the BIM–DT Integrated Sustainability Framework (BIM-DTISF) is proposed for optimizing the real-time lifecycle sustainability performance. Despite the theoretical advances ac