A CiteSpace-based quantitative review of infrastructure vulnerability assessment and safety resilience research

Infrastructure systems are characterized by inherent and deep coupling, which makes them susceptible to cascading failures and systemic collapses under extreme hazards. Consequently, vulnerability assessment and resilience enhancement technologies have emerged as critical issues for infrastructure security. This study analyzes 667 publications (1995–2025) from the WOS using CiteSpace to reveal the field’s knowledge structure and evolutionary trajectory. The analysis identifies a paradigm system shift from “singular engineering” to “coupled socio-technical” with a key inflection point between 2015 and 2018. This evolution progressed through three stages: conceptual foundation (2015–2017), systematic deepening (2018–2020), and technology-driven acceleration (2021–2023). Research focus has transitioned from disturbance resistance to absorption and adaptation, and from single hazards to multi-risk coupling. While socio-technical philosophy is widely accepted, a core paradox remains: quantitative engineering tools lag significantly behind conceptual advancements. The global landscape is led by the United States and China, with frontiers focusing on cascading failures, community resilience, and digital twins. This study concludes that future development must bridge the gap between philosophy and methodology. There is an urgent need for hybrid modeling integrating physical and social data, intelligent assessment for real-time environments, and interdisciplinary open-source platforms to translate resilience concepts into deployable engineering solutions.