Digital Sustainability Assessment:A Platform-Based Approach for Transport Infrastructure

Abstract

The convergence between digital transformation and sustainability, often referred to as Sustainability 4.0, is reshaping the construction and infrastructure sector. Although technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Digital Twins (DT) are increasingly adopted for sustainability assessments, their implementation remains fragmented and uncoordinated. This fragmentation is driven by the partial consideration of sustainability dimensions, the use of multiple digital tools generating isolated datasets, and the lack of lifecycle-oriented integration, limiting holistic decision-making.

This study addresses these limitations by proposing a methodological framework and a platform-based approach designed to manage sustainability assessment in transport infrastructure.  The framework is grounded on measurable environmental, social, and operational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), derived from standards such as Envision and BREEAM and reformulated with a digital-oriented logic. The input data for KPIs calculation are natively generated or stored within heterogeneous digital sources.

The core innovation is a workflow that automatically extracts these data and organizes, stores, and manages them within a relational SQL database (PostgreSQL/PostGIS), subsequently visualized through a web-GIS interface (developed as a web application with Django), helping interpretation and analysis. This integrated digital ecosystem enhances traceability, and lifecycle continuity of sustainability indicators. The framework is applied to a metropolitan railway infrastructure project in Turin (Italy), demonstrating how digitally structured indicators and platform-based workflows can transform sustainability assessment from a static, multiple document-based practice into a dynamic, data-driven process, which can support procurement decisions, long-term asset management, and integrated sustainability governance.