Analyses of Sustainable Development of Cultural and Creative Parks: A Pilot Study Based on the Approach of CiteSpace Knowledge Mapping

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the cultural industry and the escalating demand for innovation have led to a growing attention on the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. This study aims to provide a comprehensive review and prospectus of the literature on the sustainable development of these parks using CiteSpace knowledge mapping. We analyzed 662 publications from 2012 to 2023 in the Web of Science database using bibliometric methods, such as descriptive statistical analysis, network analysis, and co-citation analysis. Our findings indicate that research hotspots in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks focus on cultural ecosystems, environmental conservation, cultural landscapes, creative tourism, park management, and urban renewal. Three primary research themes emerged: ecological service systems, assessment models, and multidimensional value. We propose five future prospects: (1) diversifying sustainable development strategies; (2) coordinating development with urban, regional, and global sustainable development goals; (3) enhancing interdisciplinary research; (4) deepening stakeholder participation; and (5) improving the evaluation index system for sustainable development. This study offers a systematic guiding framework for constructing multidimensional value for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks, providing valuable insights for future theoretical and practical research.

1. Introduction

Recognizing the global urgency of sustainable development, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” in 2015. This initiative comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) slated for realization within 13 years [1]. With significant global economic advancement and societal transformations, the urgency of preserving industrial cultural heritage within the framework of sustainable development has become an imminent issue [2].

To address this issue, a pathway has been identified involving the conversion of outdated industrial structures into cultural and creative parks [3]. This transformation offers an avenue for innovation-driven growth and economic progress. The fundamental research question underpinning this study is: how can cultural and creative parks attain sustainable development? This key inquiry drives the current investigation. Mainstream sustainable development theories focus primarily on how economies can grow and develop sustainably, striking a balance between economic, environmental, and societal elements [4]. Yet, discussions about the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks often ground themselves in urban regeneration theories and cultural heritage protection, enriching the research value. Urban regeneration theories provide insights into optimally utilizing abandoned urban spaces, in this case, transforming industrial structures into creative parks [2]. The theory of cultural heritage protection offers a perspective on preserving the essence of a place while allowing for progress and change.

Moreover, this topic has been intricately explored from various angles, ranging from creative clusters [5] and regional economics [6] to creative ecosystems, land use [7], and performance evaluation [8]. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that comprehensive, review-style research on the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks is lacking. Scholars have mostly explored partial topics, rendering the collection of topics on this subject complex and fragmented. No overarching framework has been constructed that could rapidly familiarize interested scholars and readers with this research area, thereby revealing a distinct gap in the literature, which underscores and amplifies the novelty and theoretical value of this study.

To bridge this research gap, we identified bibliometrics as a tool capable of clarifying the hotspots and development trends in this field through the quantitative analysis of the themes in the literature [9]. Consequently, we meticulously analyzed relevant articles from the Web of Science database after a selective screening process. The combination of bibliometric analysis and knowledge graph techniques, along with the CiteSpace software 6.2.R2(64 bit), allowed us to gain key insights into the research status, hotspots, development trends, and evolution process of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks.

Accordingly, our research has three main objectives. First, we aim to offer a comprehensive review of sustainability aspects related to cultural and creative parks. We strive to provide valuable guidance and insights for future researchers in this field by establishing this review as a foundational resource, thereby fostering further academic exploration and understanding. Second, we aim to build a robust community attracting scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to contribute to the development of creative and cultural parks. Our comprehensive review emphasizes the importance and potential of sustainable development in this context, seeking to stimulate interest and awareness, and promote the ongoing growth of these unique spaces. Lastly, our study proposes a new, systemic multi-value framework to guide high-level planning for cultural and creative parks. By integrating various dimensions, including sustainability, cultural creativity, ecological environment, and socioeconomics, this framework provides valuable insights and guidance for effective planning and management strategies. Its implementation aims to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of cultural and creative parks.

The organization of this paper is as depicted in Figure 1. Following the presentation of the research background and its value, the Section 2 expounds upon the methodologies employed in this study, including database and keyword selection and bibliometric analysis methods. The Section 3 exhibits the outcomes of scientific mapping, encompassing: (1) descriptive statistical analysis, encapsulating the distribution of published papers per year and disciplinary fields, to present a holistic view of the domain; (2) network analysis, fusing national, institutional, and author collaboration networks, with the purpose of investigating their collaborative ties; (3) research hotspots, utilizing keyword co-occurrence network analysis and keyword clustering analysis to identify prevailing research hotspots related to sustainable development in cultural and creative parks; and (4) timeline analysis, timeline view analysis, keyword burst analysis, and keyword prominence statistics to track the evolution of research themes and discern future research directions and trends within the discipline. The Section 4 explores the prospects for sustainable development in cultural and creative parks. The Section 5 introduces a framework for designing a pluralistic value system for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. The final section encapsulates the contributions and limitations of this paper.

2. Methodology

2.1. The CiteSpace

This study conducted an in-depth review of the literature pertaining to cultural and creative parks, employing bibliometric analysis in conjunction with CiteSpace software to construct knowledge maps. Bibliometrics is a statistical method utilized for evaluating specific academic fields [10], theoretically founded on Price’s law, which reveals author distribution, and Bradford’s law, which describes the distribution of specific disciplines among journals. This method is extensively employed to assess scientific achievements, capture scientific developments, construct structures of scientific knowledge maps, and identify emerging trends in specific domains [11]. By analyzing the scientific literature using bibliometric methods, one can construct and visualize an integrated network of concepts, knowledge, and social structures within a given region. This intricate knowledge network includes the selection of nodes, such as authors, terms or keywords, the cited literature and journals, subject areas, and the like [12]. Designed by Professor Chaomei Chen of Drexel University, USA, the CiteSpace software combines bibliometrics and information visualization principles to graphically depict the evolution and structural relationships of scientific knowledge. It is an indispensable tool for generating knowledge maps [13].

