Smart and Regenerative Urban Growth: A Literature Network Analysis

Abstract

“Smart city”, “sustainable city”, “ubiquitous city”, “smart sustainable city”, “eco-city”, “regenerative city” are fuzzy concepts; they are established to mitigate the negative impact on urban growth while achieving economic, social, and environmental sustainability. This study presents the result of the literature network analysis exploring the state of the art in the concepts of smart and regenerative urban growth under urban metabolism framework. Heat-maps of impact citations, cutting-edge research on the topic, tip-top ideas, concepts, and theories are highlighted and revealed through VOSviewer bibliometrics based on a selection of 1686 documents acquired from Web of Science, for a timespan between 2010 and 2019. This study discloses that urban growth is a complex phenomenon that covers social, economic, and environmental aspects, and the overlaps between them, leading to a diverse range of concepts on urban development. In regards to our concepts of interest, smart, and regenerative urban growth, we see that there is an absence of conceptual contiguity since both concepts have been approached on an individual basis. This fact unveils the need to adopt a more holistic and interdisciplinary approach to urban planning and design, integrating these concepts to improve the quality of life and public health in urban areas.