## 3 Proposal of an Extended Reality Solution for Holistic Construction Safety Management
### Requirements and Considerations
#### 3.1.1 Holistic Vision of Construction Safety Management  
The traditional approach to risk identification and safety management in construction projects focuses on detecting risks and implementing mitigation measures once the design has already been defined. The safety officer joins the project when construction begins. By entering the project at this stage, risk prevention measures are reduced to incorporating protective elements (collectively or individually) and reducing the probability of incidents so as to conduct work more safely on the construction site [42]. Prevention through design (PtD) seeks to incorporate safety managers at an earlier stage of the project so that they can participate in the design and planning stages [43,44]. Thus, their role would not be reduced to incorporating protective elements and measures, but could also have an impact on project design and planning, making the construction process safer from the beginning [45]. Under this approach, the processes associated with safety management must be restructured. No longer would protective measures only be designed to reduce risks at the construction stage, but they would aim to influence design and project management decisions at an early stage. In addition to their involvement in the safety management planning and safety monitoring and control stages, safety officers will need to be involved in the design and construction planning stages [46]. Figure 2 shows the processes and activities to be considered in safety management. \begin{table}
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**Research Objectives** & **Addressed in Section(s)** \\ \hline Integrate a holistic and lifecycle-based approach to safety management, incorporating Prevention through Design (PtD), and considering the wide range of contextual, organizational, and human factors that affect construction safety across all project phases. & Sections 3.1 and 4.2 \\ \hline Embed safety management within the digital transformation of the sector through the structured integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Lean Construction workflows, and Construction 4.0 technologies, including digital twins and interoperable platforms that support real-time data use and decision-making. & Sections 3.1, 3.2, 4.1 and 4.2 \\ \hline Position extended reality as a central paradigm for human-machine interactions, enabling immersive training, collaborative planning, and simulation-based analysis in virtual work environments aligned with emerging digital work cultures. & Sections 3.1, 3.2, 4.1 and 4.2 \\ \hline Develop and operationalize a comprehensive XR framework, capable of integrating diverse models and data flows into virtual environments for safety-related tasks, providing a technically detailed, adaptable, and scalable methodology for deployment in real-world projects. & Sections 3.2, 4.1 and 4.2 \\ \hline Demonstrate the feasibility and potential of the framework through detailed implementation examples, highlighting its practical applicability, capacity for customization, and potential for standardisation and future validation in field contexts. & Section 4.1, Section 4.2 and Section 4.3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
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Table 1: Alignment of research objectives with the manuscript structure. During the design stage, design iterations and safety reviews should feed back into the typical project speciality designs. Construction planning should also incorporate safety data and collective protection measures. Construction logistics will be influenced by safety criteria that minimise the associated risks. When safety planning and integration are worked into the schedule, there will be a continuous review of safety plans, along with ongoing training processes [47]. Management methodologies and technologies can be used to implement these processes (Lean Construction, BIM, applications associated with virtual design and construction, and other tools within Construction 4.0). Finally, safety monitoring and control will be developed throughout the process.