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This paper aims to investigate the theoretical and practical links between digital twin (DT) application in heritage facilities management (HFM) from a life cycle management perspective and to signpost the future development directions of DT in HFM.

This state-of-the-art review was conducted using a systematic literature review method. Inclusive and exclusive criteria were identified and used to retrieve relevant literature from renowned literature databases. Shortlisted publications were analysed using the VOSviewer software and then critically reviewed to reveal the status quo of research in the subject area.

The review results show that DT has been mainly adopted to support decision-making on conservation approach and method selection, performance monitoring and prediction, maintenance strategies design and development, and energy evaluation and management. Although many researchers attempted to develop DT models for part of a heritage building at component or system level and test the models using real-life cases, their works were constrained by availability of empirical data. Furthermore, data capture approaches, data acquisition methods and modelling with multi-source data are found to be the existing challenges of DT application in HFM.

In a broader sense, this study contributes to the field of engineering, construction and architectural management by providing an overview of how DT has been applied to support management activities throughout the building life cycle. For the HFM practice, a DT-cum-heritage building information modelling (HBIM) framework was developed to illustrate how DT can be integrated with HBIM to facilitate future DT application in HFM. The overall implication of this study is that it reveals the potential of heritage DT in facilitating HFM in the urban development context.

Due to the complexities involved in disasters and due to the peculiar nature of post-disaster reconstruction, built environment professionals require continuous updating of their skills and knowledge to contribute effectively to disaster resilience. The purpose of this paper is to identify the ways in which higher education institutions (HEIs) can address this need through the provision of lifelong learning.

This paper is based on both a literature review and on empirical evidence obtained through interviews, a workshop and group validation.

The challenges faced by HEIs in accommodating lifelong learning are presented. Furthermore, good practice guidelines are provided to enable HEIs to respond effectively to industry requirements; to provide lifelong learning via through-life studentship; to promote collaboration amongst HEIs, industries, professional bodies and communities, and to promote the adoption, diffusion and exploitation of the latest learning and teaching technologies.

The empirical focus of the research is limited to three EU countries, namely UK, Lithuania and Estonia. This paper focuses on role of HEIs in enhancing the disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacity in the built environment, especially at the stage of post-disaster reconstruction.

The recommendations provided on good practice suggest how HEIs can integrate disaster related knowledge into their curriculum faster than previously and how they are able to assist their educators and learners in building up their knowledge base on a continuous basis.

Capacity building in enhancing DRR during the post-disaster reconstruction stage through the provision of lifelong learning will create social implications within the responsiveness of built environment professionals to cater for disaster resilience.

The appropriateness of lifelong learning as an approach to disaster management education is justified. The challenges HEIs face in accommodating lifelong learning and the recommendations on good practice guidelines in order to make the HEIs more responsive to educational needs are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which a systematic review approach is transferable from medicine to multi-disciplinary studies in the built environment research.

Primarily a review paper, it focuses on specific steps in the systematic review to clarify and elaborate the elements for adapting an evidence base in the built environment studies particular to the impact of green building on employees’ health, well-being and productivity.

While research represents a potentially powerful means of reducing the gap between research and practice by applying tried and tested methods, the methodological rigour is debatable when a traditional systematic review approach is applied in the built environment studies involving multi-disciplinary research.

The foundational contribution of this paper lies in providing methodological guidance and an alternative framework to advance the longstanding efforts in the built environment to bridge the practitioner and academic divide.

A systematic review approach in the built environment is rare. The method is unique in multi-disciplinary studies especially in green building studies. This paper adopts the systematic review protocols in this cross-disciplinary study involving health, management and built environment expertise.

The purpose of this article is to review the use of linguistic methods such as narrative and discourse analysis in workplace management research.

Ten journals are reviewed in a time period of six years between years 2004-2010. The journals are categorized into three linguistic methodological journals and seven journals on built environment. Additionally articles were gathered with search words of workplace management, discourse and narrative analysis. Out of the total 2,245 articles, 40 articles were considered to be relevant for this research.

