Extending IFC Data Structure for Carbon Digital Twin: An IFC Road Example

Abstract

The construction sector must accelerate progress towards net-zero targets. Current digital twin (DT) frameworks lack integrated carbon data, limiting their effectiveness for sustainability. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), as an international open data standard, offer the potential to address this gap without exacerbating interoperability issues. This paper proposes extending the IFC schema to include carbon data, focusing on road infrastructure. This study maps the key entities for carbon management to a granular level and adds new carbon property sets to the key entities. It is essential for a carbon digital twin (CDT) that requires exchanging information across lifecycle stages and stakeholders for computational carbon management of road infrastructure.