Exploring the role of building information modeling in construction safety through science mapping

Deplorable safety management practices are damaging the reputation of construction sector. Though legislation has specified rules and regulations for safety improvement, the state of violation is still alarming. Its root causes are unavailability of information and lack of integration of core data with other project activities. The technology that can help in overcoming these issues is the need of hour. Building Information Modeling (BIM) has the potential to address poor safety performance which inspired many researchers to explore its application for safety improvement throughout project lifecycle. The primary objective of this study is to review and analyze the literature on BIM. For this purpose, comprehensive bibliometric and scientometric analyses were performed using science mapping tools on the articles published during the period 2000–2018 using selected search string. The analyses on 97 articles majorly resulted in the identification of BIM application characteristics, construction safety application domains and their relationship. The relationship in the form of a factor-feature matrix shows the association strengths between various safety factors and BIM features, revealing interesting findings. It is found that visualization is the most promising feature of BIM while hazard identification is a highly significant application domain of construction safety. The findings drive the knowledge areas available for future research endeavors in BIM and safety. Taking the lead, app developers can design and develop a dedicated BIM plugin to plan and monitor safety in construction projects.