Research trends and knowledge gaps in sustainable urban agriculture: a scientometric analysis

Abstract Urban agriculture plays a strategic role in sustainability, food security, and climate adaptation in cities, where temperature emerges as a key variable. This study conducted a scientometric and qualitative analysis to investigate how temperature has been addressed in the scientific literature on urban agriculture between 2020 and 2025. A total of 244 documents were retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science, followed by a qualitative screening that resulted in 20 articles with high thematic relevance. The results reveal a strong geographic concentration of research in Asia–Pacific countries and a rapid expansion of publications after 2022. The qualitative analysis enabled the classification of studies into three main groups: Group A (open and semi-open systems), Group B (building-integrated and protected systems), and Group C (fully controlled indoor environments). Group C represents the majority of studies (55%), indicating a strong research focus on high-technology systems such as plant factories. Group B accounts for (30%), highlighting growing interest in energy integration between agriculture and buildings, while Group A represents only (15%), showing that open-field urban agriculture remains underexplored in terms of temperature. Temperature is addressed at different scales: as a microclimatic regulator in open environments, as a mediator of energy exchange in building-integrated systems, and as a high-precision control variable in fully controlled systems. Despite its central role, temperature-focused studies remain limited, revealing gaps in empirical validation and multi-scale integration. These findings highlight a technological shift toward controlled environment agriculture and the need for integrated approaches combining microclimate regulation, energy efficiency, and precision control.