Urban and Freight Transport Logistics
Urban and Freight Transport Logistics is a research topic within Building and Construction. Science Explorer counts 22k research works in it since 1950. 21.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.
This cluster of papers explores the challenges and innovations in urban logistics systems, with a focus on last mile delivery, city logistics, urban freight transport, e-commerce, sustainability, crowdsourcing, supply chain, parcel lockers, transportation modeling, and environmental impacts. The research covers topics such as evaluating city logistics measures, sustainable freight transportation, crowdshipping, and the impact of e-commerce on urban freight activity.
- Last Mile Delivery
- City Logistics
- Urban Freight Transport
- E-commerce
- Sustainability
- Crowdsourcing
- Supply Chain
- Parcel Lockers
- Transportation Modeling
- Environmental Impacts
- Research works
- 22k fractional, since 1950
- In the world top 10%
- 4.6k per year above
- Top-10% rate
- 21.0% share of its works in the world top 10%
- Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
- +43% the tick is no change
Which countries lead Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research?
By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.1k and 440 works in 2022–2025).
By volume, 2022–2025
- 1 China 1.1k works
- 2 United States 440 works
- 3 India 255 works
- 4 Germany 251 works
- 5 France 242 works
- 6 Türkiye 215 works
- 7 Indonesia 191 works
- 8 Italy 171 works
- 9 United Kingdom 160 works
- 10 Brazil 135 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.
Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.
Which institutions lead Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research?
By volume in 2022–2025, Beijing Jiaotong University publishes the most Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research, followed by Shanghai Maritime University and Delft University of Technology.
By volume, 2022–2025
- 1 Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 61 works
- 2 Shanghai Maritime UniversityChina 30 works
- 3 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 28 works
- 4 Tongji UniversityChina 27 works
- 5 Dalian Maritime UniversityChina 27 works
- 6 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong 24 works
- 7 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 21 works
- 8 University of BelgradeSerbia 18 works
- 9 Université Gustave EiffelFrance 17 works
- 10 Southeast UniversityChina 16 works
Who are the leading researchers in Urban and Freight Transport Logistics?
The most-cited researchers publishing on Urban and Freight Transport Logistics include Moshe Ben‐Akiva, Joseph Sarkis and Gilbert Laporte.
- 1 Moshe Ben‐Akiva United States 2.9k citations
- 2 Joseph Sarkis United States 2.5k citations
- 3 Gilbert Laporte Canada 2.4k citations
- 4 Pétros Ioannou United States 2.4k citations
Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.
Where is Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research done?
The largest centres of Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Istanbul (Türkiye). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Champs-sur-Marne and Delft.
Largest cities, 2022–2025
Where it is the local speciality
- Champs-sur-MarneFR · 33.7 works25×
- DelftNL · 30.3 works7.3×
Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Urban and Freight Transport Logistics than the world average.
Where is the best place to study Urban and Freight Transport Logistics?
Among universities, judged by research, Delft University of Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Beijing Jiaotong University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.
One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.
| # | University | Score | Top 10% | Specialisation | Works | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands | 60.0 | 29.6% | 7.8× | 28 | +61.5% |
| 2 | Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityHong Kong | 58.6 | 43.6% | 5.1× | 24 | -19.4% |
| 3 | Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina | 56.7 | 14.2% | 18.8× | 61 | +0.1% |
| 4 | Shanghai Maritime UniversityChina | 56.4 | 25.8% | 23.0× | 30 | +4.6% |
| 5 | Dalian Maritime UniversityChina | 56.1 | 26.9% | 13.9× | 27 | +11.5% |
| 6 | University of Reggio CalabriaItaly | 55.5 | 41.5% | 31.0× | 11 | -26.9% |
| 7 | University of ŽilinaSlovakia | 54.2 | 11.2% | 23.0× | 14 | +406.8% |
| 8 | Universidad Politécnica de MadridSpain | 53.8 | 42.9% | 5.9× | 10 | +113.6% |
| 9 | University of AntwerpBelgium | 53.1 | 31.7% | 8.8× | 14 | -14.1% |
| 10 | Université Gustave EiffelFrance | 51.9 | 17.6% | 23.6× | 17 | — |
Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.
Is Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research growing?
Output in 2018–2022 was 43% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Urban and Freight Transport Logistics.
The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.
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.