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Topic · Building and Construction

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. 10.2% 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%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+19%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
36% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Urban and Freight Transport Logistics

Which countries lead Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.3k and 503 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.3k works
  2. 2 United States 503 works
  3. 3 India 313 works
  4. 4 Germany 271 works
  5. 5 France 258 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 231 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 212 works
  8. 8 Italy 188 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 173 works
  10. 10 Brazil 148 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: 36.4%United States: 13.9%India: 8.7%Germany: 7.5%6 others listed: 33.5%36%largest
China1,314 · 36.4%United States503 · 13.9%India313 · 8.7%Germany271 · 7.5%6 others listed1,210 · 33.5%

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

Which institutions lead Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Beijing Jiaotong University publishes the most Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Shanghai Maritime University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Beijing Jiaotong UniversityChina 66 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 49 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Maritime UniversityChina 32 works
  4. 4 Tongji UniversityChina 30 works
  5. 5 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 29 works
  6. 6 Dalian Maritime UniversityChina 29 works
  7. 7 Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 26 works
  8. 8 Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina 23 works
  9. 9 University of BelgradeSerbia 20 works
  10. 10 Université Gustave EiffelFrance 20 works

Who are the leading researchers in Urban and Freight Transport Logistics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Urban and Freight Transport Logistics include Gordon Brent Mills and Marko Sarstedt.

  1. 1 Gordon Brent Mills United States 265k citations
  2. 2 Marko Sarstedt Germany 221k 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 Urban and Freight Transport Logistics?

The most cited paper in Urban and Freight Transport Logistics is "Discrete choice analysis: Theory and application to travel demand" (Joseph N. Prashker, 1988), with 3,332 citations. Next come "Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operations" (2,596) and "Facility location and supply chain management – A review" (1,937).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Discrete choice analysis: Theory and application to travel demand Joseph N. Prashker · Transportation Research Part A General 1988 3,332
2 Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operations Sunil Chopra, Peter Meindl Oct 2000 2,596
3 Facility location and supply chain management – A review Teresa Melo, Stefan Nickel, Francisco Saldanha‐da‐Gama · European Journal of Operational Research 17 May 2008 1,937
4 Travel and the Built Environment: A Synthesis Reid Ewing, Robert Cervero · Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board 2001 1,878
5 Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics Yannis M. Ioannides · Regional Science and Urban Economics 2003 1,536
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research done?

The largest centres of Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research in 2022-now 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.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 248 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 123 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 76 works
  4. 4 IstanbulTürkiye 65 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 60 works
  6. 6 ChengduChina 56 works
  7. 7 DalianChina 53 works
  8. 8 Xi'anChina 52 works
  9. 9 Hong KongChina 42 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 41 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Champs-sur-MarneFR · 35.0 works25×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Urban and Freight Transport Logistics than the world average.

See Urban and Freight Transport Logistics on the map

Where is the best place to study Urban and Freight Transport Logistics?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Antwerp 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.

0%20%40%mean 22.61%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Eindhoven University…Shanghai Maritime Un…University of Antwerp
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.

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
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 79.231.8%5.8×26 +70.9%
2Eindhoven University of TechnologyNetherlands 64.726.0%6.8×13 +23.0%
3University of AntwerpBelgium 60.518.0%7.9×14 +40.2%
4Shanghai Maritime UniversityChina 59.818.5%24.9×32 +22.6%
5Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 59.419.9%8.2×29 -16.3%
6University of BelgradeSerbia 59.321.7%5.8×20 +53.3%
7University of Hong KongChina 57.431.7%2.1×10 +7.2%
8Dalian Maritime UniversityChina 55.815.4%15.1×29 +72.8%
9Chalmers University of TechnologySweden 54.621.8%8.0×11 -5.9%
10Politecnico di MilanoItaly 54.221.3%3.6×13 +14.4%

Universities only. The score blends 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 Urban and Freight Transport Logistics, country by country

Is Urban and Freight Transport Logistics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 19% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Urban and Freight Transport Logistics.

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 Urban and Freight Transport Logistics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.026% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Urban and Freight Transport Logistics0.025% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Urban and Freight Transport Logistics 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%Urban and Freight Transport Logistics10.2% 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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