Utilising BIM in Construction Safety

Planning: A Systematic Review

Priyanka Prashar and J. Uma Maheswari

Abstract The construction industry is always associated with hazards. According

to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the construction sector accounts for the
most considerable amount of fatal injuries. Technology can overcome such issues
by enhancing safety at construction sites. Building information modelling (BIM) is
an upcoming concept and is gaining popularity in the construction industry.
Attempts have been made to summarise the application of BIM in safety, but
studies have not summarised it systematically. Therefore, the purpose of this study
is to review the existing knowledge of BIM in construction safety and identify the
gaps in existing studies. A systematic review was conducted on the articles pub-
lished from 2009 to 2020. For the study, three topics were selected, including BIM
for construction safety, prevention through design (PtD), and automated rule-based
checking. The findings observe that BIM allows to identify the hazards and mitigate
them before the construction commences. Additionally, a significant number of
accidents are linked with the design and safety issues can be assessed automatically
using BIM in the design phase. Therefore, the use of BIM can improve the safety
performance of the construction industry.

Keywords Building information modelling Construction safety planning

Prevention through design Automated rule-based checking

1 Introduction

The construction industry in India constitutes around 8.2% of India’s Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) and employs nearly 57.5 million people [1]. Besides, the
construction industry is linked to a significant number of work-related accidents.

P. Prashar (&)
J. U. Maheswari

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110016, India
e-mail: Priyanka.Prashar@civil.iitd.ac.in
J. U. Maheswari
e-mail: J.Uma.Maheswari@civil.iitd.ac.in

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 1
B. Laishram and A. Tawalare (eds.), Recent Advancements
in Civil Engineering, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering 172,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4396-5_1
2 P. Prashar and J. U. Maheswari

Annually, around 60,000 fatal accidents occur in construction sites across the
world, which estimates one fatal accident every ten minutes [2]. More than 48,000
workers die annually from occupational accidents in India, and there are nearly 37
million occupational accidents which cause absence from work of at least four days
[3]. Construction workers in developed countries around the world are 3–4 times
more likely to meet with fatal accidents at work than other industries such as the
manufacturing industry and agriculture industry. In developing countries, this
number estimates to be 3–6 times higher compared to the developed countries [4].
These statistics indicate that the construction industry is hazardous; therefore, there
is a dire need to improve safety in the construction industry.
The construction safety, besides time, cost, and quality, is a success factor of a
project [5]. Planning is a significant step in safety management that incorporates the
identification of all possible hazards, hazardous operations, and safety measures [6].
Research shows that one of the best ways to prevent occupational injuries and
fatalities is to eliminate hazards and minimise risks early in the design phase or
redesign process and incorporate safe design methods into all phases of hazard and
risk mitigation [7, 8]. This concept is known as prevention through design (PtD).
According to this method, design professionals (specifically architects and engi-
neers) consider construction worker safety when designing a facility [9]. The
construction design must be evaluated to verify the quality and performance of the
design and identify issues before construction takes place [10]. Traditionally, such
evaluation is done manually, which is labour-intensive, time-consuming, and
inefficient [11]. The process to automatically review the design is known as auto-
mated rule-based checking.
Building information modelling (BIM) is becoming increasingly popular in the
architectural engineering construction (AEC) industry and is changing the approach
to safety [12]. This study aimed to explore the research addressing BIM for
improving construction safety. Limited studies have been carried out to date.
Researchers have attempted to summarise the application of BIM in safety in the
past decade, but studies have not summarised it systematically. More safety
investigations could have been done to date as the global construction industry has
not accomplished the mission on “zero accident sites”. This study has discussed the
existing knowledge on construction safety, BIM for construction safety, safety
through design, and automated rule-based checking associated with BIM.

