Volume 30, Issue 2-2, June 2026
TRACING INTEGRATIVE PATHWAYS: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN LANDSCAPE PLANNING.
Authors: Utkarsha Pramod Dhurve, Sameer Deshkar
Abstract: The integration of ecosystem services into landscape planning has emerged as a central par adigm for reconciling ecological integrity with socio-economic development, yet the co-evo lutionary pathways through which these domains have become increasingly interdisciplinary remain poorly understood. This study employs a comprehensive bibliometric and science-map ping approach to analyze 1,930 peer-reviewed articles published between 2006 and 2025 from the Web of Science Core Collection, following a PRISMA-guided screening and selection process, utilizing timeline-based co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence mapping, temporal overlay analysis, and a novel Keyword–Discipline Tagging Protocol to trace the evolution of ecosystem services and landscape planning research. The study further quantifies interdisciplinary integration through a Cohesion Index (CI = 0.944) and identifies a statistically significant changepoint around 2018 marking accelerated conceptual convergence. Findings reveal three distinct phases of evolution: an early phase (2006–2015) characterized by siloed ecological and valuation-focused research; a transition phase (2016–2019) marked by the incorporation of planning and governance perspectives in response to global policy milestones such as the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals; and a post-2020 phase demonstrating hybrid convergence where boundary-spanning concepts including nature-based solutions, urban resilience, and citizen science bind ecology, planning, climate science, and governance into a shared intellectual framework. Cluster analysis identifies land use, ecology, and management as the central interdisciplinary hub with highest connectivity, while policy, equity, and public engagement emerge as the least integrated cluster, representing a critical gap despitestrong overall cohesion. Persistent barriers including terminological ambiguities, data interoperability challenges, and institutional constraints continue to limit full integration, particularly regarding social and environmental justice dimensions. The study concludes that ecosystem services and landscape planning research has undergone fundamental transformation from a collection of loosely connected disciplinary inquiries to a coherent, policy-responsive, transdis ciplinary knowledge system, yet the incorporation of equity and participatory dimensions re mains an unfinished project requiring deliberate terminological harmonization, enhanced data infrastructures, and institutional mechanisms supporting transdisciplinary collaboration. These findings offer a replicable framework for integration science applicable to other complex socio-ecological systems.
Keywords: Ecosystem services; landscape planning; bibliometric analysis; interdisciplinary integration; nature-based solutions; policy alignment
Article info:
Received: December 1, 2025| Revised: April 28, 2026| Accepted: June 5, 2026