Integrating BIMs in Construction and Demolition Waste Management for Circularity Enhancement-A Review

AbstractHumanity in our days is fighting with climate change effects and the depletion of natural resources. In this direction, the adoption of sustainable and circular practices is considered vital and in most cases is prescribed by regulations. The construction sector is responsible for massive amounts of energy consumed during the extraction of raw materials, the production of building materials, the construction phase, the operating phase of the buildings, and also during their demolition and end-of-life. The latter one already gathers the scientific community’s interest with the efforts being focused on efficient Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) management solutions. Meanwhile, Building Information Modelling (BIM), as a storage medium of information about all building components, offers various advantages on a building’s optimum design and operation, allowing information exchange among all involved stakeholders. Although many studies demonstrate the effectiveness of BIMs in reducing construction waste for new buildings, there is not extensive research on how BIMs can contribute to CDW reduction for an existing building. In this review study, the existing studies addressing BIM integration on CDW management are analyzed, pointing out the advantages that this strategy offers on reducing CDW and managing them efficiently, increasing reuse and recycle rates, and promoting circularity. The main challenges this approach presents, mainly attributed to the difficulty of gathering the required information with the appropriate accuracy about an existing building, are extensively discussed, along with future research needs, necessary for a further enhancement of this technique.