HBIM in Cultural Heritage Buildings Management: Advantages, and Limitations

The conservation of cultural heritage buildings is a cornerstone of su stainable development and cultural continuity. In recent years, Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM) has gained traction as a method for integrating digital technologies with heritage management. A recent study by Chen et al. (Development and application of an HBIM method for timber structures integrated with digital technologies) offers an applied example of the 400-year-old timber Zhenwu Pavilion in Guangxi, China, demonstrating how HBIM can radically enhance safety, security, and decision-making for cultural heritage (CH) buildings.

HBIM Method for Historic Building Safety

he Chen et al. paper outlines a three-stage workflow for deploying HBIM on historic wooden structures:

1. Data Collection and Integration – 3D laser scanning and UAV photogrammetry gather highly precise spatial data, mitigating the risks of manual measurement and enabling comprehensive, non-invasive records. Historical archives and previous surveys are synthesized, providing a rich dataset even where original plans are incomplete or inconsistent.
2. HBIM Modeling – Building a parametric family library of components following traditional modular principles documented in historic construction standards (such as the Yingzao Fashi). The assembled HBIM model incorporates geometric and non-geometric information, including documentation of damage and deterioration.
3. Structural Analysis and Safety Simulation – The completed HBIM model is exported into finite element analysis software for load-bearing simulations. This enables quantitative safety assessment, including evaluating structural responses to crowd loads, wind, and seismic events, and helps set practical safety thresholds (e.g., limiting the number of visitors allowed on certain floors).

This digital workflow allows not only for inventory and documentation, but also for routine maintenance planning, emergency preparedness, and targeted interventions based on structural health monitoring.

Advantages of Utilising HBIM for Buildings Management

Holistic Data Integration: HBIM integrates geometric, historical, and conservation data, enabling improved safety, maintenance, and risk assessment decisions. Some of the most evident improvements can be summarized as follows:

• Non-Invasive Surveying: 3D scanning and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) facilitate precise, rapid, and non-destructive data collection in vulnerable structures.
• Parametric Precision: HBIM facilitates the creation of parametric models that can readily incorporate new survey data, maintenance history, and sensor inputs, enhancing adaptability for ongoing risk management.
• Simulation and Scenario Planning: By linking HBIM with structural analysis tools, managers can simulate the effects of loads, disasters, and interventions, resulting in more informed risk-mitigation strategies.
• Enhanced Communication: The visual and data-rich environment of HBIM supports communication among multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders, reducing misunderstandings and facilitating coordinated safety actions.

Other studies corroborate these advantages, including the use of HBIM for simulating structural changes, deterioration, and interventions in the Pisa city walls (Giuliani et al., 2024 and enabling digital twins for real-time safety monitoring (Kong and Hucks, 2023.

Limitations and Challenges

A broader adoption of the outlined approach is anticipated, but some limitations and challenges remain:

• Cost and Resource Barriers: Implementing HBIM workflows involves upfront investment in hardware, software, and personnel, which can be particularly challenging for smaller institutions or regions with limited resources.
• Modeling Over Application: Many projects focus heavily on building detailed 3D models but neglect developing workflows and protocols for applying these models to active safety management, potentially leading to underutilization of HBIM’s full potential.
• Data Gaps and Inconsistencies: Reliance on historical documentation can result in incomplete data, while integrating multi-source data (historic drawings, scans, photos) requires intensive validation and manual correction.
• Limited Real-Time Feedback: Although the paper advocates storing condition and threshold data in HBIM, current projects rarely integrate real-time monitoring (e.g., via IoT sensors), limiting dynamic risk management.
• Technical Complexity and Training Needs: Building and maintaining interoperable HBIM environments requires specialized software proficiency and ongoing training for conservation professionals.
• Cost and Resource Barriers: Implementing HBIM workflows involves upfront investment in hardware, software, and personnel, which can be particularly challenging for smaller institutions or regions with limited resources.

Real-Time Feedback: Insights and Challenges

Most contemporary HBIM approaches are primarily designed for documentation, structural analysis, and planning based on static—or periodically updated—data. Consequently, condition monitoring often relies on manual inspections, periodic surveys, or simulation outputs rather than live sensor input.

Technical reasons for this limitation include:

• Data Integration Complexity: Integrating heterogeneous sensor data streams into HBIM models presents technical challenges. Establishing a seamless interface between IoT device outputs (e.g., temperature, humidity, strain gauges) and BIM platforms (such as Revit) often requires custom middleware, database management, and stringent data standards to prevent data loss, mismatches, or excessive information overload.
• Standardization Gaps: There is a lack of mature, universally accepted standards for embedding real-time sensor data into HBIM environments, particularly for heritage applications where off-the-shelf solutions often fail to adequately address the unique characteristics and requirements of historic buildings.
• Historic Building Constraints: Retrofitting centuries-old structures with sensor networks can raise concerns regarding invasiveness, aesthetic impact, and maintenance, limiting large-scale or continuous real-time sensor deployment, especially in sensitive or highly protected sites.

