امنیت اکولوژیکی شهر: یک مرور نظام‌مند از نوع کتاب سنجی با تأکید بر روش‌های تحلیل فضایی

ABSTRACT
Rapid urbanization, alongside increasing human pressures on natural resources and urban ecosystems, have created significant challenges for the environmental sustainability of cities. This study aims to analyze the knowledge structure, research trends, and main thematic areas related to urban ecological security, with a particular emphasis on the application of spatial analysis methods.Conducted through a bibliometric approach and systematic review, scientific data were extracted from the Scopus citation database and analyzed using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer tools. A total of 411 sources were reviewed, encompassing research articles, review papers, conference proceedings, and books related to urban ecological security, resilience, and spatial analysis methods. The results indicate an increasing and interdisciplinary trend within this field. Keyword network analysis revealed core themes including urban planning and resilience, spatial analysis technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, ecological risk assessment, and environmental pollution. Furthermore, temporal analysis of keywords reflects a shift in research concentration from environmental pollution toward the adoption of advanced technologies and intelligent spatial analysis methods. Despite the expansion of urban ecological security studies, the most research works remain limited to examining individual dimensions or indicators. Comprehensive studies integrating ecological, social, and spatial dimensions simultaneously and systematically leveraging remote sensing data, urban big data, and advanced spatial analytical techniques are still scarce. The findings suggest that the simultaneous application of spatial analysis methods, such as GIS and remote sensing, combined with urban planning approaches, can effectively enhance environmental sustainability, optimize natural resource management, and reduce ecological risks in cities.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Rapid urbanization in recent decades has exerted growing pressure on natural resources and urban ecosystems, posing serious challenges to the environmental sustainability of cities. Habitat degradation, rising environmental pollution, climate change, and excessive land consumption are among the factors that weaken the ecological security of urban areas. In this context, the concept of urban ecological security has emerged as a strategic framework for maintaining a balance between urban development and environmental protection, attracting growing attention from researchers and urban planners.
The application of spatial analysis methods and data‑driven technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS), and intelligent modeling approaches provides effective tools for understanding spatial relationships between ecological factors and human activities. Despite the considerable growth of studies in this field, a comprehensive understanding of its scientific structure, thematic focus, and research trends remains limited. Identifying patterns in scholarly performance related to urban ecological security and examining the role of spatial technologies in advancing this field are essential for urban managers and researchers. Such insights can contribute to more effective policymaking, improved management of environmental risks, and the design of urban models aligned with sustainability principles. Therefore, a systematic bibliometric review of this field can reveal future research directions, knowledge gaps, and scientific strengths.
The main objective is to systematically analyze scientific trends, knowledge structures, and research orientations in the field of urban ecological security with an emphasis on spatial analysis methods. The secondary objectives consist of examining the historical trend of scientific publications, identifying leading countries, analyzing author collaboration networks, detecting conceptual keyword clusters, and determining influential journals in this domain. In addition, the study seeks to identify theoretical and practical gaps that hinder the development of comprehensive and integrated models of urban ecological security.
 
Methodology
This research adopts a bibliometric approach. Data were extracted from the Scopus citation database and include a set of English-language articles related to the concepts of “urban ecological security,” “spatial analysis,” “GIS,” and “remote sensing.” The analysis process was conducted using the Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software packages.
In the first stage, key bibliometric indicators were examined —including publication trends over time, geographical distribution of research outputs, citation counts, and scientific collaboration among countries and authors. In the second stage, network analysis was performed to identify thematic structures and conceptual clusters through keyword co‑occurrence mapping. Subsequently, source analysis was conducted to determine the most influential journals, and a Three‑Field Plot (author–keyword–source) analysis was utilized to explore relationships among key scientific elements.
 
Findings and Discussion
The results indicate that studies related to urban ecological security have experienced significant growth in recent years and developed an increasingly interdisciplinary character. China leads in the number of scientific publications in this field, followed by the United States and several European countries. International research collaborations have grown steadily, and technology‑oriented academic institutions contributed substantially to the advancement of knowledge in this area.
The keyword co‑occurrence network analysis identified four major thematic clusters:

Urban resilience and spatial planning: focusing on concepts such as urban resilience, spatial planning, and smart city, highlighting the relationship among resilience, urban spatial structure, and ecological security.
Spatial and data‑driven technologies: encompassing GIS, remote sensing, machine learning, and spatial modeling, play a central role in monitoring and assessing environmental changes.
Ecological risk assessment and environmental pollution: centered on concepts such as ecological risk assessment, environmental monitoring, and water pollution control.
Policy and socio‑ecological dimensions: reflected in concepts such as urban governance and socio‑ecological systems.

Temporal analysis of keywords also indicates a shift in research focus—from traditional topics such as “pollution” and “risk” during the 2015–2018 period toward more technology‑oriented concepts such as “machine learning” and “remote sensing” in recent years. This transformation reflects a transition from descriptive approaches to analytical and predictive methodologies.
In the journal analysis, Sustainability (Switzerland) was identified as the most productive and influential journal in this field, followed by Sustainable Cities and Society and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. The Three‑Field Plot analysis revealed strong connections among the keywords urban resilience, GIS, and remote sensing and journals focused on sustainability studies, indicating the central role of spatial analysis in urban ecological research.
 
Conclusion
This study, through a comprehensive bibliometric analysis, demonstrates that urban ecological security is an expanding and interdisciplinary research field in which spatial analysis technologies are gaining increasingly prominent. The findings indicate that recent scientific directions are moving toward the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the integration of remote sensing data with ecological and social indicators.
The integration of spatial analysis with urban resilience models can contribute to improved environmental crisis management, more accurate prediction of ecological risks, and the promotion of urban sustainability. Future studies are recommended to concentrate on developing integrated frameworks that simultaneously incorporate the natural, social, and economic dimensions of cities. Furthermore, the use of multi‑source spatial data and intelligent tools for analyzing urban networks can enhance data‑driven decision‑making and policymaking processes.
Overall, this bibliometric review provides a clear picture of the scientific landscape and future directions of research on urban ecological security with a spatial analysis perspective. As such, it may serve as a foundation for scholars seeking to design innovative models for sustainable and resilient cities.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.