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Monash University
CIV5899 · Infrastructure Information Management

BIM-Based Smart
Safety Monitoring

A team research project evaluating a BIM-integrated smart safety monitoring innovation for construction sites, benchmarked against two international case studies.

Type
Group Project
Date
2025
Framework
Digital Engineering Innovation + SWOT
Team project. The report's file metadata lists a teammate as primary author — the scope below reflects the team's output rather than an individually-attributed contribution.

The brief

Identify a significant, recurring engineering problem in infrastructure projects, propose a Digital Engineering innovation to address it, evaluate at least two real-world case studies of that innovation in practice, and deliver practical recommendations for adoption.

The problem

The team's starting point was construction's reliance on manual, reactive hazard reporting. In 2022, nearly 1 in 5 workplace deaths occurred in construction, with 38.4% caused by falls, slips, and trips — a problem that reactive reporting structurally can't get ahead of.

1 in 5
2022 workplace deaths, construction
38.4%
Caused by falls, slips, trips
2
Case studies compared

The proposed innovation

A 4D BIM smart safety monitoring system built in Revit and Navisworks, linking safety equipment and protocols directly to construction tasks and timelines — with real-time mobile hazard alerts pushed to workers on site.

4D BIM safety methodology and cloud-integrated hazard monitoring architecture
4D BIM safety methodology and cloud-integrated hazard monitoring architecture.

Case study 1 — Bangladesh

An Android GPS-based hazard-alert app integrated with a cloud-hosted BIM model via PHP/MySQL, tested on a live construction site at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology — demonstrating real-time worker location tracking against defined hazard zones.

Case study 2 — Portugal

4D BIM applied at the design stage of a radiotherapy centre project in Madeira, embedding temporary safety structures (scaffolds, guardrails, hole covers) into the model and linking them to the construction schedule via Navisworks — a "prevention through design" approach.

Case study comparison of real-time hazard alerting versus design-stage safety visualisation
Case study comparison — real-time hazard alerting vs. design-stage safety visualisation.

What the comparison showed

Case 1 favoured reactive, real-time operational monitoring. Case 2 favoured proactive, pre-construction risk mitigation. The team's conclusion: the right approach depends on a firm's technological capability and the project's stage — there's no single correct answer, only a better fit for context.

Common challenges identified

Recommendations

A phased implementation model, stakeholder training and onboarding, a data privacy/security strategy, and system customisation for different project types and sizes.

Tools & skills