Do civil engineering fronts emerge from interdisciplinary research?
Jie HE1,2, Junlan YAO3,4(), Xin CHEN4, Fang LIU1,2, Hehua ZHU1,2
1. College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 2. State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 3. School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 4. Library, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Interdisciplinary research is considered a source of innovativeness and creativity, serving as a key mechanism for creating recombination necessary for the evolution of science systems. The aim of this study is to quantitatively establish the connection between interdisciplinary research and the research fronts that have recently emerged in civil engineering. The degree of interdisciplinarity of the research fronts was measured by developing metrics from bibliographic analyses. As indicated by the consistent increase in the metrics of interdisciplinarity over time, research fronts tend to emerge in studies with increasing diversity in the disciplines involved. The active disciplines involved in the fronts vary over time. The most active disciplines are no longer fundamental but those associated with energy, environment, and sustainable development, focusing on solutions to climate change and integrating intelligence technologies.
Intelligent control systems for building environment
2018
31
3809
17
Migration and transformation mechanisms of microplastics in wastewater treatment
2018
7
3513
18
Fusion and processing of multilevel space-air-ground remote-sensing data
2018
141
24019
19
Dynamic fusion of geographical spatiotemporal big data for smart cities
2018
52
7267
20
Lifecycle safety of water-related engineering
2018
49
2495
21
Mechanism and control of long-term performance evolution of structures
2019
72
4614
22
Green building design method based on whole life cycle
2019
33
2965
23
Nanomodification and fiber-reinforcement of cement-based materials
2019
75
5635
24
Urban design and planning for reducing urban heat island effect
2019
154
17538
25
Large-span bridge operational smart monitoring and inspection
2019
102
5070
26
Lifecycle deformation prediction and control for urban and undersea tunnels
2019
113
6736
27
Seismic analysis and safety evaluation of high dams under extreme earthquakes
2019
32
244
28
Spatial-temporal fusion of multisource satellite remote-sensing images based on deep learning
2019
40
6157
29
Refined prediction and rapid damage assessment of river basin floods
2019
36
3709
30
Traffic-flow-modeling theory and methods for intelligent and connected vehicle (ICV) and humandriven vehicle (HDV) mixed traffic
2019
186
12498
31
Smart city and smart basin integrated sensing based on geo-spatiotemporal big data
2020
36
1857
32
Coupling response mechanisms of offshore engineering structures and seabed foundation systems under the actions of wind, waves, currents, and earthquakes
2020
40
2110
33
Urban spatial analysis and optimization methods based on big data
2020
58
4891
34
Ventilation theory for adaptive thermal comfort and indoor air quality
2020
544
29917
35
Multiscale prediction of dynamic hazard evolution for underground engineering
2020
93
4409
36
Nanoengineered concrete materials in civil engineering
2020
74
7700
37
Urban planning and design to reduce urban heat island effect
2020
188
15366
38
Performance evolution and durability design principles for materials and structures on highways and for track engineering
2020
56
3010
39
Formation mechanisms and changing trends of extreme hydrologic events
2020
238
16753
40
Catastrophic effects of deep energy exploitation and regulation of its mechanical behavior
2020
105
6509
41
Ecoenvironmental effects of interbasin water transfer
2021
26
1213
42
Resilience improvement of transportation infrastructure
2021
29
937
43
Low-carbon long-life cement-based materials
2021
84
12655
44
Development path of green building under background of carbon neutrality
2021
135
7601
45
Water pollution control and remediation in drinking-water source areas
2021
46
2271
46
Perception methods of spatiotemporal big data toward smart sustainable cities
2021
22
1472
47
Earthquake-resilient structural systems
2021
24
2034
48
Flow-induced vibration of flexible structures and antivibration measures
2021
22
801
49
Geographic big-data knowledge graph construction
2021
15
628
50
Disaster monitoring and mechanism analysis of bridge structure dynamic multiload coupled action
2021
71
2309
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