Bettencourta and Kaurc (2011) analyzed consists of about 37,000 distinct authors of over 20,000 papers concerning sustainable development. The academic papers came from 174 countries and territories and 2,206 cities worldwide. Networks span the world geographically and a wide range of disciplines in the social sciences, biology, and engineering. They were primarily concerned with the integrated management of human, social, and biological systems. The integration of these perspectives has created a new field only in recent years as judged by the emergence of a giant component of scientific collaboration.
Bettencourta, L. & Kaurc, J. (2011). Evolution and structure of sustainability science. PNAS 108(49), 19540-19545