Simon Fischer - Böcker

This open-access volume presents the latest international research and applied innovations in digital building permitting, as showcased at the Digital Building Permit Conference 2025, held in Vienna, Austria, from 2–4 December 2025. The conference brought together researchers, public authorities, and industry experts to exchange insights and explore future directions in the digital transformation of building permit processes.The contributions address core challenges and opportunities across the entire permitting lifecycle, including the interpretation and operationalisation of regulations, ambiguity and discretion in administrative decision-making, and the legal, ethical, and organisational implications of digitalisation. Several papers focus on sustainability-related assessments, such as the financial aspects in building permitting. A strong emphasis is placed on process quality and trust, covering topics such as the quality and completeness of applicant submissions, transparency and explainability of digital compliance checking, and information management. From a technological standpoint, the volume showcases advances in supported and automated compliance checking, interoperability and software architectures, checking tools and demonstrators, as well as the use of standards, data models, and ontologies. Several contributions highlight the integration of GeoBIM and spatial data, underscoring their growing importance for scalable, cross-disciplinary digital building permit systems. Together, the papers provide a comprehensive snapshot of current research, positioning digital building permits as a key socio-technical instrument for more efficient, transparent, and sustainable built-environment governance.