From industrial remains to sustainable futures: mapping the knowledge structure and emerging directions of industrial heritage research

Industrial heritage carries historical, technological, social, and cultural value, and increasing attention has focused on its conservation, reuse, and management within sustainable urban development. This bibliometric study reviews 1,206 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection from 1990 to 2025. Using performance analysis, VOSviewer co-citation and co-word analyses, and CiteSpace term-burst analysis, the study examines publication and citation trends, leading contributors, intellectual foundations, thematic relationships, and changes in research attention. Publication activity accelerated after 2015, with 79.7% of the publications appearing during 2016–2025 alongside sustained citation growth. Research output was concentrated in Europe and China, and journal and institutional rankings differed across productivity, citations, and network connectivity. Co-citation analysis identified three knowledge domains centered on industrial heritage tourism, identity, and memory; adaptive reuse and sustainable urban regeneration; and governance and participatory planning. Co-word analysis identified related themes involving tourism interpretation and place identity, adaptive reuse and conservation for sustainable regeneration, and site management within city redevelopment. Term bursts showed periods of intensified attention to industrial heritage, tourism, adaptive reuse, authenticity, quality, history, heritage, frameworks, and spatial distribution. The study identifies heritage interpretation, adaptive reuse, governance, and urban redevelopment as connected areas of industrial heritage research and highlights the need for comparative and longitudinal work on conservation performance, public access, social value, and local outcomes.