What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aims to systematically synthesize the knowledge structure and thematic evolution of green infrastructure evaluation research.

July 7, 2026

Recent Advances in Green Infrastructure Evaluation: A Bibliometric and Content Analysis‐Based Review

Key Points

This study aims to systematically synthesize the knowledge structure and thematic evolution of green infrastructure evaluation research.
Reviewed 144 research articles published from 2014 to 2025.
Applied bibliometric analysis and thematic clustering to evaluate research progress.
Analyzed methodological developments to propose future research directions.
Green infrastructure evaluation has rapidly expanded from 2014 to 2025, highlighting diverse research themes.
Ecological function evaluation is the dominant focus, with increased integration into urban governance.
A shift towards data- and model-driven multi-method integration is observed in the evaluation approaches.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Green infrastructure (GI) can generate multiple ecological, environmental, and social benefits for cities. Evaluating GI is therefore essential for understanding its performance, supporting evidence‐based planning and governance, and ultimately promoting sustainable urban development. However, GI evaluation research remains thematically fragmented, while existing GI‐related reviews have not specifically focused on the GI evaluation field, resulting in a lack of systematic synthesis of its knowledge structure, thematic evolution, methodological development, and future development. This study reviews 144 research articles published between 2014 and 2025 using bibliometric analysis, thematic clustering, and methodological synthesis to explore the current research progress and future research directions of GI evaluation research. The results show that GI evaluation expanded rapidly between 2014 and 2025, with growing international collaboration and diverse research themes emerging. Ecological function evaluation remains dominant, while integration with urban governance and planning has strengthened. Methodologically, GI evaluation shows a shift toward data‐ and model‐driven multi‐method integration. In addition, this study summarizes future research directions from theoretical, contextual, and methodological perspectives, emphasizing the need to strengthen socio‐ecological‐governance theoretical integration for GI evaluation, expand comparative research across cities, scales, and GI types, and advance standardized evaluation methods based on multi‐source data. From a practical perspective, the insights and synthesized methodological tools generated by this review can be used to support more integrated GI evaluation in planning and governance practice, thereby contributing to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 through improved urban environmental management, enhanced resilience, and more sustainable urban development.

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