Urban sustainability and urbanization: A review of research topics

Abstract Using a systematic literature review and bibliography, this paper aims to map the research field of urban sustainability. The keywords “urban sustainability and urbanization” were used to search the Web of Science database. Following fair and unambiguous criteria, the most significant research in urban sustainability analysis has been chosen. The fundamental goal of this research is to provide a bibliometric analysis of nearly thirty years of urban sustainability research. In total, 787 articles were extracted from the literature database on the Web of Science. The literature was analyzed using VOSviewer, a scientific mapping software program. Incorporating multiple network analysis approaches such as keyword co-occurrence, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling, VOSviewer is used to determine prominent topic areas and to identify relevant authors, publications, and journals. The present state of urban sustainability research has been assembled to identify research gaps and propose future research paths.