Highway Planning Trends: A Bibliometric Analysis

Karen Castañeda, Omar Sánchez, Rodrigo F. Herrera and Guillermo Mejía
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Karen Castañeda: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga 680002, Colombia
Omar Sánchez: Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, Cartagena 131001, Colombia
Rodrigo F. Herrera: School of Civil Engineering Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso 2374631, Chile
Guillermo Mejía: Department of Civil Engineering, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga 680002, Colombia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-33

Abstract: An efficient highway infrastructure network is a determining factor in promoting the socio-economic development of countries and regions. Highway planning activities are highly important because their results ensure that projects are delivered within budget, schedule, and scope. Therefore, academics and professionals have promoted various methodological and technological advances focused on improving highway planning processes, evidenced by many scientific documents that address the topic. Despite progress, few studies have focused on analyzing the state of the knowledge structure and the technological and methodological trends of the highway planning topic. Considering this gap, this study presents trends in highway planning and its knowledge structure based on a bibliometric analysis from January 2015 to September 2021. The research method is based on a bibliometric analysis composed of five main stages: (1) scope definition, (2) selection of bibliometric analysis techniques, (3) data collection, (4) bibliometric analysis execution, and (5) evidence analysis and synthesis. Information from 1703 journal papers was collected and analyzed. The findings show that the main trends of highway planning focus on life cycle analysis, computational tools, smart cities, sustainability issues, construction processes, new equipment and materials, and multi-objective optimization, among others. Thus, the findings of this study allow the reader to identify the methodological and technological trends in highway planning and their knowledge gaps to guide future studies in the field.

Keywords: planning; construction; highway; road infrastructure; bibliometric analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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