Survey of the research of ICT Applications in the AEC Industry: a view from two mainstream journals

Abstract

The application of information and communication technology (ICT) in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry has attracted much attention by researchers in recent years. However, a comprehensive review is still missing from the existing literature. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art research of ICT applications in the AEC industry. A total of 432 articles, published during 2011-2015 in two mainstream journals, namely Automation in Construction and Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, are selected and analyzed. This review is conducted from three different views: 1) view of construction project lifecycle, aiming to investigate the distribution of research of ICT application in different stages; 2) view of ICT technologies, aiming to identify the popular ICTs in the AEC industry that researches focus on; and 3) view of ICT application areas, aiming to identify the areas in the AEC industry that ICTs are applied in. Throughout this review, the distribution of the research of ICT in four different stages (i.e., design stage, construction stage, operation & maintenance stage, and multistage) is firstly investigated. A total of 24 types of ICTs, categorized into 8 groups and 19 ICT application areas are then identified and analyzed. In additional, limitations of this review are also discussed.