Integrated framework of rural landscape research: based on the global perspective

• Published in: Landscape ecology 2022-04, Vol.37 (4), p.1161-1184
• Main Authors: Xie, Hualin, Zhu, Zhenhong, He, Yafen, Zeng, Xiaoji, Wen, Yuyang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural policy; Bibliometrics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Common Agricultural Policy; Computer programs; Cultural heritage; Cultural resources; Data mining; Ecological models; Ecology; Ecosystem services; Electric power distribution; Environmental Management; Geography; Landscape architecture; Landscape Ecology; Landscape Sustainability Science; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Life Sciences; Multidisciplinary research; Nature Conservation; R&D; Research & development; Research Article; Rural areas; Software; Sustainable Development; Tourism; Tradeoffs
• ISSN: 0921-2973; 1572-9761
• DOI: 10.1007/s10980-022-01401-3

Context In recent years, rural landscapes have played an increasingly important role in the fields of tourism, cultural heritage and ecology. Rural landscape research (RLR), which is characterized by diversity and complexity, has attracted more and more attention from researchers. Objectives This study integrated the main research contents of RLR in the past 30 years by arranging the relevant research results and analyzing the research progress of RLR in order to understand the development trend of RLR, the distribution of research power, research hotspots and frontal research. Methods 3740 relevant literatures from 1931 to 2020 were filtrated from the WoS Core Collection Database. Those papers were quantitatively data mined and qualitatively summarized by using Bibliometrics software for mapping and analysis. Results (1) The number of articles related to RLR increased exponentially over time. The average citations per paper increased fastest from 2002 to 2005. According to the characteristics of the number of articles and the average citations per paper, RLR can be divided into three stages from 1990 to 2020: the first stage is from 1990 to 1999; the second stage is from 2000 to 2008; the third stage is from 2009 to 2020. The second stage of RLR has attracted the most international attention among three stages. (2) According to the results of research strength analysis, Europe has a great influence in RLR. The Common Agricultural Policy and the European Landscape Convention are the main driving forces for the change of rural landscape in Europe. (3) At present, the five hotspots of RLR are rural landscape planning and management, cultural ecosystem services, urban-rural conflict, the sustainable development of rural cultural heritage landscape and the impact of landscape structure on habitat. Conclusions Rural landscape research was originally developed based on geography and ecology but has now developed to a comprehensive research direction of multidisciplinary and multi-methods with social, economic, culture and other elements. At present, the object of RLR covers the ecological landscape, production landscape, and cultural landscape of rural landscape system; the content of RLR has shifted from static pattern of rural landscape to dynamic evolution process, urban-rural conflict, cultural ecosystem service and multifunctional landscape trade-off; the research paradigm of RLR has changed from single dimension to multi-dimensional, and combined with “3S”