Despite these challenges, some projects and recent research have successfully piloted real-time integration. In fact, several studies have commenced connecting environmental or structural health sensors to BIM/HBIM models, utilizing databases to remotely monitor behaviors such as live deflection of beams, humidity, or visitor flow.

These capabilities enable heritage managers to visualize sensor data overlaid within the BIM model, either directly or through augmented/virtual reality tools.

Moreover, digital twin technology—combining HBIM, IoT sensor data, and simulation capabilities—is being adapted for heritage contexts. This innovation facilitates continuous diagnostics and even automated alerts for anomalies, such as moisture ingress, excessive vibration, or temperature fluctuations, directly within an updated digital model. Examples of Digital Twin applications include:

• Löfstad Castle, Sweden: Cloud-connected sensor boxes provide real-time climate data (temperature, humidity, etc.) to a digital twin. This digital twin assists in guiding conservation actions before damage worsens.
• Royal Site of Carditello (Italy): Open-source platforms have been tested to integrate IoT monitoring with HBIM for cultural sites. These platforms support daily operations and preventive maintenance with live feedback.

Moving from static to dynamic systems

HBIM, when used with a comprehensive, application-oriented workflow (not just geometric modeling), significantly strengthens the safety and security management of cultural heritage buildings. Its ability to integrate diverse data, support structural health monitoring, and provide actionable insights for conservation teams is supported by growing research and field applications. However, for widespread, effective adoption, greater focus is needed on model reusability, data standardization, training, and real-time system integration1.

For safety-driven heritage professionals, HBIM offers both promise and a challenge: reimagining digital tools not as ends in themselves, but as dynamic supports for ongoing stewardship and preventive conservation of our most valued built heritage.

Fully realizing the value of HBIM for safety means moving from static models and periodic surveys to dynamic, sensor-driven systems. This shift would enable real-time risk monitoring, early anomaly detection, and rapid response—making heritage buildings more resilient to damage and disasters. Achieving this vision, however, requires:

• Improved interoperability and standards for HBIM-IoT integration,
• User-friendly interfaces for heritage professionals,
• Scalable, minimally invasive sensor technologies,
• And deeper collaboration between technologists and the heritage field.

Additional Considerations: Advantages of HBIM in Safety Management for Heritage Buildings

Centralized Data and Improved Decision Support: Regulations and standards are becoming increasingly demanding when it comes to documenting the management of complex activities. Even in this case, current models for managing this information can benefit from HBIM. The ability to embed detailed historical, architectural, and inspection records within a single, navigable model empowers maintenance teams to swiftly access safety-critical data, facilitating both immediate decision-making in emergencies and strategic, long-term safeguarding plans.

Simulation-Guided Policies: In cases with significant flows and densities of people, the use of flow simulation or emergency exodus models can be beneficial. Simulations derived from HBIM (as exemplified in the Zhenwu Pavilion case) can serve as the foundation for evidence-based crowd control policies and scenario planning, directly aligned with the building’s unique load-bearing characteristics.

Enhanced Collaboration and Communication: One of the consequences of increased data availability is improved information exchange with other systems or organizations useful in ordinary or emergency management. HBIM facilitates communication among diverse stakeholders, including conservators, engineers, emergency planners, and regulatory bodies. Visual and data-rich environments minimize misunderstandings, reducing safety lapses resulting from misinterpretation or information loss.

Standardization and Repeatability: HBIM was born as a standardized system, and as such, it can promote the standardization of other processes in historic building management. The development and sharing of standardized HBIM safety workflows help replicate successful strategies across other heritage assets, supporting overall safety preparedness and training.

Further Needs and Development Priorities

For HBIM to fully support safety management, several needs and development priorities must be addressed:

• Real-Time Data Integration: HBIM platforms need mature, user-friendly protocols for integrating real-time sensor data (structural, environmental, occupancy, etc.) to enable continuous health monitoring and prompt responses to emerging threats. This integration must prioritize data security, privacy, and minimal intrusion to the heritage fabric.
• Automated Alerts and Predictive Maintenance: Next-generation HBIM should support automated condition assessments, triggering alerts when monitored parameters (such as deflections or stresses) exceed predefined safety thresholds.
• Model Maintenance and Sustainability: Ongoing model updates are crucial as repairs, modifications, and conservation treatments occur. The HBIM archive must evolve accordingly, with workflows accessible to non-expert users.
• Regulatory Recognition and Legal Frameworks: For HBIM to underpin official safety management, legal and regulatory guidelines are needed to recognize digital records and simulation results as valid evidence for safety certification, risk management, and insurance assessments.
• Broader Adoption and Cost Accessibility: Reducing barriers to entry through open-source tools, shared best practices, and targeted training will increase HBIM adoption, particularly in smaller institutions or under-resourced regions.

Conclusion

The Heritage Building Information Model (HBIM) offers significant advantages for enhancing safety management in heritage buildings. However, realizing its full potential requires integration of real-time monitoring, enhanced standardization, and greater accessibility. These developments will elevate HBIM from a documentation tool to a pivotal component of risk prevention and resilience for our built heritage.