Construction remains one of the most dangerous industries in New Zealand and internationally. Most of the harm comes from a small number of hazards that every site manager knows well, and that have resisted decades of regulation, training and signage. That persistence is itself a signal that compliance alone has reached its limits.
Our systematic review in Smart and Sustainable Built Environment identifies the fatal five risks on construction sites: falls from height, electrocution, machinery malfunction, exposure to pollutants, and slips and trips. It then examines how smart technologies are reducing each of them: BIM for planning safe sequences and identifying hazards before work begins; virtual and augmented reality for training in realistic conditions without real risk; drones for inspecting heights and inaccessible areas; wearables for monitoring workers’ location, posture and vital signs; and smart protective equipment that alerts workers and supervisors in real time.
The review also points to the next frontier. Climate induced hazards, such as heat stress, are rising; fatigue detection could prevent incidents that no checklist captures; and environmental monitoring can track dust, noise and fumes continuously rather than by occasional sampling.
The open question is adoption. The technologies exist, many are affordable, and the evidence of benefit is growing, yet uptake on sites remains slow. Cost is part of the answer, especially for small contractors, but so are resistance to change, uncertainty about data and privacy, and simple lack of awareness. Industry leaders and policymakers need to address all of these together.
Treating safety as innovation rather than compliance changes who is involved. It brings designers, technologists and researchers into a conversation that has too often been left to safety officers alone.
The work behind it
Purushothaman, M. B., Rotimi, F. E., Samarasekara, S., and GhaffarianHoseini, A. (2026). SMART technologies that influence construction health and safety factors risk reduction in the current digital era. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 15(6), 2353 to 2417.