2 Research Methodology

The study aimed to gain knowledge regarding the studies of the integration of BIM
with construction safety and point out the gaps. A systematic review of the existing
literature was carried out. This systematic review is carried out according to
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)
[13]. The databases used for the study were Science Direct, Emerald Insight, and
ASCE library. Publications from the government agencies responsible for
Utilising BIM in Construction Safety … 3

regulating workplace safety and industry reports were also used. Articles published
from 2009 to 2020 were selected for the study. The research conducted on buildings
were only selected for this study. In the initial search, 142 papers were found, out of
which 123 were articles, and 19 were other documents such as reports, publications,
and articles found on individual searches. The information of all the documents was
reviewed. Out of which 16 documents were duplicates, so were removed, and on
further screening, 84 documents were excluded as they were not relevant to our
study. Finally, 42 documents were selected for the study, which is illustrated in
Fig. 1 in a PRISMA flow diagram.

3 Results and Discussion

The final articles included in the study are distributed in Table 1, depending upon
their resources. Figure 2 shows the distributions of the studies according to the
regions. According to Table 1, the majority of papers in the area of construction
safety associated with BIM were published in automation in construction journal.
Figure 2 shows that the United States has conducted most research in this area, and
the Indian construction industry lags far behind in the research. India should carry
out research to exploit the benefits of using BIM in construction safety.

Fig. 1 PRISMA flow diagram

4 P. Prashar and J. U. Maheswari

Table 1 Distribution of the articles according to their sources

Source No. of articles
Automation in construction 6
Procedia engineering 3
Safety science 2
Journal of safety research 2
Journal of construction engineering and management 2
Journal of computing in civil engineering 2
Engineering, construction and architectural management 1
Construction innovation 1
International journal of project management 1
Practice periodical on structural design and construction 1
Journal of engineering, design and technology 1
International journal of architectural research 1
Conference proceedings 10
Others 9

Fig. 2 Distribution of articles according to the regions

3.1 Safety Planning

The construction industry is associated with hazardous work due to which con-
struction workers are exposed to hazards. Adequate project planning and hazard
recognition must be carried out collaboratively and throughout the project lifecycle
to promote safety in construction projects [14]. Safety planning, traditionally, is
carried out separately from the design and planning phase of the project [15]. It also
is carried out through manual observations that result to be labour-intensive,
error-prone, and often highly inefficient [16]; it relies on 2D drawings that cause
difficulties in using and analysing safety plans [6]. Such problems can be resolved
with the help of building information modelling (BIM).
Utilising BIM in Construction Safety … 5

The research found that 46% of respondents believed that BIM could improve
the safety of construction workers [17]. BIM 3D modelling can assist teams in
identifying and correcting errors and omissions that may lead to safety hazards
earlier in the design process. BIM enables better communication and understanding
among various stakeholders [18]. 4D-BIM is a vital technology for construction-site
safety-related planning activities, connecting the safety viewpoint more closely to
construction planning, enabling visualisation of safety arrangements in construction
projects at different times, and providing more illustrative communication-site plans
[19]. In a survey, it was found that 53% of respondents believed that BIM has a
significant effect on improving construction safety in comparison with the other
current tools such as risk assessment and review tools [20].

3.2 Highlights of the BIM-Based Safety Studies

The studies have shown that prevention through design (PtD) is a useful tool to
improve safety [9, 21]. Decisions taken during the design process affects means
and methods of construction, thus affecting construction safety [22]. The incor-
poration of safety while designing plays an essential role in eliminating/reducing
the hazards. The implementation of DfS within the construction industry is
affected by-designer attitude, designer awareness/knowledge and education, DfS
tools, clients’ influence/motivation, and legislation [23]. A study showed that
given a high awareness and a positive attitude towards the DfS concept, the level
of involvement in DfS practices among design professionals is shallow [24].
Therefore, designers should be motivated and made aware of getting involved in
DfS. Training should be provided to the designers so that they engage in the DfS
concept and exploit the benefits out of it. Researchers concluded that BIM has the
potential to achieve DfS [25, 26]. In 2010, Kamardeen [27] proposed a PtD tool
that can be integrated with a BIM model. Eastman et al. [28] introduced the
process of rule checking in BIM. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of
Technology introduced the first preliminary results of an automated safety rule
checker for BIM [29]. Later, researchers carried out studies to develop BIM-based
tools/ methodologies to enhance safety, as shown in Table 2. On the other hand,
Fig. 3 shows the types of hazards adopted in the studies conducted so far, which
shows that most of the studies focused on falling prevention. This demonstrates
the need to address other types of hazards.
6 P. Prashar and J. U. Maheswari

