A Bibliometric Study of Visual Quality Research in the Context of Urban Open Spaces

Abstract

Visual quality assessment has received much attention in research by forest management and landscape researchers after the mid-twentieth century with the advent of legal frameworks enacted to protect natural resources, including scenery. Since then, the field has gained momentum that is mostly attached to landscape change and assessing the environmental impact of changes. Urbanized areas, however, received less attention and just started to receive some exposure in the last two decades (concurrently with the emergence of new technologies of GIS and remote sensing). Developing a comprehensive understanding of the visual quality assessment research requires a reconnaissance survey of its history and the trends of its research growth. This study undertakes an analysis of visual quality assessment literature in the context of urban settings using bibliometric tools. The paper employs quantitative techniques to analyse 3,221 journal papers retrieved from the Web of Science using keywords co-occurrence, citation burst, and direct citation analyses with the help of VOSViewer, CiteSpace, and Gephi software. Here we show the discipline’s status quo, trends, and patterns of development. They confirm the recency of urban-related research. Our study touches on the chronological emergence and decay of major visual quality notions. It also highlights the most central studies and the journals and research groups actively working in the field. Moreover, it points out research gaps related to urban spaces for future studies guidance.