2.2. Data Sources

This paper employed CiteSpace 6.2.R2 (64 bit) to conduct a visualization analysis of the literature related to sustainable development within cultural and creative parks, with data sourced from the Web of Science (WOS) database. WOS is considered one of the largest and most frequently used databases in bibliometric analysis [14]. The search queries utilized are presented in

Table 1. Publication extraction protocol.

Data Source	Input Variables
Web of Science	(((TS = (Cultural and Creative park)) OR TS = (cultural park)) OR TS = (creative park)) AND TS = (“sustain *”)
Limiters	LA = (English) AND DT = (Article)

Note: * refers to any character group, including null characters.

. To retrieve the relevant literature as comprehensively as possible, we adopted terms related to cultural and creative parks extracted from previous research. The search was conducted on 10 March 2023, and the results were filtered to include only “Articles” and those in the “English Language”, yielding a total of 662 papers. Article records were saved in plain text format from WOS, set to encompass all records and cited references. To optimize the efficiency of bibliometric analysis outcomes, a post-detection revealed no duplicate data, and other preprocessing operations were undertaken, ultimately resulting in 662 valid documents.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptive Statistical Analysis

Analyzing the annual variations in the number of publications within the chosen research domain enables the evaluation of the current state of the field and the prediction of future trends [15]. As illustrated in Figure 2, the number of articles in the field of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks has experienced an exponential growth over the past decade, signifying that the domain is in a phase of rapid advancement, with a plethora of novel theories and techniques emerging [16]. Between 2012 and 2015, the publication of articles on sustainable development in cultural and creative parks exhibited a stable increase, albeit at a more gradual pace, indicating that the significance of achieving sustainable development in such parks had not yet received special attention during this period. However, following the issuance of sustainable development documents by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, the number of publications in the field instantly doubled, and the topic of sustainable development began garnering attention within the academic community. In 2019, an explosive growth rate emerged, which we speculate to be related to the outbreak of the pandemic, as the importance of sustainable development became more apparent during this time. In 2021, the number of publications surpassed 100 for the first time, followed by a stable increase. Observing the exponential curve of the number of published articles reveals that this research area is a worthwhile subject of investigation. The R-squared value of the exponential line for the past decade’s papers is 0.9254, representing its reliability. The closer the R-squared value is to 1, the better the fit of the exponential line to the data. The statistical data in this study are current as of 20 March 2023; notably, within the short span of three months in 2023, 21 additional articles in this domain were published. In summary, the research field of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks is experiencing accelerated growth.

We utilized CiteSpace to categorize the articles related to sustainable development in cultural and creative parks. The 662 articles were distributed across 102 categories; however, some articles pertained to interdisciplinary research and contained multiple domains, resulting in a total of 1327 categories. This distribution is depicted in Figure 3.

It is evident that, concerning sustainable development research, the majority of scholars primarily focus on the environment, with studies related to “Environmental” (412, 31.04%) and “GREEN & SUSTAINABLE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY” (138, 10.40%) following closely behind. The commencement year for research in both fields is 2013, with an orange circle on the periphery indicating that environmental categories continue to be a prevalent topic of discussion in recent times. In contrast, although the “GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY” category only contains 34 publications, its periphery is enveloped by a pink circle and possesses the highest centrality value (0.46), signifying that this interdisciplinary category is well-received by scholars and has been extensively cited. The second-highest centrality ranking is “URBAN STUDIES” (0.37), indicating that regional or urban planning and the protection and development of local characteristics are also popular topics among scholars. The categories “EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH” (2023), “INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS” (2022), “COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” (2022), and “SOCIAL WORK” (2022) represent the most recent research and publications in the sustainable development trends of cultural and creative parks. Although the number of publications in these categories is limited, they foreshadow potential future research directions.

3.2. Network Analysis

3.2.1. National Collaboration Network

The national collaboration network depicted in Figure 4 demonstrates a relatively close collaboration among countries in the realm of sustainable development research within cultural and creative parks. The collaboration network comprises 103 nodes and 140 links, with a network density of 0.0267. The size of the nodes reflects the number of articles published by each country, with larger nodes signifying more publications. The top five countries and regions in terms of published articles are the USA (96 articles), People’s Republic of China (86 articles), Italy (67 articles), England (56 articles), and Australia (51 articles). The visualization of node sizes indicates the leading positions of the United States and China in publication quantity.

However, centrality represents the value of a country in the research domain. A higher centrality suggests a greater contribution from that country to the research area. Nodes with a centrality exceeding 0.1, marked with pink circles, constitute pivotal nodes. In this study, Norway and Switzerland exhibit the highest centrality at 0.67, followed by Singapore (0.49), New Zealand (0.48), and Iran (0.37). The links between nodes indicate partnerships between two countries, with warmer colors representing more recent collaborations and cooler colors denoting earlier associations. As can be discerned from the figure, countries, such as England, Canada, the USA, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway, form the core and exhibit close cooperation with other nations in this domain.