The linguistic methods of narrative and discourse analysis are not recognized in the workplace management research in a comprehensive way by combining the research on built environment to the research on organization and culture. In the workplace management research methods of narrative and discourse analysis were applied to the processes of built environment. Additionally methods were applied to the research of space and place as means of communication and means of identity construction.

Linguistic approach would reveal underlying messages behind evident structures of workplace and give new insights on understanding and developing workplaces both in design and in use.

The linguistic methods of narrative and discourse analysis are rarely used in workplace management research and should be considered as a new resource in the research of WPM.

The purpose of this paper is to present a process capability assessment tool to identify process maturity levels in the “built environment management” disciplines in various industries.

The researchers investigated and evaluated current FM/RE management models and analysis tools and developed an assessment tool to measure Facility Management (FM) capability of an organization. The “Built Environment Management Model” (BEM2) is a process framework for FM/RE, which is extended into the “Built Environment Management Maturity Model” (BEM3) to measure FM/RE maturity. Using the tool, the research team analyzed the FM capability of more than 50 organizations with major real estate portfolios in the USA and Europe (primarily Austria).

BEM2 and BEM3 provide a simple, yet comprehensive tool set for the FM/RE industries. The resulting capability profiles provide a high‐level overview of current practices in FM. Further, the capability profiles allow organizations to benchmark their FM capability against peer groups and industry leaders.

The two models are currently limited to a description of processes and are as such explaining the sequence and maturity of FM/RE business processes. The do not yet address the skill sets and capabilities required to effectively perform these functions. The integration with existing models in organisational and project management can also be further explored.

The capability profiles allow organizations to benchmark their FM capability against peer groups and industry leaders. The findings will help to further professionalize FM functions to raise the efficiency of organizational processes.

The proposed contributes to the discussion on standardization and taxonomy development in the FM/RE discipline. It draws principles from related management models and applies them successfully in FM and real estate management.

This paper aims to convey the rationale underpinning this new journal and its timeliness in addressing emerging imperatives in our built environment, to highlight the range of the papers in this first issue and to encourage readers and potential contributors to join the BEPAM journey, towards improved built infrastructure.

Drawing attention to the silos within which “project management” research and practice have been largely isolated from those in “asset management”, recent initiatives to bridge this divide are spotlighted, synerigised and built upon.

A critical need is identified for a niche one‐stop forum to address increasingly important interfaces between project management and asset management of building and civil engineering infrastructure. It is also found to be important to link leading‐edge research to cutting‐edge practice in physical infrastructure development, while empowering and inspiring authors and readers from many relevant disciplines and diverse regions towards synergistic research, development and dissemination.

Articulating the BEPAM vision in supplying the missing link between built environment project management and asset management, this paper aims to attract researchers and practitioners from hitherto compartmentalised sub‐sectors to engage with, learn from and improve each other in a common mission to efficiently deliver and sustain better built infrastructure worldwide.

Applications of social network analysis (SNA) are evidently popular amongst scholars for mapping stakeholder and other relational networks in improving the sustainability of construction activities and the resulting built environment. Nevertheless, the literature reveals a lack of thorough understanding of optimal SNA applications in this field. Therefore, this paper aims to convey a comprehensive critical review of past applications of SNA in this field.

95 relevant journal papers were initially identified from the “Web of Science” database and a bibliometric analysis was carried out using the “VOS Viewer” software. The subsequent in-depth review of the SNA methods, focussed on 24 specifically relevant papers selected from these aforesaid 95 papers.

A significant growth of publications in this field was identified after 2014, especially related to topics on stakeholder management. “Journal of Cleaner Production”, “International Journal of Project Management” and “Sustainability” were identified as the most productive sources in this field, with the majority of publications from China. Interviews and questionnaires were the popular data collection methods while SNA “Centrality” measures were utilised in over 70% of the studies. Furthermore, potential areas were noted, to improve the mapping and thereby provide useful information to managers who could influence relevant networks and consequentially better sustainability outcomes, including those enhanced by collaborative networks.

