SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING: AI, BIM, IoT, Drones, Data Analytics, and Digital Transformation for Modern Construction Projects

Construction is, by most measures, the single most consequential industry on the planet for determining whether humanity meets its climate and resource commitments over the next three decades. It is also an industry undergoing the most significant technological transformation in its modern history, as Building Information Modeling, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, drones, data analytics, and digital twins move from pilot projects to standard practice. This book was written from the conviction that these two developments — the urgency of sustainable construction and the rise of digital construction technology — are best understood together rather than as separate subjects, because in practice they have become deeply intertwined. A modern engineer cannot credibly claim mastery of sustainable design without understanding how BIM, sensors, and analytics are used to specify, verify, and continuously improve that design in the real world.
Sustainable Construction Engineering: AI, BIM, IoT, Drones, Data Analytics, and Digital Transformation for Modern Construction Projects is organized to reflect that conviction. Part I establishes the scientific and engineering foundations of sustainability — materials, energy, water, life-cycle assessment, and certification — that have anchored the field since long before "digital transformation" entered its vocabulary. Part II examines the technologies that are transforming how those foundations are designed, delivered, and verified. Part III applies both foundations and technologies to renewable energy systems, city-scale infrastructure, organizational strategy, and real projects. Part IV closes with a candid assessment of risk, limitation, and the road ahead.
This book is intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students in civil, construction, and building services engineering, as well as practicing architects, engineers, project managers, and sustainability consultants seeking a structured, current reference that bridges traditional sustainable design practice and the digital technologies increasingly central to its delivery. Each chapter is designed to be read independently as a reference, while the whole builds a coherent argument for readers proceeding from cover to cover. Learning objectives, callout boxes, figures, tables, chapter summaries, key terms, and review questions in every chapter support both classroom use and self-directed study.
Every effort has been made to ground the factual and statistical content of this book in credible, current, and where possible primary sources — international bodies such as UNEP and its Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, peer-reviewed research, recognized industry standards bodies such as ISO and buildingSMART International, and respected industry market analysis. Given the pace of change in both climate science and digital construction technology, readers are encouraged to treat the statistics and market figures cited throughout this book as illustrative of orders of magnitude and directional trends current at the time of writing, and to consult the latest editions of the primary sources referenced in the bibliography for figures where precision is critical to a specific application.
I am grateful to the colleagues, students, and industry practitioners whose questions, projects, and case studies have shaped the structure and emphasis of this book, and to the researchers and standards bodies whose published work made a text of this scope and currency possible.