Review of Block Chain Technology Applications in Construction Engineering

and Management

Arsalan Fayaz1, Muhammad Jalal2, Aazaz Ahmad3, and Anjum Iqbal Khalil.4

1
MS. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, CECOS University of IT and Emerging
Sciences, Email: arsalan.fayaz.msce-s2022c@cecosian.edu.pk
2
MS. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, CECOS University of IT and Emerging
Sciences, Email: m.jalal.msce-s2022c@cecosian.edu.pk
3
MS. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, CECOS University of IT and Emerging
Sciences, Email: aazaz.ahmad.msce-s2022c@cecosian.edu.pk
4
MS. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, CECOS University of IT and Emerging
Sciences, Email: anjum.khalil.msce-s2022c@cecosian.edu.pk

ABSTRACT

Adoption of new technology is a relatively slow process in the construction industry. The growing
number of cyber threats has raised a serious concern about the data transmissions. Blockchain
technology (BCT) has been introduced to curb some of the privacy and security challenges. It is a
technology that decentralizes authority and makes it almost impossible for external threats to alter
the transmitted content. Thus, this paper aims to provide an in-depth review of the BCT articles in
the construction industry, specifically for its applications in construction management. Five
categories were identified for BCT in the construction industry after reviewing the existing
literature: (1) secure data transmission and data ownership, (2) IT in construction, (3) quality
information management, (4) stakeholders collaboration, and (5) construction payments and trust.
The findings indicated that BCT presented high promises to improve the overall efficiency of the
construction industry. Finally, insight for future research about BCT in the construction industry
are provided.

INTRODUCTION

The construction industry is considered a diverse, multidisciplinary, and multidimensional

industry that involves various interactions, coordination, planning, and collaboration among
various stakeholders. Some of the key stakeholders in a construction project are the owner, clients,
end-users, contractors, subcontractors, consultants, architects, engineers, and many more. To
pursue a successful construction project, it is often required to closely relate and collaborate
between these stakeholders. The construction industry often takes smaller steps in coping with the
innovative technology, and therefore, most construction projects utilize the traditional methods in
executing the projects, resulting in slower production. The study by Nawari and Ravindran (2019)
stated the same notion, which explains how the construction industry is typically limited in
adopting advanced technologies. Like many other fields, i.e., IT, finance, business, the
construction industry also requires activities to be done confidentially between the authorized
stakeholders. Construction projects require a safe and secure transmission media to share, alter, or
update any information. In addition to the secure transmission of data, another aspect of the
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construction industry is the trust deficit between the involved parties. Frequently, this trust deficit
among various stakeholders leads to more significant conflicts between the teams.
Researchers have made attempts to incorporate Blockchain technology (BCT) into the
construction industry to resolve the current issues related to secure data transmission,
communication, and data ownership. BCT can also help to minimize the legal issues related to any
construction project by providing the ability to track everyone's arguments during the carious
construction management processes. It is noticed that construction projects often lead to conflicts
between teams because of the poor tracking of changes and centralized systems. BCT could
manage records and data without a dominant power to one particular entity (Elghaish et al. 2020).
Contract management is another very essential aspect of the construction process. Construction
projects frequently lead to conflicts due to the lack of proper contract administration. With the
advent of BCT, this process can be enhanced and decentralized, and the scope of work can easily
be tracked. In an article by Hamledari et al. (2020), the same notion is explained that BCT enables
reliable contracting in construction management.
While several review studies have been done to discuss the various aspects of
implementing BCT in the construction industry, it was identified that each category's broader
understanding has not been thoroughly studied. The existing review literature is focused on the
overall and general aspects of BCT in construction, i.e., a decentralized system; however, the
insight on each BCT element in the construction industry is still lacking. Thus, this study's
motivation is the limitation of the existing review articles, particularly identifying each category
of the BCT and its impact on the construction industry. Therefore, this paper contributes to the
body of knowledge by providing a detailed review of each category and addressing the question
about how BCT will impact the construction processes.