3.2.2. Institutional Collaboration Network

The results of the institutional collaboration network reveal that there are N = 202 nodes and E = 91 links, with a network density of 0.0045. Each node represents a research institution, and the links between nodes reflect the collaborative relationships among different institutions. In the network of institutional collaboration in the field of sustainable development research for cultural and creative parks, a total of 202 institutions and 91 inter-institutional links were selected. However, for the ease of observation, only institutions with more than two published articles are displayed in the figure. From Figure 5, it can be observed that the institutions with the most publications are the Chinese Academy of Sciences (14 articles), the University of Belgrade (11 articles), and Arizona State University (8 articles). These three institutions are enclosed in orange circles, indicating their ongoing research and contributions to this topic in recent times, making them crucial bridges and key nodes within the collaboration network. From the size of the orange circles, the University of Belgrade has a larger recent publication volume.

Regarding collaboration relationships, the figure shows that there are fewer links than nodes, indicating a relatively low density. This suggests that there is a lack of close collaborative relationships and a relatively low level of interaction among institutions making significant contributions to the field worldwide. Nevertheless, it is evident that several institutions, led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wageningen University, and Humboldt University, have established some collaborative networks and reached a certain scale. While Wageningen University has not published new research recently, Humboldt University has formed new collaboration networks in recent years. However, most institutions still exhibit independent distribution characteristics.

3.2.3. Scholar Collaboration Network

Effectively analyzing authors and their collaboration relationships can help to grasp the core academic community and highly productive authors in the field of sustainable research for cultural and creative parks as a whole. According to Figure 6, a scholar collaboration network is generated with a density of 0.0035, comprising 207 nodes and 74 links. Each node in the network represents an author, and the links between nodes reflect the collaborative relationships among different authors. As can be observed in Figure 5, the number of links is fewer than the number of nodes, and the collaboration network density is relatively low. This indicates a lack of close collaboration and relatively low interaction among researchers who have made significant contributions to the field internationally. It is not difficult to see that the collaboration among a few authors, led by Stetic, Snezana, Trisic, Igor, and Wall, is relatively close, forming a certain scale. Other authors either publish independently or engage in small-scale group communication, and scholars have not yet established substantial collaboration networks.

During the process of organizing and analyzing data, this study found that only two people had published four articles, and one person had published three articles. This indicates that the majority of researchers have only produced one to two articles. Therefore, only a few researchers have conducted in-depth discussions and research on the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks from various aspects. Most researchers are limited to single studies in specific aspects, lacking a more systematic and in-depth exploration. This also suggests that there is still ample room for development and exploration in this field.

Stetic, Snezana, Trisic, and Igor have emerged as the scholars with the highest volume of publications. They engage in extensive collaboration, primarily exploring strategies, applications, and the attitudes of crucial stakeholders through the prism of sustainable tourism development. Their work rigorously assesses the dimensions of sustainability, encompassing ecological, economic, socio-cultural, and institutional aspects.

In contrast, Geoffrey Wall, the scholar with the second most prolific publication record, leads a research team primarily dedicated to examining the contribution and extent of impact that tourism strategies impose on the livelihoods of communities intertwined with local cultural heritage. Their investigative approach leverages the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for robust analysis and evaluation.

From these observations, it becomes evident that the assessment and analysis of stakeholder needs remain hotspots of academic research within the sphere of sustainable development topics. This insight further underscores the pivotal role stakeholder involvement plays in the pursuit of sustainability objectives.

3.3. Research Hotspots

3.3.1. Co-Occurrence Network Analysis of Keywords

Keywords represent a high-level distillation of themes in the literature, encapsulating an author’s academic thoughts, research topics, and content of a specific study. Thus, keywords can serve as a pathway and method for analyzing research subjects. Furthermore, by examining the frequency of keyword occurrences within a domain, one can understand and identify the research hotspots, evaluate the updating speed of the field’s research content, and assess the discipline’s research vitality. In the analysis of knowledge maps, the research topics and hotspots of a particular domain can be derived through keyword analysis. In the keyword contribution network graph constructed using CiteSpace software, each node represents a keyword, and the size of the node indicates the frequency of the keyword’s occurrence. The co-occurrence map of keywords obtained using CiteSpace’s “Keyword” feature is shown below. The resulting map consists of N = 192 nodes and E = 269 links, with a network density of 0.0147.

High-frequency keywords represent research hotspots in the field, as shown in Figure 7. Since some keywords were used to retrieve the literature presented in this paper, the high-frequency keywords related to “park” and “sustainability” were removed from the table.

Table 2. Top 20 high-frequency keywords.

Number	Frequency	Centrality	Keyword
1	92	0.23	conservation
2	91	0.14	protected area
3	89	0.04	management
4	60	0.12	ecosystem service
5	47	0.20	tourism
6	46	0.10	impact
7	46	0.20	landscape
8	44	0.04	community
9	39	0.04	city
10	34	0.16	sustainable tourism
11	33	0.02	perception
12	29	0.28	cultural ecosystem service
13	27	0.08	framework
14	25	0.10	attitude
15	25	0.19	governance
16	23	0.13	model
17	22	0.02	cultural heritage
18	22	0.09	indicator
19	21	0.03	climate change
20	21	0.10	health

displays the top 20 high-frequency keywords in the co-occurrence network. Combining the keyword co-occurrence map and the table of high-frequency keywords, it can be observed that the top five high-frequency keywords related to the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks are: conservation, protected areas, management, ecosystem services, and tourism. Among these, conservation appears with the highest frequency, reflecting the distinct centrality of the research in this domain, and indicating that this keyword is one of the core keywords in the field’s research findings. The starting point for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks is conservation, which encompasses the protection of industrial and cultural heritage, among other aspects.

