Vulnerability Assessment in Architectural Heritage Research Through Bibliometric Analysis and Thematic Interpretation

Architectural heritage is increasingly exposed to diverse threats, making vulnerability assessments a key component of disaster risk reduction and preventive conservation. Historically, academic research in this field has developed heterogeneously across hazards, methodologies, and regional contexts, limiting a comprehensive understanding of its evolution and current trends. This study provides a bibliometric analysis complemented by contextual and qualitative assessments of 2482 publications indexed in the SCOPUS database between 1980 and 2025, identifying principal methodological approaches, thematic developments, and international collaboration patterns, as well as exploring the influence of major disaster events on the evolution of scientific production. The results indicate that seismic vulnerability research has historically dominated the field due to the development of earthquake engineering and the availability of post-disaster data. In contrast, studies on flood and fire vulnerability have expanded more recently, driven by methodological research gaps and by the growing impact of these hazards on architectural heritage. The analysis also reveals an increasingly interconnected international network, reflecting how vulnerability assessment in architectural heritage has evolved from a predominantly structural and hazard-specific focus towards a more integrated and interdisciplinary field, while highlighting emerging opportunities in heritage-related vulnerability research, particularly in relation to broader social and multi-hazard considerations.