Climate Change Impacts on Reinforced Concrete Structures: A Bibliometric Analysis

Reinforced concrete structures are increasingly subjected to the coupled effects of climate change and time-dependent deterioration, which jointly threaten structural performance and service life. This study performs a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to map the evolution, thematic structure, and knowledge gaps of climate-change research focused on RCSs. Using Scopus as the sole database, a structured search strategy yielded 2,061 English-language publications spanning 1994–2025. Performance indicators were computed in Microsoft Excel, while science-mapping and keyword co-occurrence networks were developed in VOSviewer. Results show an exponential growth in publications after 2010, aligning with major global climate policy milestones and the consolidation of climate change as an explicit engineering concern. Science mapping reveals a clear transition from early sustainability- and material-oriented studies toward climate-informed durability modeling, extreme-event impacts, and multi-hazard risk frameworks, with recent emphasis on resilience, structural health monitoring, digital twins, and machine-learning-based prediction. Despite this progress, research output remains geographically concentrated in North America and Western Europe, leaving highly exposed regions underrepresented. The findings underscore the need to expand localized studies, systematically integrate climate projections (e.g. RCPs and SSPs) into structural assessments, and advance compound multi-hazard approaches for aging RCSs.