Bridging the gaps in sustainability assessment: A systematic literature review, 2014–2023

Abstract

This article highlights recurrent themes and research communities in Sustainability Assessment (SA), a rapidly growing trans-disciplinary area particularly relevant to the global evaluation community. This bibliometric analysis signals the emergence of a substantial research community based in Asia and the Middle East, whose production is distinct from North American and European-centric evaluation studies. While the latter primarily address methodological challenges related to sustainability issues in social policy, organizational capacity building, and public health, the broader SA literature centers on life-cycle assessments to integrate the analysis of environmental and socioeconomic effects in such domains as biodiversity, energy efficiency, urban planning, alternative agriculture, and supply chain management. This mapping exercise highlights the global distribution of research output and identifies existing gaps and potential future cross-fertilization. The transdisciplinary SA literature can draw from theory-based designs attuned to complexity and systems thinking. Policy analysts and evaluators can gain insights from diverse SA perspectives and policy approaches to tackle sustainability challenges more systematically.