Geographic information system applied to sustainability assessments: conceptual structure and research trends

Abstract

The conceptual variations and divergences that permeate the debate on sustainability end up directly reflecting the choice of sustainability assessment (SA) processes, providing different methodological approaches. Among them, some researchers have pointed out challenges, but also opportunities to use geospatial data, techniques, and tools as resources to be explored in sustainability assessments. However, it was still unclear how geospatial tools have contributed in this context, as well as their future potential. Thus, through bibliometric mapping, this research answers these questions, through the identification of both the thematic fields of action of the geographic information system (GIS) in SA as well as the emerging research areas in this domain of knowledge. For this, we selected 1721 articles spanning 31 years (1990–2020). We observe that this is a subject of growing interest, as more than 50% of all publications were published after 2015. The main results indicated that, initially, the GIS supported sustainability assessments as a mapping tool associated mostly with environmental issues, however, the evolution of the analysis potential, through data modeling, gives rise to new application perspectives. This evolution takes place, in parallel, with the global discussion on sustainability, where multidimensionality starts to play a leading role, and sustainability indicators assume geographic positions.