Web of science-based literature review of peri-urban areas: a comparison between Europe and China

Countries with varying levels of urbanisation and different cultural backgrounds have conducted extensive theoretical and empirical research on peri-urbanisation. This study aims to explore the trends and landscape characteristics of peri-urban areas (PUAs) in Europe and China, therefore promoting cross-regional theoretical research with case analyses. For the purpose of visualizing the literature, this study utilized the bibliometric analysis software CiteSpace to conduct a keyword co-occurrence and cluster analysis on PUA research. Additionally, by reviewing relevant literature, a qualitative comparison of the peri-urban landscapes (PULs) was performed. The findings reveal that European PUA research surpasses that of China in terms of temporal coverage and quantity. The hot topics concerning European countries include spatial morphology, ecological environment, social economy, and land use. China’s popular topics include land use, ecological environment, and spatial morphology. PULs in both Europe and China exhibit a common trend of agricultural land transitioning to built-up land, accompanied by characteristics of landscape fragmentation. European PULs are mainly characterised by low-density residential areas interwoven with agricultural landscapes. Chinese PULs take the agricultural landscape as the matrix and the factory landscape as the dominant landscape. Urbanisation processes and policy implications are primarily behind the territorial disparities in PUAs.