Work

Visualizing ESG Performance in an Integrated GIS–BIM–IoT Platform for Strategic Urban Planning

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: As cities confront intensifying environmental challenges and increasing expectations for sustainable governance, extending Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) evaluation frameworks to the urban scale has become a pressing need. However, existing ESG systems are typically designed for corporate contexts, lacking city-specific indicators, integrated data representations, and reliable ESG information with high spatial and temporal resolution for informed decision-making. This study proposes a comprehensive ESG evaluation framework tailored to green cities, which consists of three core components: (1) The construction of a green-oriented ESG indicator system with an expert-informed weighting system; (2) the design of a GIS-BIM-IoT integrated ontology that semantically aligns spatial, infrastructure, and observational data with ESG dimensions; and (3) the implementation of a web-based data integration and visualization platform that dynamically aggregates and visualizes ESG insights. A case study involving a primary school and an air quality monitoring station in Hong Kong demonstrates the system’s capability to infer material recycling rates and pollution concentration scores using ontology-driven reasoning and RDF-based knowledge graphs. The results are rendered in an interactive 3D urban interface, supporting real-time, multi-scale ESG evaluation. This framework transforms ESG assessment from a static reporting tool into a strategic asset for transparent, adaptive, and evidence-based urban sustainability governance.

Source: Buildings

DOI: 10.3390/buildings15183394

Authors: Zhuoqian Wu, Shareeful Islam, Llewellyn Tang

Institutions: Anglia Ruskin University, University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: 3D Modeling in Geospatial Applications

Subfield: Building and Construction

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure, Responsible consumption and production, Climate action

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137