Data concerns almost every aspect of the built environment: from how individuals and businesses use and interact with properties, to how a building's energy consumption and construction details are recorded and analysed to support informed decisions about construction and real estate processes. Data is used for benchmarking and progress tracking of performance improvements and energy use, business planning, internal and external reporting, risk assessment and financial underwriting. The availability of consistent and reliable data can contribute to better design, construction and management of buildings, improved market information and transparency, creation of innovative services and business models, as well as more effective policymaking. Studies suggest that the construction sector is underdeveloped in terms of overall digitalisation and data applications in comparison with other industrial sectors. Building-related data (such as data of physical building characteristics, environmental performance information and real estate transaction data) continues to be scarce, of unreliable quality and limited accessibility. The lack of a common data repository amount to additional costs and inefficiencies, stifle innovation, increase risk and undermine investor confidence. The current study on the “EU-wide Framework for a Digital Building Logbook (DBL)” aims to support the widespread use of DBLs across Europe. It also encourages data transparency and increased data availability to a broad range of market players, including property owners, tenants, investors, financial institutions and public administrations. In addition, the DBL will contribute to a number of high-profile policy initiatives including the strategy “A Europe fit for the digital age”, the “European Green Deal” and its Renovation Wave, the new Circular Economy Action Plan and the forthcoming Strategy for a Sustainable Built Environment. Several European countries have developed and implemented DBL-type initiatives over the last years, including, for example, the Woningpas in Flanders (BE), the private initiative BASTA in Sweden and the PTNB in France. All these initiatives share a common objective to increase data availability and transparency to a broad range of market players. The existing DBLs however differ in terms of focus (e.g. on energy efficiency or materials), data handling and digital solutions employed. While paper-based logbooks do exist, it is widely accepted that to reap the most benefits of such tool digital features are required. A common European approach covering the entire lifecycle and comprising all relevant building information could increase learning and enable synergies, interoperability, data consistency and information exchange.

链接地址：http://dx.doi.org/10.2826/480977