Landscape sustainability and land sustainability: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Landscape sustainability and land sustainability are interrelated and complementary research fields, rooted respectively in ecological and geographic sciences, but both embracing sustainability as their ultimate goal. However, it is not clear how these two fields have developed in recent decades, and whether they have interacted synergistically to advance the science and practice of sustainability. Thus, here we have conducted a bibliometric comparison of these two fields using multiple quantitative methods, including trend analysis, theme mining, citation network analysis, and collaboration network analysis, further augmented by qualitative synthesis. We have found: (1) both research fields have entered a period of rapid development around 2010, following their incubation and emerging phases; (2) landscape sustainability research has focused primarily on the biodiversity-ecosystem function-ecosystem services-human wellbeing nexus in changing landscapes, whereas land sustainability research has concentrated primarily on the causes, dynamics, and impacts of land use and land cover change, as well as sustainable land use and management; (3) Cross-referencing between the two fields is rare, reflecting weak interactions between the two scientific communities. Thus, although some interdisciplinary teams and individual researchers have begun to work together across the two fields, landscape sustainability and land sustainability, as two research fields, remain largely independent of each other. To enhance their synergistic interactions, we recommend that scientists and practitioners from both fields promote joint professional organizations and conferences, and foster broad-scale collaborative projects together to improve the sustainability of landscapes and regions in theory and practice.