Global trends in social-ecological system resilience from a bibliometric perspective and an SDG oriented framework

As interactions between global environmental change and socio-economic development become increasingly complex, research on social–ecological system (SES) resilience has become a core domain for addressing diverse socio-environmental risks. Based on 4705 publications indexed in the Web of Science from 1997 to 2025, this study employs bibliometric methods to systematically trace the intellectual evolution of SES resilience research. The results show that: (1) the field has undergone three distinct developmental stages, evolving from early theoretical exploration, through the integration of interdisciplinary frameworks, to a phase characterized by methodological innovation and quantitative modeling, and has now developed into a mature and rapidly growing interdisciplinary research area; (2) global knowledge production in this field remains dominated by developed countries, with institutions and collaboration networks in the United States and Europe occupying central positions, while emerging countries, particularly China, are becoming increasingly influential,, reflecting a dynamically evolving global research landscape; (3) research hotspots have expanded from ecological management to a broader spectrum involving social psychology, urban infrastructure, and adaptive governance, while frontier directions are shifting toward multi-scale assessment, institutional governance, and the integration of socio-technical systems; and (4) Based on the bibliometric results, this study further develops a conceptual SDG-oriented “resources–social–ecological system resilience” (R-SESR) framework to synthesize the links among social vulnerability, ecological stability, and key resource security.