Life Cycle Assessment in Historic Buildings: A Bibliometric Exploration of Global Research Trends

Efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of the construction sector increasingly rely on analytical tools aligned with sustainability principles. Among these, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) plays a critical role by quantitatively evaluating the environmental effects of buildings across all life stages, thereby informing design and decision-making processes. However, existing literature predominantly focuses on LCA applications in new constructions, while historic buildings—often recognized as cultural heritage assets—remain underrepresented in this context. This study systematically investigates global academic trends in LCA applications within historic buildings through bibliometric analysis. 310 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2001 and 2025 were examined, based on the keywords “historic building” and “life cycle assessment.” Bibliometric tools such as VOSviewer and the Bibliometrix R package were employed to visualize keyword co-occurrence, source coupling, and author collaboration networks. Thematic classification was conducted semi-automatically using high-frequency keywords. Findings reveal that topics such as energy efficiency, carbon emissions, adaptive reuse, and sustainable restoration dominate the literature, whereas significant research gaps persist in areas like social sustainability, traditional material data, and policy support. The study aims to contribute to interdisciplinary scholarship by promoting scientifically grounded evaluations of the environmental performance of historic buildings and advancing sustainable conservation strategies.