City Information Modeling for Urban Planning: A Systematic Review of Workflows, Validation, and Maturity

City information modeling (CIM) has developed from the extension of building information modeling (BIM) toward urban-scale information environments that combine geometry, semantics, spatial data, and analytical functions. CIM-related research is increasingly connected with BIM-GIS integration, semantic 3D city models, CityGML/CityJSON, smart-city platforms, and urban digital twins. However, previous reviews have mostly summarized themes, applications, and challenges, while less attention has been given to how CIM-related studies are operationalized through workflows, analytical functions, planning domains, validation evidence, temporal logic, and tooling. This study conducts a PRISMA- and BSMS-aligned systematic review of CIM-related research. Scopus and Web of Science searches retrieved 1541 records, which were deduplicated to 1101 records and screened through title, abstract, and keywords. The screening retained 318 records, of which 306 were accessible in full text. Eight additional eligible studies were added through supplementary snowballing, resulting in a final full-text extractable corpus of 314 studies. The results show that the largest workflow categories are data integration (W3, 95 studies, 30.3%), simulation (W4, 92 studies, 29.3%), and planning/governance support (W6, 84 studies, 26.8%). The largest planning domains are multi-scale/data infrastructure (P8, 91 studies, 29.0%), energy/environment (P5, 81 studies, 25.8%), and urban planning/governance (P7, 66 studies, 21.0%). Most studies were classified as applied (205 studies, 65.3%), followed by prototype (66 studies, 21.0%) and conceptual studies (43 studies, 13.7%). Validation evidence was dominated by empirical case studies (V3, 183 studies, 58.3%), while operational or practice-based validation remained limited (V4, 8 studies, 2.5%). Temporal analysis showed that dynamic and static studies appear in almost equal numbers, but full dynamic data use was reported in only 51 studies (16.2%). The review shows that CIM-related research is moving beyond conceptual framing, but operational maturity remains uneven. The main recurring gaps concern planning application, data quality, interoperability, dynamic data use, validation, and standardization.