Sustainable Development of Eco-Cities: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

With the increase in the urban population, nearly 70% of future people will live in cities, which will not only bring massive consumption of resources but also cause irreversible damage to the urban ecological environment. Therefore, the study of sustainable development of eco-cities (SDEC) has received wide attention from academics. In this paper, a bibliometric analysis of journal articles on sustainable development of ecological cities using the Web of Science Core Collection database from 1990 to 2021 is conducted to analyze the current status, hotspots, and research trends in this field. The results of this study reveal the evolution of the number of publications, major research disciplines, authors, countries, and institutions in this research field over the last three decades. Regarding research hotspots, SDEC research has focused on cleaner production, sustainable buildings, municipal solid waste management, energy policy, and carbon emissions in China. With the emergence of climate change, carbon emission limitation, and sustainable development requirements, scholars’ research targeting performance analysis and whole life cycle assessment of urban ecosystems will gradually become a mainstream trend. In the future, technological innovation still needs to be strengthened, and we should enhance the research on stakeholders in ecological city construction and study the impact of urban ecological transformation on social, economic, and environmental changes.