Facets of Sustainability in Construction Informatics and Project Management

Dear colleagues,

Construction informatics and digitalization are changing the face of the built environment. Gursel et al. (2014) suggest that 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and raw material consumption can be directly attributed to the built environment and the construction industry. It is also the most socially and economically significant sector in the global economy. The McKinsey Global Institute suggests that higher productivity in construction could raise US $1.6 trillion (McKinsey and Company, 2019). This in turn could result in sustainability, as this sum could pay for half of the world’s infrastructure requirements. This has resulted in the construction industry and the built environment currently facing significant pressure for greater digitalization, managing globalization, industrialization, and sustainability. The social, economic, and health crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has made the world realise the even greater importance of being sustainable in all facets of life. Big Data are being gathered for construction and in some cases not used. This Special Issue evaluates how digitalisation and applications of construction information technology is impacting sustainability both positively and negatively. It also analyses the aspects of project management and how it can contribute towards enhancing sustainability. This Special Issue provides authors with a platform to examine the following key issues and aspects:

• Impact of fintech technologies such as blockchain and smart contracts on sustainability;
• Building information modelling and lifecycle sustainability;
• The impact and development of remote and virtual approaches to project management;
• Life cycle carbon management in megaprojects;
• Corporate social responsibility and the impact of contracts and procurement;
• Data analytics in construction;
• Infrastructure and sustainable transport;
• Sustainable management and governance of resilience projects and disaster management;
• Construction informatics and renewable energy;
• Construction data security;
• Successful projects and their impact on policy creation for construction in a digital world: virtual reality, augmented reality, big data and their impact on waste reduction;
• Computerized environmental performance assessment of buildings and the built environment infrastructure;
• Training and education in digital technologies and advanced methods of project management and providing solutions to dealing with embodied carbon and sustainability;
• Decision-support tools and assessment methods for construction and the built environment;
• Applications and software to assist with project management and digital technologies;
• Artificial intelligence and construction management;
• Programmable construction automation including robotics and industry 4.0;
• Automating data capture for design and construction progress visualization and enhancing sustainability;
• Any other issue that pertains to construction informatics, digitisation, project management and sustainability.

Prof. Srinath Perera
Dr. Xiaohua Jin
Dr. Robert Eadie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• information technology
• project management
• built environment