Global Research Trends in Air Pollution Control and Environmental Governance: A Knowledge Graph Analysis Based on CiteSpace

Air pollution has become a pressing global challenge that threatens ecological security, public health, and sustainable socioeconomic development, prompting extensive academic and policy attention on air pollution control and environmental governance. To systematically clarify the knowledge structure, evolutionary trends, and interdisciplinary characteristics of this field, this study employs bibliometric methods combined with CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Tableau tools for in-depth analysis of the global literature published in the last 25 years. Key dimensions including keyword clustering, co-occurrence networks, national cooperation patterns, journal co-citation relationships, and policy evaluation methodology evolution are explored. The results reveal that research output in this field has maintained sustained rapid growth, with distinct interdisciplinary integration across environmental science, economics, energy engineering, and public health. Notably, the evolutionary path of research themes presents a clear transformation: shifting from early emphasis on “emission standards” and “end-of-pipe treatment” to market-oriented policy instruments such as “carbon tax” and “carbon emission trading”, and further expanding toward systematic solutions including “green finance” and “collaborative environmental governance”. In terms of policy evaluation methodologies, there is a developmental trend from single-indicator monitoring to integrated assessment frameworks combining quasi-experimental approaches (e.g., difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity design) and multi-model coupling. Furthermore, national collaboration analysis identifies China as a core hub in the global research network, while European and American countries maintain advantages in research impact. While this observation is based on absolute metrics, a data normalization approach (e.g., by population) reveals more distinct relative differences and a complementary global dynamic: China’s scale-driven output aligns with large-scale, engineering-intensive governance challenges, whereas the markedly higher per capita research impact of Western nations reflects a deeper focus on policy innovation and systemic mechanisms. Burst term detection highlights emerging frontiers such as the “Porter hypothesis”, reflecting growing focus on the synergistic relationship between environmental regulation, green innovation, and economic development. This study also identifies critical research gaps, including insufficient attention on cross-regional pollution transport policy coordination and emergency policy evaluation under extreme weather conditions. The findings provide a comprehensive academic map of global air pollution control and environmental governance research, offering valuable insights for optimizing environmental policy design, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and guiding future research directions in this field.