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Topic · Building and Construction

Urban Design and Spatial Analysis

Urban Design and Spatial Analysis is a research topic within Building and Construction. Science Explorer counts 15k research works in it since 1950. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the analysis, modeling, and visualization of urban street networks using methods such as Space Syntax and spatial analysis. It explores topics such as street centrality, pedestrian movement, network structure, urban morphology, and spatial cognition in relation to city form and design. The research also delves into the integration of geographic information systems (GIS) for understanding the spatial dynamics of urban environments.

  • Space Syntax
  • Street Networks
  • Urban Morphology
  • Spatial Analysis
  • Network Structure
  • Space Semantics
  • Pedestrian Movement
  • City Form
  • Spatial Cognition
  • Geographic Information System
Research works
15k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+30%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
36% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Urban Design and Spatial Analysis

Which countries lead Urban Design and Spatial Analysis research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1k and 326 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1k works
  2. 2 United States 326 works
  3. 3 Türkiye 284 works
  4. 4 Brazil 207 works
  5. 5 India 195 works
  6. 6 Italy 191 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 182 works
  8. 8 Indonesia 168 works
  9. 9 Japan 146 works
  10. 10 Iran 133 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: 36.2%United States: 11.4%Türkiye: 9.9%Brazil: 7.2%6 others listed: 35.4%36%largest
China1,038 · 36.2%United States326 · 11.4%Türkiye284 · 9.9%Brazil207 · 7.2%6 others listed1,016 · 35.4%

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

Which institutions lead Urban Design and Spatial Analysis research?

By volume in 2022-now, Islamic Azad University, Tehran publishes the most Urban Design and Spatial Analysis research, followed by Southeast University and Tongji University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 50 works
  2. 2 Southeast UniversityChina 42 works
  3. 3 Tongji UniversityChina 35 works
  4. 4 Politecnico di MilanoItaly 30 works
  5. 5 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 27 works
  6. 6 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 23 works
  7. 7 Sapienza University of RomeItaly 23 works
  8. 8 University of BaghdadIraq 22 works
  9. 9 South China University of TechnologyChina 22 works
  10. 10 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 21 works

Who are the leading researchers in Urban Design and Spatial Analysis?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Urban Design and Spatial Analysis include Jun Wang, Anselm L. Strauss and F. Stuart Chapin.

  1. 1 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  2. 2 Anselm L. Strauss United States 205k citations
  3. 3 F. Stuart Chapin United States 185k citations
  4. 4 James F. Sallis United States 169k citations
  5. 5 Ester Cerin China 154k 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 Design and Spatial Analysis?

The most cited paper in Urban Design and Spatial Analysis is "The Production of Space" (Erik A. Swyngedouw, Henri Lefebvre, 1992), with 9,675 citations. Next come "Simulating dynamical features of escape panic" (4,954) and "EU 7 FP project Governing urban divercity: Creating social cohesion, social mobility and economic performance in today’s hyper-diversified cities (DIVERCITIES) – The case of Warsaw" (3,214).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Production of Space Erik A. Swyngedouw, Henri Lefebvre · Economic Geography Jul 1992 9,675
2 Simulating dynamical features of escape panic Dirk Helbing, Illés J. Farkas, Tamás Vicsek · Nature Open access Sep 2000 4,954
3 EU 7 FP project Governing urban divercity: Creating social cohesion, social mobility and economic performance in today’s hyper-diversified cities (DIVERCITIES) – The case of Warsaw Korcelli-Olejniczak, Ewa · RCIN (Digital Repository of the Scientifics Institutes) (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences) Open access 2017 3,214
4 Built Environment Correlates of Walking Brian E. Saelens, Susan Handy · Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise Open access Jul 2008 1,930
5 Simulation of pedestrian dynamics using a two-dimensional cellular automaton Carsten Burstedde, Kai Klauck, Andreas Schadschneider et al. · Physica A Statistical Mechanics and its Applications Open access Jun 2001 1,783
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Urban Design and Spatial Analysis research done?

The largest centres of Urban Design and Spatial Analysis research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Istanbul (Türkiye) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Macao.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 161 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 92 works
  3. 3 IstanbulTürkiye 85 works
  4. 4 NanjingChina 80 works
  5. 5 TehranIran 69 works
  6. 6 WuhanChina 68 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 64 works
  8. 8 CairoEgypt 61 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 61 works
  10. 10 BaghdadIraq 53 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. MacaoCN · 27.7 works7.4×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Urban Design and Spatial Analysis than the world average.

See Urban Design and Spatial Analysis on the map

Where is the best place to study Urban Design and Spatial Analysis?

Among universities, judged by research, Southeast University, University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic 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.

0%20%40%mean 19.69%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Hong K…Hong Kong Polytechni…Southeast UniversityTongji 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.

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
1Southeast UniversityChina 64.614.8%7.0×42 +169.8%
2University of Hong KongChina 63.126.3%3.3×13 +80.3%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 59.020.0%4.8×17 +63.7%
4Tongji UniversityChina 58.913.6%5.7×35 +46.1%
5Wuhan UniversityChina 58.537.8%2.6×15 -8.0%
6Politecnico di MilanoItaly 56.611.1%10.4×30 +22.1%
7University College LondonUnited Kingdom 56.417.4%3.6×23 -17.5%
8Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 55.54.1%7.4×50 +21.7%
9Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 55.232.9%2.8×8 +27.2%
10Cardiff UniversityUnited Kingdom 55.018.9%7.0×12 +74.5%

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 Design and Spatial Analysis, country by country

Is Urban Design and Spatial Analysis research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 30% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Urban Design and Spatial Analysis.

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 Design and Spatial Analysis as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Urban Design and Spatial Analysis0.021% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Urban Design and Spatial Analysis 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 Design and Spatial Analysis10.5% 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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