However, not all high-frequency keywords possess high centrality, and solely relying on them may not capture a comprehensive view of research hotspots within the field. In CiteSpace, keywords with higher centrality (Centrality ≥ 0.1) can be considered as turning points in the keyword frequency knowledge map and, to some extent, represent research hotspots in the field. “Cultural ecosystem services” (0.28) and “social-ecological system” (0.26) are among the research foci in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. Sustainable approaches for ecological and social systems are crucial for guiding tourism policies that promote economic growth [17], and the ecosystem services framework can serve as a tool to facilitate more participatory planning processes to address urban sustainability challenges [18]. “Tourism” (0.2) suggests that the cultural value of parks can be better transformed into commercial value through sightseeing, and tourism-led economic growth has become a major outcome of public policy. Scholars seek strategic approaches that promote sustainable tourism development at destinations from the perspectives of economic, cultural, social, and environmental sustainability [19]. Additionally, the keywords “impacts,” “indicators,” and “model” are used to investigate the behavioral intentions of stakeholders, such as residents’ sense of place and their participation in tourism, which influence their attitudes towards it [20]. Studies also focus on tourists, examining the mediating effects of tourist experience and satisfaction, and investigating how tour guide performance affects tourists’ sustainable behavior in cultural heritage sites [21]. Some studies analyze both residents’ and tourists’ perspectives and the impacts of their satisfaction with tourism development [22]. Although these keywords may not have high centrality, they are widely employed by scholars to evaluate the value or attributes of cultural and creative parks.

3.3.2. Keyword Clustering

Keyword clustering involves network clusters formed by keywords with similar research themes. Keyword clustering can provide an overview of the current research topics in the field. Based on the data-processing results of keyword clustering analysis, the high-frequency keyword clustering knowledge map for sustainable development research in cultural and creative parks from 2012 to 2023 was generated, as shown in Figure 8. The Q-value was 0.7231 (>0.7), indicating that the obtained cluster structure is significant. The weighted average silhouette (S) value was 0.8991 (>0.4), and a value close to 1 indicates a higher average homogeneity of the network, suggesting that the obtained clustering is efficient and credible.

As illustrated above, the high-frequency keywords in the sustainable development research of cultural and creative parks from 2012 to 2023 form nine clusters: #0 built environment (Cluster 0), #1 biosphere reserve (Cluster 1), #2 tows matrix (Cluster 2), #3 ecosystem services (Cluster 3), #4 land use (Cluster 4), #5 cultural heritage (Cluster 5), #6 world heritage (Cluster 6), #7 protected area (Cluster 7), and #8 sustainable tourism (Cluster 8). Cluster numbers are assigned from 0 based on cluster size, with the largest cluster being #0, the second largest being #1, and so forth. Therefore, #0 built environment (Cluster 0) is the largest cluster, encompassing the most extensive content and scope.

A comprehensive summary table of keyword clusters was constructed to further investigate the number of keywords contained within each cluster, the compactness of the clusters themselves, the average year of keyword distribution, and the primary keywords contained within each cluster. As evidenced in

Table 3. Keyword clustering summary.

Label	Node	Contour Value	Year	Keywords (TF × IDF Weighted Algorithm)
0	17	0.952	2016	built environment (15.58, 1 × 10−4); regeneration (10.38, 0.005); urban park (6.71, 0.01); ecosystem services (5.49, 0.05); underground space utilization (5.18, 0.05)
1	16	0.94	2016	biosphere reserve (4.92, 0.05); social perceptions (4.53, 0.05); forest biodiversity (4.53, 0.05); oil shale (4.53, 0.05); wind turbines (4.53, 0.05)
2	16	0.81	2017	tows matrix (5.85, 0.05); tourist perceptions (5.85, 0.05); self-congruence (5.85, 0.05); priority ranking (5.85, 0.05); np kopaonik (5.85, 0.05)
3	15	0.908	2015	ecosystem services (23.66, 1 × 10−4); non-use value (8.99, 0.005); environmental management (6.99, 0.01); stewardship (5.24, 0.05); use value (4.41, 0.05)
4	15	0.905	2017	land use (13.47, 0.001); sustainable development (5.1, 0.05); sustainability (4.89, 0.05); economy (4.67, 0.05); forests (4.67, 0.05)
5	15	0.94	2016	cultural heritage (9.79, 0.005); sustainable development (9.65, 0.005); urban planning (6.33, 0.05); urban sustainability (4.67, 0.05); van fortress (4.67, 0.05)
6	14	0.962	2015	world heritage (14.62, 0.001); sustainable livelihood (10.3, 0.005); community (5.79, 0.05); desert landscape (4.86, 0.05); vegetation map (4.86, 0.05)
7	14	0.869	2018	protected area (10.87, 0.001); economic benefits (5.18, 0.05); nature park (5.18, 0.05); private actor (5.18, 0.05); difference-in-differences analysis (5.18, 0.05)
8	12	0.91	2017	sustainable tourism (28.95, 1 × 10−4); esthetic interpretation (5.81, 0.05); discrete choice experiment (5.81, 0.05); environmental carrying capacity (5.81, 0.05); island natural park (5.81, 0.05)