Closer collaboration has been found to help enhance sustainability in construction and built environment, hence attracting research interest amongst scholars on how best to enable this. SNA is established as a significant methodological approach to analysing interrelationships and collaborative potential in general. In a pioneering application here, this paper initiates the drawing together of findings from relevant literature to provide useful insights for future researchers to comprehensively identify, compare and contrast the applications of SNA techniques in construction and built environment management from a sustainability viewpoint.

Building information modelling (BIM) creates a golden thread of information of the facility, which proves useful to those with the malicious intent of breaching the security of the facility. A cyber-attack incurs adverse implications for the facility and its managing organisation. Hence, this paper aims to unravel the impact of a cybersecurity breach, by developing a BIM-facilities management (FM) cybersecurity-risk-matrix to portray what a cybersecurity attack means for various working areas of FM.

This study commenced with exploring cybersecurity within various stages of a BIM project. This showcased a heightened risk of cybersecurity at the post-occupancy phase. Hence, thematic analysis of two main domains of BIM-FM and cybersecurity in the built environment led to the development of a matrix that illustrated the impact of a cybersecurity attack on a BIM-FM organisation.

Findings show that the existing approaches to the management of cybersecurity in BIM-FM are technology-dependent, resulting in an over-reliance on technology and a lack of cybersecurity awareness of aspects related to people and processes. This study sheds light on the criticality of cyber-risk at the post-occupancy phase, highlighting the FM areas which will be compromised as a result of a cyber-attack.

This study seeks to shift focus to the people and process aspects of cybersecurity in BIM-FM. Through discussing the interconnections between the physical and digital assets of a built facility, this study develops a cyber-risk matrix, which acts as a foundation for empirical investigations of the matter in future research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which hospital disaster planners and managers understand the role of built infrastructure in delivering effective healthcare services during extreme weather events (EWEs). There is substantial evidence to indicate that many hospitals are vulnerable to EWEs. This is alarming given community reliance on hospitals during times of natural disaster and the predicted increase in the frequency and intensity of EWEs.

In this paper, resilience and learning theories are combined to produce a new conceptual model which illustrates how hospital disaster managers learn about the relationship between health outcomes and built infrastructure during EWEs to build future hospital resilience. In this paper, the first part of the conceptual model, concerning the development of disaster management plans is explored and refined using a thematic content analysis of 14 Australian hospitals’ disaster plans and supplementary plans.

The findings indicate high variability of understanding about the role of built facilities in health outcomes during an EWE. There appears to be a widespread and highly questionable assumption in the health disaster planning community that hospital built infrastructure is highly resilient to EWEs. This means that many hospitals will not be unaware of the risks that their buildings pose in the delivery of healthcare services to the community during an EWE and how to manage those risks effectively.

The theoretical framework presented in this paper provides new insights which will enable hospital infrastructure resilience to be better integrated into health service disaster risk planning and preparedness. The findings can help hospital disaster managers learn about and adapt their built environment to changing healthcare needs during EWEs.

By integrating learning and resilience theories in a built environment context, this paper provides new insights, both theoretical and practical, into the important role of hospital infrastructure in planning for EWEs.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contribution of building management system (BMS) towards a sustainable built environment.

The paper is based on the findings of a comprehensive literature survey, preliminary survey and a structured questionnaire survey. Quantitative data were analysed using a relative importance index. Content analysis was used for the qualitative data analysis.

The results show that identifying user requirements, identifying BMS features, designing BMS, installation and commissioning, and operation and maintenance are the key steps in the BMS implementation process. High cost, lack of knowledge on BMS, unavailability of service and maintenance, and inadequate performance of BMS vendors were highlighted as barriers when adopting a BMS. Energy efficiency, reduction of operation and maintenance cost, occupant satisfaction, productivity, fault diagnosis, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, emergency response and level of controllability of building systems are some of the significant BMS functions that accomplish economic, environment and social sustainability pillars.

This study increases the awareness on functionality of a BMS and its potential contribution towards a sustainable built environment.

The study develops strong ties between BMS contribution and sustainability where built environment professionals could use the developed decision support model towards a sustainable built environment through the application of BMS.