METHODOLOGY

Framework
To perform a thorough review of BCT's existing literature in the construction industry, the authors
created a framework to cover a broad spectrum of literature. The framework consists of various
steps to identify the targeted literature in this area. Furthermore, this framework was set up in a
cyclical process to continuously repeat the steps and ensure comprehensive and relevant articles
are filtered for review. Those filtered articles were then combined in an internal database. The
following steps are included in this cyclic framework: [1] initial screening for topic selection, [2]
database search, keywords search, and identification, [3] review of articles on BTC, [4] analysis
of searched articles, [5] identification of contributions and relevance to the topic, [6] decision to
include in the internal database, [7] creating an internal database, [8] critical review of the articles
(i.e., identification of primary categories), [9] discussions of results, findings, and future directions,
and [10] limitations and conclusion.
The above-mentioned framework is illustrated in Figure 1. Two cycles were performed to
filter each database better and conclude with the most relevant set of articles to review for this
study. In the first cycle, various databases were searched using different keywords. A wide variety
of papers were gathered. After going through the cyclic process again, only the articles closely
related to the topic were added to our internal database. Figure 1 shows a pictorial illustration of
the framework followed in this paper. Detailed information about the search strategy is given in
the following section.

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 Figure 1. Literature review framework.

Search Strategy
The authors covered a broad range of literature relevant to the topic, following the details discussed
in this section for a comprehensive review of the literature. In the beginning, the following
databases were used to identify literature related to the topic: IEEE, ELSEVIER, SPRINGER,
ASCE, SCOPUS, CSCE, Web of Science (WOS), and Wiley Online Library. In addition to these
databases, Google Scholar was also used to comprehensively review the available literature in this
field. Various keywords were used in different combinations to identify the targeted publications.
In general, the keywords are divided into two categories: [1] Blockchain technology (BCT) and
[2] Construction engineering and management. The keywords in these two categories were
combined using Boolean operators to search relevant articles. Some combinations of the keywords
are as follows: “Blockchain technology” AND Construction Management, “Blockchain
technology in construction management OR Planning,” “Blockchain technology AND cost
management OR payment delivery, “Blockchain technology AND construction, “Blockchain
technology AND Site management,” Blockchain technology AND construction schedule,” and
“Blockchain technology AND project delivery method.” After inputting these combinations of
keywords, targeted papers were downloaded into our internal database for review. Furthermore,
keywords were updated progressively as more literature was reviewed. The updated keywords
helped the authors consider a wide variety of papers about BCT in construction management.
Since BCT is relatively new in the construction industry, the authors set the search period
from 2010 to perform a meaningful review, i.e., 2010-present. Relevant papers were transferred,
organized, and reviewed based on their relative significance with the topic. For the first round, 123
publications of literature were selected, then filtered to identify topic-related publications. In the
second round, 42 works of literature were recognized to perform an extensive review.

CRITICAL REVIEW AND RESULTS

Literature Overview: Co-Occurrence Analysis of Keywords in BCT

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The use of authors' keywords in a systematic review is beneficial because it describes the critical
research areas' trends and relationships. These relationships are used for existing studies to develop
future research topics to increase knowledge sharing. For this review paper, a total of 123 papers
obtained from Scopus and other databases were added to the VOSviewer software. The minimum
number of occurrences of a particular keyword was set to 3 to cover a broad area of BCT in
construction. Figure 2 shows the network relationships of the keywords used in this review article.
The font size suggests the number of publications containing a specific keyword that occurred the
most in the current literature. Figure 2 indicates that the top three keywords that happened in high
frequency are “Blockchain,” “Construction industry,” and “BIM.” Apart from these top three
keywords, other relationships have also been shown in Figure 2. Some of the keywords that are
left out include “site management,” “construction scheduling,” and “construction cost.”