, the mean silhouette value (S value) of the nine clusters was greater than 0.8, indicating that the clusters are efficient and persuasive. The largest number of keywords was found in cluster 0 (built environment) with 17 keywords, while the smallest number of keywords, 12, was found in cluster 8 (sustainable tourism). The average year of each cluster ranged between 2015 and 2018, with the most clusters having an average year of 2016 and 2015, each possessing three clusters. The keywords were ranked in descending order of significance within each cluster based on the TF*IDF weighted algorithm. These nine themes encompass various aspects of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks. A thorough investigation of these themes will contribute to enhancing the overall competitiveness of cultural and creative parks in sustainable development, providing valuable references and guidance for future park construction and development. According to keyword cluster analysis, the most frequently cited articles were categorized under cluster keywords, and cluster themes were inductively categorized.

Built Environment and Regeneration (Cluster 0): The built environment plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks [23]. This theme explores how the built environment influences urban renewal, urban parks, ecosystem services, and the utilization of underground spaces [24]. Improving and regenerating the built environment not only enhances urban esthetics and livability, but also fosters economic development, ecological improvement, and cultural heritage preservation [25]. This theme will analyze the role of the built environment in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks from multiple perspectives, offering policy recommendations and practical experiences [26].

Biosphere Reserves and Environmental Protection (Cluster 1): Biosphere reserves are integral components of ecological conservation and sustainable development [27]. This theme examines the concept, functions, and relationship between biosphere reserves and the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. The research will address issuesm such as social perception [28] and species diversity [29], exploring how to balance the needs of ecological conservation and economic development through case studies and comparative research [30].

TOWS Matrix and Strategy Analysis (Cluster 2): The TOWS matrix is a widely employed strategic analysis tool that aids organizations in identifying opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses [31,32]. This theme employs the TOWS matrix to analyze various factors influencing the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks, formulating corresponding strategies and policies based on the analysis results [33,34]. Research encompasses visitor perception, self-congruity, and priority ranking, providing valuable insights and references for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks through empirical research and case studies [35].

Ecosystem Services and Environmental Management (Cluster 3): Ecosystem services are the myriad benefits and values that ecosystems provide to humanity, including material production, environmental protection, and cultural inheritance [36]. This theme investigates the role of ecosystem services in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and how to optimize the utilization of ecosystem services through environmental management, stewardship systems, and valuation methods [37]. Through interdisciplinary research and practical case studies, this theme explores the interplay and interdependence between ecosystem services and sustainable development in cultural and creative parks, proposing relevant strategic recommendations and implementation measures [38].

Land Use and Sustainable Development (Cluster 4): Land use is a crucial factor influencing the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. This theme will examine the opportunities and challenges of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks from the perspective of land use, analyzing the relationship between land use and the economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainable development [39]. The research will encompass various domains, such as forestry, agriculture, and urban planning, striving to identify a balance to achieve harmonious coexistence between land use and sustainable development in cultural and creative parks [40].

Cultural Heritage and Urban Planning (Cluster 5): Cultural heritage is a vital resource and core competitiveness of cultural and creative parks. This theme will investigate the role of cultural heritage in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and explore how to achieve a synergistic effect between cultural heritage and economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainable development through urban planning, urban sustainability, and the protection of specific cultural sites [41].

World Heritage and Sustainable Livelihoods (Cluster 6): World heritage represents a shared, invaluable treasure for humanity, and its protection and utilization are intimately related to the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. This theme will probe the role of world heritage in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and analyze how to attain a collaborative effect between world heritage and sustainable development through sustainable livelihoods, community participation, and landscape protection [42]. Through interdisciplinary research and practical case studies, this theme will propose suggestions and strategies to achieve a harmonious coexistence between world heritage protection and the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks [43].

Protected Areas and Economic Benefits (Cluster 7): Protected areas are essential means for safeguarding the ecological environment and promoting sustainable development. This theme will study the role of protected areas in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and investigate how to achieve collaborative effects between protected areas and sustainable development through economic benefits, natural parks, private actors’ participation, and differentiation [44,45].

Sustainable Tourism and Environmental Carrying Capacity (Cluster 8): Sustainable tourism is a crucial pillar industry for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. This theme will explore the role of sustainable tourism in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and analyze how to achieve a synergistic effect between sustainable tourism and sustainable development through esthetic interpretation, discrete choice experiments, and environmental carrying capacity [46,47]. Combining domestic and international successful cases and best practices, this theme will provide strategic recommendations and implementation guidelines for the sustainable tourism development of cultural and creative parks [48].

In conclusion, these nine themes encompass multiple aspects of the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks, covering research from various perspectives, such as ecological and environmental protection, cultural heritage preservation, economic benefits, and tourism industry. Through in-depth exploration of these themes, the comprehensive competitiveness of cultural and creative parks in sustainable development can be enhanced, providing beneficial references and guidance for future construction and development. In subsequent research, these themes can be continuously adjusted and refined according to practical needs and research progress to better meet the strategic objectives and practical requirements of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks.

