Bibliometric Analysis and Research Trends on Earthen Architecture and Construction

Abstract

Earthen construction is one topic that has received much interest lately due to its sustainability potential and upscalability in a circular production model. In recent years, the research projects and publications regarding this field have grown considerably, with a notable literature production that comes from many different disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches. In this sense, a bibliometric analysis allows to study, process and represent data from the existing literature and large bibliographic databases. This tool makes it easier to manage this extensive information regarding parameters such as the occurrence of keywords, authors, number of publications and citations by year, publishers, journals, and production by countries or institutions, among others. Nevertheless, the main outcome of this technique is the identification of the trends and directions of a certain topic or research line. A bibliometric analysis of the earthen construction and architecture literature production was performed in the Scopus database and processed with the software VOSViewer. The analysis of the keywords and their occurrence and emergence by year identifies the newest trends and research lines, more focused on the sustainable applications of these techniques and their inclusion into circular economy models. On the other hand, differentiated clusters of the literature production were found, showing the encounter between diverse disciplines and the different methodologies and approaches to the earthen architecture and construction phenomenon.