Current research trends into the effect of climate change on civil engineering infrastructures: A bibliometric review

Climate change and the construction industry are inextricably linked. On the one hand, the construction industry is responsible for the highest level of carbon emissions by sector, but, on the other hand, it is considered as the most vulnerable to extreme weather conditions. In this paper, a bibliometric review is carried out for shedding light on the manner with which climate change affects the construction industry and the existing and future infrastructures. Using VOSviewer and the Scopus database, relevant literature is retrieved and analyzed using keyword searches including ‘construction’, ‘infrastructure’ and ‘climate change impact.’ The bibliometric analysis determined how researchers have investigated different climate change factors affecting each distinct construction sector and infrastructure type. The analysis focused on publication year, country-institute, journal, author, and research themes. The detected research themes provide future researchers with potential research directions. A gap in the research regarding the investigation into the climate change effects on transportation infrastructure was determined. Therefore, a content analysis of the relevant papers under the theme ‘transportation infrastructures’ is conveyed. Ultimately, the main research trends and potential research directions for the protection of civil engineering infrastructures against climate change effects are discussed aiming to provide guidance to future research.