3.4. Evolutionary Analysis of Research Topics

The research frontier, as the most active part of a research field, is instrumental in grasping the future research directions and developmental trends of a disciplinary area [15], thus promoting the theoretical sublimation of academic research. By analyzing burst detection, we can determine the periodicity of and dynamic changes in keyword occurrence intensity, thereby reflecting the frontier status and trends of the research field [49]. The concept of research frontier was first proposed by Price in 1965 to describe the transitional nature of a research field. A research frontier is relative to a specific research field and time, referring to the research topics characterized by the actively cited literature within a field. Therefore, the research frontier is not an independent entity, but rather attached to frequently cited citations. Keyword emergence refers to the changes in the degree of attention to a specific topic in a research field within a certain period, and keyword emergence rate reflects the increase rate of keyword usage within a certain period. Thus, when exploring the research frontier, a comprehensive detection analysis should be conducted based on keyword emergence and the corresponding literature. In this section, CiteSpace is used to create a keyword emergence map for the 662 sustainable development research articles on cultural and creative parks, and combined with the relevant literature, we analyzed the research frontier themes of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks and predict the future developmental trends of this field.

3.4.1. Timeline Analysis

Using CiteSpace software to draw a keyword timeline map can reveal the duration and evolutionary trends of research hotspots, as shown in Figure 9. The keyword evolution map was arranged from left to right in chronological order, with the size of the square nodes proportional to the frequency of corresponding keyword occurrences. By employing CiteSpace software for the evolution analysis of research hotspots in the subject area of the selected literature, the time parameters were set from 2012 to 2023, with Year per slice = 1, Top N = 12, and Node type = Keywords. The clustering evolution results are shown in the figure. The resulting map generated 192 nodes and 269 connections, with Q = 0.7231, indicating a significant divided structure.

The continuous prominence of keywords on this timeline indicates that the development of sustainable research in cultural and creative parks has undergone three stages: significant fluctuations, relatively stable development, and steady growth. Thus, researchers have experienced certain fluctuations in this research process. Based on the keyword timeline, we categorized the research topics on sustainable development in cultural and creative parks into three parts: ecosystem services, assessment models, and the construction of multiple values. We deconstructed the nine clusters to explain and refine each theme.

• Ecosystem Services in Cultural and Creative Parks

Ecosystem services refer to the various benefits and values provided by ecosystems to humanity, encompassing aspects such as material production, environmental protection, and cultural heritage [36]. As regions with unique cultural and ecological values, cultural and creative parks should fully utilize their ecosystem services to achieve sustainable development [50]. Ecosystem services in these parks encompass diverse aspects including local economic development, enhancement of urban image, interactive conservation area construction with local communities [51], land-use planning [52], environmental management strategies [53], local economic development [54], urban image enhancement [55], local community interaction [56], and sustainable tourism development [57]. Rational land-use planning contributes to the realization of sustainable development in economic, environmental, and social dimensions [58]. Furthermore, environmental management strategies, such as stewardship systems and value assessments, ensure the optimal utilization of ecosystem services, promoting harmonious coexistence between cultural and creative parks and their ecosystems [59]. Sustainable tourism is a vital pillar industry for cultural and creative parks, which can fully exploit ecosystem services to achieve a synergistic effect between sustainable tourism and park sustainability [60]. Simultaneously, enhancing the park’s visibility and influence through brand building, promotion, and international cooperation is particularly crucial [61]. By comprehensively employing these strategies and methods, cultural and creative parks can fully tap the potential of ecosystem services, achieve sustainable development in economic, environmental, and social dimensions, and ensure that ecosystem services genuinely play their intended roles.

2.

Evaluation Models for Cultural and Creative Parks

The research on evaluation models for cultural and creative parks aims to analyze and evaluate sustainable development strategies in such parks, including the integration of ecosystem services, multiple values, and strategic assessments. Evaluation research for cultural and creative parks covers aspects such as visitor cognition, self-consistency, and prioritization, offering valuable insights and references for sustainable development through empirical studies and case analyses. With TOWS matrix analysis, cultural and creative parks can identify opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses, formulating corresponding strategies and policies based on the analysis results [62]. In terms of visitor cognition, research can elucidate visitors’ views and needs regarding park sustainability, thus guiding park planning and management [63,64]. Self-consistency research can reveal the synergistic effects of cultural and creative parks in ecological conservation and economic development, ensuring comprehensive park benefits [65]. Through prioritization, parks can determine the importance and order of various sustainable development strategies, providing a basis for decision-making [66]. Moreover, this research explores the synergistic effects between World Heritage conservation and sustainable development of cultural and creative parks by establishing a comprehensive cultural heritage conservation indicator system, including protection scope, measures, and effectiveness. The system assesses park performance in cultural heritage protection and utilization, ensuring the preservation and inheritance of cultural resources while pursuing economic benefits [67]. Additionally, this research investigates the relationship between land-use and sustainable development in economic, environmental, and social dimensions [68]. Through interdisciplinary research and practical case studies, this research provides suggestions and strategies for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks, achieving a balance between cultural and ecological conservation and economic development. In summary, the research on evaluation models for cultural and creative parks will help to identify and analyze key elements for sustainable park development, providing theoretical support and practical guidance for park planning, management, and development [69]. By conducting in-depth analysis on various park evaluation indicators, more suitable development strategies can be formulated, promoting park competitiveness and continuous development [70]. These evaluation models can also be applied to other types of parks to meet the needs of different regions and industries.

3.

