Transforming knowledge management in the construction industry through information and communications technology: A 15-year review

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in the knowledge management (KM) of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, which is knowledge intensive and yet faces unique challenges in managing knowledge due to its complex and dynamic nature. In order to show the state-of-the-art of ICTs for knowledge management in the AEC industry, this paper conducts a fifteen-year review of 89 related papers and reports from the industry. A clear line of key technologies evolving from ontology, semantic network to knowledge graph has been revealed from the collected literature. The interactions between different ICTs, as well as their advantages and disadvantages for different knowledge management process are discussed. The study also finds certain imbalance in the development of the industry and academia, as well as cognitive barriers and lack of evaluation standards. Suggestions for future development are also proposed to benefit the research community and relevant practitioners.