A Bibliometric Review on the Vertical Farms
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    Abstract:

    The concept of a modern vertical farm was proposed in 1999. Theoretically, it has many advantages over traditional soil-based agriculture. In order to analyze and summarize the development and research status of vertical farms during the past two decades, this article used “vertical farm” and related terms as key words to search literatures from three databases, including CNKI, SCOPUS and Web of Science (WoS). Bibliometrics quantitative analysis was conducted with 184 selected literatures. The research progress was compared in China and internationally. By sorting and categorizing the literature, the research hotspots of vertical farms, as well as their research methods, were summarized. Based on that, the technical and economic feasibility were further analyzed. The results reveal that during the last decade the research on the vertical farm has accelerated, but the overall number of documents is still small, and only 25 relevant documents have been found in the WoS core collection database which represent research of high quality. The starting time of research on vertical farms in China and globally is similar. However, after the introduction of the concept in China, the popularity has declined, accounting for a low proportion of publications in China's core journals (only 10.6%). While international research has maintained a continuous upward trend since 2008 and continues to accelerate. And Nearly a quarter of international researches come from WoS core collection database. Results also presents a research trend in interdisciplinary fields. The research hotspots are mainly in the three aspects: technology integration, economy and feasibility, and ecological and environmental benefits. Research methods cover experimental research, case studies, mathematical modeling analysis, and simulation software analysis. At present, the key technologies involved in vertical farms are basically mature and there are no major obstacles. The key factors restricting its development are the cost-effectiveness and the uncertainty of ecological and environmental impacts, which need to be studied timely. With the continuous improvement of technical level and the proper selection of development strategies, the development prospect of vertical farms is very optimistic.

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History
  • Received:May 30,2020
  • Revised:July 06,2020
  • Adopted:September 16,2020
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