BIM and climate change in the construction sector: applications, limitations and socio-environmental implications

Abstract

This study investigates how Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been applied in the context of climate change in the construction sector. It addresses the problem of understanding to what extent such applications contribute to emissions mitigation and which limitations still compromise their effectiveness. The objective was to map uses, identify technical barriers and examine their socio-environmental implications. The results highlight the integration of BIM with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and multicriteria methods, but also reveal obstacles related to low interoperability, scarcity of regional data and the concentration of applications in the early stages of the life cycle. The classification of gaps indicates that limitations frequently treated as technical may produce significant socio-environmental effects. It is concluded that BIM constitutes a strategic tool, although its effectiveness depends on overcoming technical, methodological and informational obstacles.