The intersection of rapid urbanization and global climate change has sparked growing research interest. Using text mining and bibliometric methods, we analyzed over 60,000 articles from the Web of Science to identify key thematic areas and examine their interactions and evolution across different IPCC assessment report cycles. We also pinpointed emerging topics and patterns of international collaboration. The research landscape has evolved from an initial environmental focus to broader socio-economic and systemic perspectives. While mitigation has remained a consistent focus, considerable attention has shifted to risks and adaptation, particularly addressing heat- and flood-related challenges. Emerging issues that warrant further exploration include governance, AI and data-driven decision making, equity and social justice, compounding and cascading risks, and health. Despite the dominance of Anglophone countries and China, our analysis reveals an expanding network of collaborative research. However, countries in rapidly urbanizing regions, such as Africa, remain underrepresented. • Urban climate research has evolved to include systemic and socio-economic perspectives. • Heat and flood risks dominate urban climate adaptation research. • Collaboration in urban climate research is growing but remains uneven globally. • Emerging priorities are governance, AI, equity, cascading risks, and health impacts. • Cities in Africa and South Asia are underrepresented in climate change research.
Sharifi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.