Review Article Integrating Building Information Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Structural Design: A Critical Review

Author

N. Syam, R. Sandhya, P. Appalanaidu, and R. Naveen

Abstract

 The environmental performance of buildings is influenced by decisions concerning structural systems, material quantities, construction processes, use, maintenance and end-of-life treatment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) provides a structured method for quantifying environmental impacts within defined system boundaries, while Building Information Modelling (BIM) stores geometric, material and quantity information that can support the preparation and updating of life-cycle inventories. This review critically examines selected research on BIM–LCA integration, with particular attention to structural material selection, automated data exchange, structural optimisation, multi-criteria decision-making and digital-twin-enabled life-cycle sustainability assessment. A targeted narrative synthesis was undertaken using the research papers assembled in the authors’ source collection, supplemented by bibliographic verification of key publications. The reviewed evidence indicates that BIM-based quantity extraction and software links can make environmental assessment more iterative and accessible during design. Structural optimisation and alternative concrete mixtures can also reduce reported embodied impacts in specific case studies. However, the magnitude and ranking of results are sensitive to environmental product declaration (EPD) datasets, geographical context, model detail, functional equivalence, life-cycle modules and the treatment of biogenic carbon. Multi-criteria methods further demonstrate that the preferred option may change when cost and social indicators are included. The principal research needs are validated open data exchange, regionally representative life-cycle inventory data, transparent model-detail reporting, whole-life coverage, uncertainty analysis and validation across real projects. The review concludes that BIM is an enabling information platform rather than a guarantee of LCA accuracy; credible sustainable structural decisions require technically equivalent alternatives and transparent assessment assumptions.

Keywords

Building Information Modelling; Life Cycle Assessment; structural design; embodied carbon; environmental product declaration; interoperability; life-cycle sustainability assessment.

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References

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