Unveiling latent frontiers of urban and rural sustainability: a semi-automatic overview with LDA topic model

Research on urban and rural sustainability seeks to address the uncertainties and complexities faced by urban and rural systems and has attracted increasing scholarly attention. Clarifying the evolution of urban and rural sustainability research and identifying potential frontiers enablescan help researchers pinpoint key issues, while providing theoretical support for government agencies and academic institutions to promote more effective urban and rural governance. However, few studies have systematically explored the evolution of research frontiers in this field. This study combines machine learning-based topic modeling algorithms, statistical analysis, and qualitative methods to examine the evolution of research frontiers and emerging trends in urban and rural sustainability, using data from the Web of Science Core Collection (2013-2024). Results identify nine research frontiers spanning the theoretical, methodological, and practical dimensions of urban and rural sustainability, including land use transformation, energy transition, water and food security, environmental risks, and social equity. The findings further suggest that simulation-based forecasting for urban-rural sustainability, resilience enhancement, and the development of collaborative governance mechanisms for sustainable urban and rural development are likely to become key directions for future research. Overall, this study provides a theoretical basis and practical insights for developing long-term sustainability mechanisms in urban and rural areas.