Natural and artificial green infrastructure (GI) for sustainable resilient cities: A scientometric analysis

Sustainable growth of resilient cities (RCs) requires equal development and monitoring of natural and artificial ecosystems, such as biodiversity, transportation, building, legislation, etc. We applied the scientometric analysis combined with social network analysis and S-curve technique by using VOSviewer and Netdraw software to quantitatively analyze 7684 publications related to GI and RCs in the Scientific Citation Index (SCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases from 2000 to 2021. Results showed that: (1) Publications on GI and RCs have increased from 30 in 2000 to 913 in 2021 with steady annual increasing rate, and researchers have focused on improvement of natural and societal challenges. (2) The United States and China had the highest number of publications (n = 977, 15.66%; n=541, 8.93% of global output) and were core countries in the international cooperation network. The most productive author and institution are “Wang, Y.” with 23 publications and “Chinese Academy of Science” with 109 publications. (3) By co-occurrence keywords analysis, the degree of centrality: urban resilient (degree = 188), natural environment (degree = 187), green infrastructure (degree = 185), artificial environment (degree = 185), smart cities (degree = 175) and resilient cities (degree = 175) were hot research topics. (4) S-curve analysis demonstrates that transportation, CO2 emission, biodiversity, and urban planning are hot scientific areas with considerable potential. Social and smart ecosystems are nearing maturity. Finally, (5) “natural and artificial” & “RCs ecosystem” frameworks provide essential components and their importance for the sustainable growth of RCs. Decision makers and academics can learn by identifying research gaps, tracking research trends, identifying key actors, and evaluating impact. Overall, bibliometric analysis can provide decision makers and academics with valuable insights into the state of research on RCs, which can help inform policy, practice and advance knowledge in the field.