A systematic review of urban vitality studies: Trends and research opportunities

Abstract

Urban vitality serves as a crucial indicator of sustainable city development. However, little is known about trends and potential research opportunities in urban vitality. Thus, this paper systematically reviews urban vitality studies to synthesize research themes and identify key research directions. Specifically, we provide an overview of the main topics, methods, and data in related studies, summarizing findings and pinpointing areas for further investigation. Employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method, we identified 191 relevant studies from 941 peer-reviewed articles. Results revealed that Southern Europe and East Asia emerged as the most extensively researched geographic regions, with China featuring prominently in the number of urban vitality studies. Our review identifies urban vitality measurement (35.6 %) and its associated factors (64.4 %) as primary research themes. It also highlights a tendency in current studies to overlook assessment biases stemming from urban functions and seasonal variations. While the relationship between urban vitality and the built environment receives ample attention, the impacts of urban vitality on sustainability (environmental, social, and economic issues) remain less elucidated. Furthermore, we observe that previous studies of influencing factors on urban vitality often rely on linear models, neglecting nonlinearity, interactions among factors, and causality. We also note a shift from traditional data sources to big data, allowing scholars to assess urban vitality more comprehensively. We thus discussed potential research directions for future studies. This paper advances understanding of urban vitality research by delineating trends, gaps and identifying avenues for future studies.