From BIM to LIM: A Structured Review of Revit’s Landscape Modelling Capacity and Ecological Information Gaps

Abstract

Landscape Information Modelling (LIM) extends Building Information Modelling (BIM) to represent topography, vegetation, hydrology, and ecological processes in support of sustainable design. Landscape architecture has adopted BIM-based workflows more slowly than building disciplines, and the specific capacity of Autodesk Revit, the most widely used commercial BIM authoring tool, to function as a LIM platform remains fragmented across the literature rather than assessed as a single, structured question. This study addresses that fragmentation through a structured, PRISMA-informed literature review. Formal database searching covered Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink; Google Scholar and ResearchGate were used as supplementary discovery and retrieval tools rather than as primary databases. Sources published between 2013 and 2026 were screened for relevance to BIM, LIM, or Revit-based landscape modelling. Twenty-nine studies (18 journal articles and 11 conference papers) met the eligibility criteria, from an initial pool of 100 records identified across six sources and narrowed through deduplication and screening, and were coded across five review-based dimensions: geometric modelling, data integration, ecological intelligence, interoperability, and sustainability support. Screening and coding followed a predefined study-level protocol; ambiguous records were reassessed against the eligibility criteria, while reviewer-level agreement statistics were not available and are not claimed. The reviewed evidence suggests that Revit is effective for coordinated geometric representation and BIM-based documentation of several landscape components, including terrain, hardscape, and built infrastructure, but its native capacity for temporal vegetation change, ecological process modelling, and performance indicators linked to SDG 13 and SDG 15 remains limited according to the studies reviewed. Complementary civil engineering, GIS, and ecological simulation tools reported in the literature are used to extend Revit-based workflows toward these functions. The study’s contribution is a structured synthesis that distinguishes geometric and documentation capacity from temporal and ecological intelligence, clarifies the difference between building-oriented Levels of Detail and the information needs of living landscape systems, and sets out a conceptual hybrid workflow proposed for future empirical validation. The review is limited by its literature-based method and its dependence on secondary evidence; empirical software testing is needed to confirm these review-based findings. SDGs 9, 11, 13, and 15 are interpreted here through defined capability indicators linking software function to measurable landscape tasks, rather than treated as outcomes achieved through software use alone.