Multiple Value Research of Cultural and Creative Parks

The study of multiple values in cultural and creative parks initially focused on the sustainable development of economic, social, and environmental aspects. Subsequently, scholars suggested incorporating culture into the mix [71], and in the following evaluation indicators, aspects such as creativity, education, and life gradually emerged [72], aiming to maximize the potential of cultural and creative parks. Economically, parks achieve multiple profit models through the development of innovative products and services and the integration of related industrial chains, driving regional economic growth [73]; simultaneously, they actively introduce international resources and technology to enhance international competitiveness and reputation [74]. Culturally, cultural and creative parks are committed to protecting and promoting the local distinctive culture, fostering the development of the cultural and creative industry, hosting various cultural events and festivals, allowing visitors and local residents to experience the regional cultural charm, and endowing traditional culture with new vitality and commercial value [75]. Socially, cultural and creative parks help to improve local residents’ quality of life, create job opportunities, enhance cultural literacy, and promote community building [76]; they also raise people’s innovation awareness and practical ability through education and training activities, nurturing outstanding cultural and creative talents [77]. Environmentally, cultural and creative parks emphasize green development concepts, incorporating environmental awareness into planning, construction, and operation processes; they utilize green building technologies to achieve energy conservation and emissions reduction and adopt renewable energy and circular economy concepts to reduce the burden on the natural environment [78]. In summary, cultural and creative parks have significant advantages in multiple values and sustainable development, providing an effective approach for realizing comprehensive value.

3.4.2. Timezone View Analysis

Research hotspots are dynamic, and the hotspots in each time period vary. The CiteSpace software provides a presentation method for the Timezone View of the co-citation network of the literature, gathering keywords in the timezone where they first appeared. The time series was arranged in chronological order, and then the co-occurrence timezone map of keywords was obtained by adjusting and beautifying the display, clearly showing the research process of hotspot themes in the time dimension. Based on the keyword co-occurrence map, the time slice was set to 1 year, with other settings unchanged. After clicking “Run” and obtaining the keyword co-occurrence map, click “Layout” on the visualization interface’s quick control panel. Under “Visualizations,” select “Timezone View” to obtain the original map. By adjusting the parameters to further beautify the map, we obtained the hotspot timezone map for the sustainable development research of cultural and creative parks from 2012 to 2023, as shown in Figure 10.

As depicted in the figure above, the nodes in the graph represent keywords, with their corresponding years representing the first appearance of the keyword in the collected data (since the time slice is one year, it can only be determined that the keyword appears within that year, not the specific year). In subsequent years, if the keyword reappears, the frequency will be accumulated at the position of its first appearance, with the circle enlarging correspondingly. The lines represent connections between keywords; if keywords appear simultaneously in an article, a link between the two keywords will appear, and a connection is formed between the two years. If two keywords appear simultaneously in multiple articles, the link will thicken.

We observed the Timezone View and burst detection together to better understand the evolution of research topics related to the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks in the past decade and divided them into evolving stages.

3.4.3. Burst Detection

Table 4. Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.

Keywords	Strength	Begin	End	2012–2023
land use	2.54	2012	2017	▃▃▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂
landscape	4.10	2013	2015	▂▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
valuation	3.25	2014	2017	▂▂▃▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂
patterns	3.52	2015	2017	▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂
areas	2.86	2016	2017	▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂▂▂▂
evolution	2.14	2017	2018	▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂▂▂
performance	2.41	2018	2018	▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂▂
design	2.97	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
built environment	2.54	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
attitudes	2.45	2019	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃▂▂
determinants	2.27	2019	2019	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂
visitors	2.27	2019	2019	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂
model	2.16	2019	2019	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂▂▂
cultural landscape	2.12	2019	2020	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▂▂▂
cultural heritage	2.78	2021	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃▃
space	2.40	2021	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂
knowledge	2.40	2021	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂
biosphere reserve	2.29	2021	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂
sustainable development	2.09	2021	2021	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▂▂
willingness to pay	2.13	2022	2023	▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▃▃

displays the top 20 keywords regarding frequency, strength, and starting and ending years, arranged in chronological order from the earliest to the latest. In the figure, “Strength” represents the burst strength, “Begin” and “End” indicate the start and end of the burst, and the red line segment represents the time span of the burst.

According to the figure above, keywords with higher burst strength include “landscape (4.10),” “patterns (3.52),” “valuation (3.25),” “design (2.97),” “areas (2.86),” and “cultural heritage (2.78),” indicating that these keywords are frontier topics of concern for researchers within their corresponding time periods. In terms of the duration of the bursts, “land use (5 years)” and “valuation (3 years)” have longer durations, suggesting that these keywords have been the focus of scholars for an extended period, with some even becoming hot topics. Based on the chronological order, it is evident that frontier keywords change over time, exhibiting a phased evolution. Thus, this study divided the research frontiers in the field of sustainable development of cultural and creative parks in the past decade into stages according to the time periods and analyzed the keywords with a higher burst strength during those periods.

To gain a better understanding of the evolution of research topics related to the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks in the past decade, we analyzed the content of Timezone View and burst detection comprehensively and divided it into three developmental stages.

Phase One (2012–2016): Exploratory Stage of Sustainable Development Transformation in Cultural and Creative Parks. During this period, scholars embarked on the preliminary investigations of the implementation of sustainable development concepts in cultural and creative parks. The cutting-edge keywords representative of this period include “landscape (4.10),” “patterns (3.52),” “valuation (3.25),” and “land use (2.54).”

