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Topic · Environmental Engineering

Environmental Impact and Sustainability

Environmental Impact and Sustainability is a research topic within Environmental Engineering. Science Explorer counts 40k research works in it since 1952. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental impact analysis, with a particular emphasis on carbon and water footprints, embodied energy, input-output analysis, decomposition analysis, and sustainability assessment. It explores the global trade implications, greenhouse gas emissions, and the challenges and opportunities for carbon neutrality in various regions. The papers also address the socioeconomic drivers of emissions and the potential impacts of industrial structure on energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

  • Life Cycle Assessment
  • Environmental Impact
  • Carbon Footprint
  • Water Footprint
  • Embodied Energy
  • Input-Output Analysis
  • Decomposition Analysis
  • Sustainability Assessment
  • Global Trade
  • Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Research works
40k
fractional, since 1952
In the world top 10%
4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+47%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
58% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Environmental Impact and Sustainability

Which countries lead Environmental Impact and Sustainability research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (5.7k and 856 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 5.7k works
  2. 2 United States 856 works
  3. 3 Türkiye 484 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 471 works
  5. 5 Germany 460 works
  6. 6 Italy 457 works
  7. 7 India 455 works
  8. 8 Spain 315 works
  9. 9 France 272 works
  10. 10 Brazil 259 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 58.4%United States: 8.8%Türkiye: 5.0%United Kingdom: 4.9%6 others listed: 22.9%58%largest
China5,652 · 58.4%United States856 · 8.8%Türkiye484 · 5.0%United Kingdom471 · 4.9%6 others listed2,219 · 22.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Environmental Impact and Sustainability research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Environmental Impact and Sustainability research, followed by Tsinghua University and North China Electric Power University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 197 works
  2. 2 Tsinghua UniversityChina 105 works
  3. 3 North China Electric Power UniversityChina 88 works
  4. 4 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 71 works
  5. 5 China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 68 works
  6. 6 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 64 works
  7. 7 Chongqing UniversityChina 61 works
  8. 8 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 55 works
  9. 9 Xiamen UniversityChina 52 works
  10. 10 Peking UniversityChina 52 works

Who are the leading researchers in Environmental Impact and Sustainability?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Environmental Impact and Sustainability include Zhong Lin Wang, Walter Churchill Willett and Wei Huang.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Walter Churchill Willett United States 411k citations
  3. 3 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  4. 4 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  5. 5 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  6. 6 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  7. 7 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  8. 8 David Tilman United States 209k citations
  9. 9 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  10. 10 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Environmental Impact and Sustainability?

The most cited paper in Environmental Impact and Sustainability is "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship" (Michael E. Porter, Claas van der Linde, 1995), with 13,204 citations. Next come "General Diagnostic Tests for Cross Section Dependence in Panels" (8,497) and "Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture" (7,718).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship Michael E. Porter, Claas van der Linde · The Journal of Economic Perspectives Open access Nov 1995 13,204
2 General Diagnostic Tests for Cross Section Dependence in Panels M. Hashem Pesaran · SSRN Electronic Journal PreprintOpen access 2004 8,497
3 Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture David Tilman, Christian Balzer, Jason Hill et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Open access 21 Nov 2011 7,718
4 Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers Joseph Poore, Thomas Nemecek · Science Jun 2018 6,084
5 The ecoinvent database version 3 (part I): overview and methodology Gregor Wernet, Christian Bauer, Bernhard R.P. Steubing et al. · The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 21 Apr 2016 5,553
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Environmental Impact and Sustainability research done?

The largest centres of Environmental Impact and Sustainability research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Shanghai (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bengbu.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.4k works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 351 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 297 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 239 works
  5. 5 GuangzhouChina 190 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 174 works
  7. 7 ChengduChina 172 works
  8. 8 JinanChina 151 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 151 works
  10. 10 ChongqingChina 148 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BengbuCN · 32.9 works9.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Environmental Impact and Sustainability than the world average.

See Environmental Impact and Sustainability on the map

Where is the best place to study Environmental Impact and Sustainability?

Among universities, judged by research, Cyprus International University, Lebanese American University and Chongqing University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 25.61%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Lebanese American Un…Cyprus International…Chongqing UniversityTsinghua University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Cyprus International UniversityCyprus 72.138.3%24.1×15 +161.4%
2Lebanese American UniversityLebanon 70.140.4%9.6×13 -
3Chongqing UniversityChina 64.222.7%4.7×61 +54.9%
4Tsinghua UniversityChina 64.016.7%3.8×105 +24.2%
5Xiamen UniversityChina 62.117.1%5.1×52 +42.0%
6Azerbaijan State University of EconomicsAzerbaijan 62.034.4%19.7×13 -
7Near East UniversityCyprus 61.835.2%6.5×10 +303.9%
8ETH ZurichSwitzerland 59.715.6%4.8×39 +38.5%
9China University of GeosciencesChina 59.122.9%6.4×34 +54.8%
10China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 58.812.8%7.2×68 +29.5%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Environmental Impact and Sustainability, country by country

Is Environmental Impact and Sustainability research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 47% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Environmental Impact and Sustainability.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Environmental Impact and Sustainability as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.055% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Environmental Impact and Sustainability0.054% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Environmental Impact and Sustainability over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Environmental Impact and Sustainability9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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