Web Application for Visualizing Emission Data from Construction Equipment

Pollutants produced by heavy diesel construction equipment account for significant amounts of emissions derived from construction operations. The European Union (EU) regulates threshold levels of emissions from heavy construction machinery, and in the past years, the use and need for sensor technologies to measure emission levels have increased. Concurrently, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Twins (DT) have gained much attention in several industries. In the construction industry, research on DTs is still in its early stages and has focused mainly on the operational phase of buildings. The combination of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and IoT for visualizing data is considered promising for creating DTs. However, there is a lack of well-defined processes and methodologies, especially concerning the DT of construction sites. In response to the need to reduce construction emissions and advance construction DTs, this project demonstrates a preliminary web-based application for run-time data visualization of construction equipment emission levels (NOx, PM, and CO2) with BIM-based terrain modelling. A methodology is presented and discussed, covering the steps from data gathering to set up and use. Despite the complexity of the process and limitations encountered, early tests were satisfactory and showed potential for further development of a DT for the construction phase.