Figure 2. Co-occurrence of the keyword

Summation of the Critical Review

After compiling relevant articles in the internal database, the authors of this study assessed them
based on the content presented in each article and attributed a unique category or group for similar
articles. In other words, some papers were closely matched, and related articles were combined
under the umbrella of a broader category. Five categories were identified and developed by using
the process of combing similar articles in the current literature. Furthermore, these five categories
were named based on the literature closely related to a particular group. It was also noticed during
this review that some articles overlapped into different groups and were placed in a category
covering most of the article content. Table 1 shows the summary of the current literature related
to each of the categories. During this review, it has been found that most of the current literature
leans more towards the five broader categories mentioned in Table 1. This review also shows that

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currently, BCT in the construction industry has been limitedly studied and, therefore, requires a
more thorough exploration of other topics related to BCT in construction management.
The five categories related to BCT in construction management show that traditional
construction activities and processes can be upgraded by implementing the new BCT technology,
creating a more transparent channel in executing construction processes. The collaboration, fair
payment, quality information, and secure data transmission are linked to a successful construction
project. The advent of BCT can improve these steps efficiently because of its ability to eliminate
the central administrative authority. The five categories presented in Table 1 have not been
synthesized adequately before. Detailed descriptions of each category are presented in the
following subsections.

Table 1: Percentage of articles by categories.

Relevance/Categories of existing articles Number of articles related Percentage of each
to the category category
Data secure transmission and ownership 15 35.7%
IT in construction 12 28.6%
Quality information management 3 7.1%
Stakeholders collaboration 8 19.05%
Construction payments and trust 4 9.52%

Data Secure Transmission and Ownership

BCT is a new and advanced technology that decentralizes the authority and provides a system that
makes it easy to track changes, impossible to cheat or hack the data, and to quickly achieve
collaboration between the various team members. This technology also provides a trusted channel
for the stakeholders to pursue digital transactions (Belle 2017). A proper and secure
communication achieves the project's goals efficiently. BCT can enhance the communication
among various team players and make it easy to collaborate (Safa et al. 2019). BCT can provide a
trusted channel in supply chain management by providing secure data transmission and data
tracking (Qian and Papadonikolaki 2020). Another study states that BCT can reduce the role of
“intermediaries” in the work and provide fairness in the construction processes (Boonpheng et al.
2020).
In general, the existing literature shows that the construction industry involves heavy
collaboration and communication between various stakeholders, and it is vital to have a security
system to achieve the project's expectations. A secured decentralized system makes it easier to
communicate and provides a helpful channel to enhance production.

IT in Construction
IT with digital technology is making complex issues solved quickly, efficiently, and with more
accuracy. The construction industry also has the potential to incorporate innovative technology to
upgrade tedious processes. BCT is a technology that decentralizes the authority to perform secure
transactions; however, this technology cannot be used as a stand-alone system. A proper IT system
must be in place before the full implementation of BCT in the construction industry (Turk and
Robert 2017). BCT is a technology built on smaller blocks integrated with other IT-based
technologies to function adequately (Nawari and Ravindran 2019). An example of this integration
is presented by Shojaei et al. (2021) where they have used BCT to facilitate a circular economy in
the construction industry.

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 In synthesizing information from the existing literature, it shows that the current literature
emphasizes a more robust IT system in-placed before the BCT technology can be fully
incorporated to achieve its full potential. In other words, BCT is dependent upon existing IT
applications for proper functionality.

Quality Information Management

One of the significant issues in the construction industry is managing the flow of information. With
the advent of modern technologies, while it is true that information is in abundance, to recognize
the quality of such information is still a challenge. BCT can decentralize the authorities and provide
an insight into the source of the data (Alvarez et al., 2021). Construction is an industry that involves
many activities and stakeholders. It is often challenging to know where the information is coming
from or who is responsible for inaccurate documentations. These types of discrepancies often lead
to conflicts between various team members. BCT technology can identify the data source and track
the changes (Sheng et al. 2020). Also, BCT can be used to ensure the accuracy and source of
product information (Shojaei et al. 2019)
Current literature shows that the construction industry involves much information between
different stakeholders and requires a system that makes it possible to authenticate. BCT can make
it possible to validate the data and provide the ability to manage the quality of information that
ultimately improves the industry's performance.

