Analysis of the scientific evolution of building sustainability assessment methods

Abstract

The research field concerning building sustainability assessment methods is broad, complex and fragmented due to the great diversity of disciplines and approaches involved. This makes it difficult to obtain useful and unbiased information for future studies so a full review of contributions could provide a comprehensive critical perspective. This paper applies the SciMAT software to analyse the evolution of this research field by means of a systematic literature review of bibliographic records for building sustainability assessment methods, and a review based on the bibliometric analysis of 4203 selected records. In addition, hidden themes and their development in this field have been identified from 1975 to 2017 to produce strategic diagrams of the thematic evolution and performance indicators of the research field in different periods. The results obtained show a scientific field in constant evolution, from its initial focus on environmental impacts and energy efficiency to the gradual inclusion of the social and economic aspects of sustainability building. This has served as a basis for the development of study models, such as LEED and BREEAM. This study makes a valuable contribution because it gives field experts a comprehensive view of the status quo and predicts the dynamic directions of future research.