Digital Twin in Construction Waste Minimization: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The construction industry is renowned for its highly dynamic and sophisticated nature. Correspondingly, this industry has evolved by implementing new technologies. The digital twin technology is a vastly utilized concept in manufacturing, maintenance and operations industries. On the contrary, implementing this technology in the construction industry is still developing. Construction waste has been scorching the industry for a long time and has now snowballed into a drastic issue facing the contemporary world. Therefore, many researchers are working to find sustainable solutions to manage waste emissions from construction activities. Correspondingly, it is evident that digital twin technology has the potential to minimize the construction waste component in a significant manner.The applicability of digital twins in construction waste management requires a systematic and holistic analysis of the research trends. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the literature on digital twin technology in construction waste management. The bibliometric study supports analyzing research trends and notable topics based on historical data. It also evaluates the performance of journals, research fields, and institutions' contributions and collaborations on the topics. Hence, bibliometric analysis was adapted to achieve the research aim. This study retrieved peer-reviewed articles in the Scopus database within the respective research theme published from 2000 to 2022 for the bibliometric analysis. Accordingly, 3301 articles were retrieved from the database using the combination of keywords "digital AND twin AND construction AND waste". Correspondingly, 961 publications met the selection criteria after manually eliminating the records unrelenting to the topic. Network Analysis Interface for Literature Studies (NAILS) facilitated the articles' filtration and selection. And then, the bibliometric analysis uses the VOS viewer to evaluate the citation, co citation, bibliometric coupling, co-word analysis, and keywords. The findings highlight that in recent years application of digital twins is being widely researched. However, the suitability of digital twin technology for construction waste management is yet to be broadly researched. This research provides insights into the research streams and trends on applying digital twins in construction waste management to academia and industry practitioners.