امنیت اکولوژیکی شهر: یک مرور نظام‌مند از نوع کتابسنجی با تاکید بر روش‌های تحلیل فضایی

Rapid urbanization in recent decades has exerted increasing 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 main objective of this study 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 include 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.

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—including publication trends over time, geographical distribution of research outputs, citation counts, and scientific collaboration among countries and authors—were examined. 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 used to explore relationships among key scientific elements.

The innovation of this study lies in providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific landscape of urban ecological security, with a particular focus on the role of spatial analysis methods and advanced technologies in the development of this research area.

The results indicate that studies related to urban ecological security have experienced significant growth in recent years and have 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 increased steadily, and technology‑oriented academic institutions have contributed substantially to the advancement of knowledge in this area.

The keyword co‑occurrence network analysis identified four major thematic clusters:

1. Urban resilience and spatial planning: focusing on concepts such as urban resilience, spatial planning, and smart city, highlighting the relationship between resilience, urban spatial structure, and ecological security.

2. Spatial and data‑driven technologies: including GIS, remote sensing, machine learning, and spatial modeling, which play a central role in monitoring and assessing environmental changes.

3. Ecological risk assessment and environmental pollution: centered on concepts such as ecological risk assessment, environmental monitoring, and water pollution control.

4. 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.

Comparative analysis with existing literature suggests that the dominant trend in current research is shifting from describing ecological patterns toward developing predictive models and spatial decision‑making frameworks. Identified research gaps include the lack of integrated models for measuring socio‑ecological interactions, insufficient integration of spatial data with economic and social indicators, and the need to develop intelligent frameworks for risk assessment at the neighborhood scale within cities.

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 becoming 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 focus 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 and can serve as a foundation for scholars seeking to design innovative models for sustainable and resilient cities.