Table 2 BIM-based tools

Year Tools/ Description Hazards BIM Citation
methodologies dimension
2010 4D BIM for Visualisation of BIM-based Falls 4D [30]
safety planning, 4D safety railings for fall/
management, and edge protection
communications
2011 BIM-based Designing for safety Falls 3D [31]
design for a suggestions available to
construction designers and constructors
worker safety
tool
2011 Automated safety Safety planning can be Falls 4D [29]
code checking considered in the design
tool stage for early detection and
application of protective
safety system
2013 Automated Automatically identifies the Falls 4D [12]
rule-checking potential safety hazards and
framework apply corresponding
prevention methods
2014 PtD tool PTD suggestions available Falls 3D [32]
to designers and
constructors
2014 Automated safety Automate safety planning Falls, struck 4D [33]
planning plug-in and enhance the safety by objects
knowledge of construction
practitioners to reduce
accidents in the site
2015 Automated Detect and visualise the Falls 4D [15]
rule-checking potential fall hazards
framework effectively during the safety
design and planning stages
2015 A BIM-based Communication and Falls, fire, 4D [34]
quality checking collaboration among the collision
process project party concerned for
improving safety
management
2016 DfS approach Automatically identify Falls 3D [35]
potential safety problems
resulted from the design
by integrating BIM with
design safety rules
2016 Database for near Allows construction-site Near miss 3D [36]
miss information workers to report near
in BIM misses and visualise
within an BIM
(continued)
Utilising BIM in Construction Safety … 7

Table 2 (continued)
Year Tools/ Description Hazards BIM Citation
methodologies dimension
2016 Automated safety Automatic identification of Falls 4D [37]
planning platform safety hazards related to
activities working on
scaffolding and preventive
measures can be prepared
before construction
2017 Testing of The technology identifies Fatal four 4D [38]
visualisation hazards and communicates
technologies safety plans to workers
(BIM, 4D
simulations) in
real-life projects
2018 BIM-integrated Help designers identify Falls, fire 3D [39]
risk review system risk related to their design escape
element
2019 BIM-integrated assess safety risks during Falls, 3D [40]
PtD the design phase collapse,
knowledge-based automatically struck by
plug-in object,
electrocution
2019 PtD tool Eliminate or mitigate – 4D [41]
addressing top risks before construction
levels of the
hierarchy of
control
2020 Integration of Allows collaboration Falls 3D [42]
H&S risk among technicians
management into involved in the design
the design phase process, which can reduce
the number of accidents
originating in the design
phase

4 Conclusion

The construction industry is becoming as complex as the technology is developing.

With the increase in construction work, the risk associated with it also increases.
Therefore, safety is an essential part of a project. Safety not only depends on the
performance of a contractor, but it also depends on the performance of other key
participants such as designer and owner. Technology such as BIM can also enhance
safety performance. The study presented the papers in construction safety associ-
ated with BIM from 2009 to 2020. The study established a relationship between
safety management and BIM. It was observed that (a) tools such as PtD and
automated rule checking have the ability to augment the capabilities of BIM to
8 P. Prashar and J. U. Maheswari

Fig. 3 Types of hazards addressed in this study

foster safety; (b) a significant number of accidents are linked with the design;
(c) safety issues can be automatically assessed using BIM in the pre-construction
phase of a project.
Findings show that there is a need to provide PtD training to make the designers
aware of the benefits of its use. The research showed that the risk leading to the
incident could be reduced or eliminated if the design is considered for safety. Also,
it was observed that the majority of the research is theoretical, and real-world
implementation is required. The majority of the studies focused on the lower levels
(engineering and administrative controls) of the hierarchy of controls; therefore,
future studies should focus on the higher levels (elimination and substitution). Also,
most studies have focused on fall hazard prevention; other hazards such as struck by
objects, electrocution, and caught-in/between. should also be explored. There is
limited research on near misses, which can be explored in the future. Although
research in improving safety using BIM is carried out, problems still exist in the
construction sites. Therefore, there is a need to develop robust tools to enhance
safety at sites.

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