Stakeholders Collaboration
In the past decade or so, building information modeling (BIM) has revolutionized the construction
industry for its features to communicate with the project stakeholders effectively. As BIM
technology's incorporation moved from the design process to the construction, things start to
change. Construction industries rely heavily on information to be traced and validated — the area
where currently BIM has the most obstacles and limitations (Nawari and Ravindran 2019). The
introduction of BCT in construction has provided an alternative solution for improved
collaboration by utilizing the decentralized ledger phenomena (Hargaden et al. 2019).
BCT provides a platform and opportunity for the construction industry to communicate
and collaborate through this trusted channel effectively. Collaboration on contracts is perhaps the
biggest of all, as most construction industry conflicts are due to the lack of proper collaboration
and communication between teams (Hunhevicz and Hall 2020). The construction industry is
heavily dependent upon collaboration as the activities are so interlinked among various trades.

Construction Payments and Trust

One of the biggest challenges in the construction industry is the trust deficit and the proper payment
process. It leads to conflicts between trade members, and hence the overall quality yield negative
impacts. Timely payment is one of the major issues in the construction industry worldwide,
significantly affecting its performance. Inadequate payment also damages the trust between project
participants. BCT could utilize the decentralized contracts system, enhancing the stakeholders'
payment limitations (Ahmadisheykhsarmast and Sonmez 2020). Other studies in the existing body
of knowledge also indicated trust and proper payment as the most flawed construction industry
system. BCT can provide a platform where people interact continuously to overcome
administrative authority's challenge (Xue and Lu 2020). Current literature leans heavily towards
upgrading the construction industry's existing payment problems to coordinate and plan complex

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activities better. Literature has shown that payments have a direct relationship with trust and the
two go together closely in the construction world.

CHALLENGES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

BCT is still in the preliminary stages in the construction industry. However, the current limited
number of literary works provide valuable aspects of construction management and cover topics
such as the secure transmission of data and data ownership, the collaboration between
stakeholders, IT and innovative technology in construction, and processes management. However,
many challenges still exist in the full implementation of BCT in construction management. The
authors of this paper identified some of the challenges, including but not limited to, construction
projects progress tracking, project scheduling and productivity enhancement, execution of BCT in
site planning, prediction of early change orders, and design changes during construction. Some of
the challenges stated above are the potential research directions for future work in the area of BCT
in construction management.

LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

This review paper analyzed the current literature and identified five broader categories for BCT in
construction management, i.e., secure transmission of data and data ownership, IT in construction,
quality information management, stakeholders collaboration, and construction payments and trust.
The construction industry's main challenges have been identified and summarized as well. Existing
literature shows that lack of data security, payments delay, poor collaboration, and low data quality
can be improved through the implementation of BCT in the construction industry. The conducted
review identified that BCT shows high promises to improve the challenges mentioned above by
utilizing the abilities of BCT in conjunction with the present tools. BCT cannot stand alone to
overcome the challenges; however, if this technology is used in combination with the current tools,
a more successful result could be achieved.
While this review study provides a valuable insight into the status of BCT in construction
management, however, there were some limitations noticed, e.g., a limited number of works of
literature is available in this area, the existing literature only focused on the overall overview of
the BCT in construction, and a more detailed review is lacking and needs to be explored. BCT is
still in the preliminary stages in the construction industry; to overcome some of the challenges, the
construction industry must adopt changes. It is well known that construction is usually slow in
coping with advanced technology. Therefore, the construction industry needs to be open to changes
and adopting the new technology. Some of the potential future directions are implementing BCT
in construction site management, site planning, improving project scheduling, and enhancing the
cost estimation processes.

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Transport Management, 90, 101941.

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