In this phase, scholars paid greater attention to aspects such as landscape changes, land use patterns, and economic evaluations within cultural and creative parks. The research focused on the spatial layout, resource utilization, and environmental impact of the parks. Studies during this period mainly revolved around how cultural and creative parks could integrate sustainable development concepts and explored the core issues that needed to be addressed during the planning, construction, and operation processes. Scholars conducted comprehensive assessments of land use benefits, analyzed the impact of internal and external environments on sustainable development, and aimed to identify the optimal solution for the coordinated development of the economy, society, and environment. Through research on landscape changes and land use patterns within the parks, scholars attempted to reveal the challenges and opportunities faced by cultural and creative parks during the process of sustainable development. Simultaneously, scholars initiated preliminary discussions on the economic evaluation of cultural and creative parks and assessed aspects such as social and environmental benefits in order to provide decision support for the parks’ sustainable development. These studies not only provided a theoretical foundation for the planning and construction of cultural and creative parks but also laid the groundwork for subsequent research. However, at this stage, research on the optimization of the comprehensive sustainable development structure for cultural and creative parks was still in its infancy. Although scholars recognized the importance of sustainable development in the construction of cultural and creative parks, research on specific implementation strategies and methods had not yet formed a complete system. The research focus of this period was still centered on the understanding and preliminary exploration of sustainable development concepts, without delving into the specific operational management and comprehensive evaluation of the parks. During this stage, scholars conducted preliminary investigations into the implementation of sustainable development concepts in cultural and creative parks through case analyses of such parks in different countries and regions, summarizing experiences and lessons from successful practices. However, research on the optimization of the comprehensive sustainable development structure for cultural and creative parks was still in its initial exploratory stage, and the study of specific implementation strategies and methods had not yet formed a complete system. The research during this phase laid the foundation for subsequent studies on the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and provided valuable insights for future research.

Stage Two (2017–2020): Design Assessment Phase for the Sustainable Development of Cultural and Creative Parks, a period of theoretical and methodological advancement. In this stage, scholars built upon the foundation established in the first stage, focusing more on the specific design, evaluation, and optimization strategies for cultural and creative parks [79]. The research areas gradually expanded to encompass comprehensive performance, social, economic, and environmental assessments and discussions. The cutting-edge keywords representative of this period include “design (2.97),” “built environment (2.54),” “attitudes (2.45),” “performance (2.41),” “determinants (2.27),” “visitors (2.27),” “model (2.16),” “evolution (2.14),” and “cultural landscape (2.12).”

During this stage, scholars began employing various assessment tools to conduct more comprehensive evaluations of the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of cultural and creative parks. Through the quantitative analyses of various indicators, researchers gained a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by cultural and creative parks in the process of sustainable development. Simultaneously, scholars started exploring the impact of spatial design and the built environment on sustainable development, investigating how to optimize aspects such as functional layout, green building design, and resource utilization to enhance the park’s overall performance. Moreover, researchers examined the relationship between the attitudes and behaviors of park participants and sustainable development, with the aim of providing more targeted management suggestions. In the operational and management aspects of cultural and creative parks, scholars began attempting to employ cost-benefit analysis, risk analysis, and other methods from economics to assess park performance, providing decision-making support for policymakers, park operators, and other stakeholders. Furthermore, scholars conducted in-depth research on the evolution of cultural and creative parks, exploring the development challenges and transformational needs faced by parks in different periods. In summary, the focus of sustainable development research for cultural and creative parks in the second stage shifted towards design assessment. Scholars conducted comprehensive evaluations of the sustainable development levels of cultural and creative parks from various perspectives, focusing on aspects such as spatial design, environmental construction, operational management, and more to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. At the same time, scholars innovated in assessment methods and indicator systems, adopting more scientific and comprehensive evaluation tools to objectively and accurately measure the performance of cultural and creative parks in the process of sustainable development. However, towards the end of the second stage, the keyword “cultural landscape (2.12)” emerged, indicating that scholars began to shift from design and assessment to the exploration of the cultural value of the parks themselves [80]. This shift reflects the development trend of sustainable development research for cultural and creative parks, that is, recognizing the importance of cultural value in sustainable development while focusing on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of the parks. Through the study of cultural landscapes, scholars sought to reveal the cultural characteristics and values carried by cultural and creative parks in the process of sustainable development, thus providing more diverse and enriched development paths for the future of the parks.

Therefore, the sustainable development research of cultural and creative parks during the second stage not only achieved significant progress in theory and methodology but also provided valuable insights for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks in practice. Scholars conducted comprehensive assessments of the sustainable development status of cultural and creative parks from multiple perspectives, focusing on various aspects such as comprehensive performance, spatial design, environmental construction, and operational management, offering robust support for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. This stage of research laid a solid foundation for the subsequent development of sustainable development research for cultural and creative parks.

The third phase (2021–present) represents the value exploration period for sustainable development in cultural and creative parks. In this phase, research shifted its focus towards unearthing and elevating the intrinsic value of these parks, addressing various dimensions, such as culture, knowledge, ecology, society, space, and economy, with the ultimate goal of achieving comprehensive sustainable development. The representative keywords for this period are, in order: “cultural heritage (2.78)”, “space (2.40)”, “knowledge (2.40)”, “biosphere reserve (2.29)”, and “willingness to pay (2.13)”.

During this stage, scholars have increasingly emphasized the value of cultural heritage in cultural and creative parks, delving into their history, regional culture, and traditional arts, striving for effective protection and preservation. Concurrently, researchers have also begun to pay attention to the spatial value of these parks, examining aspects such as spatial layout, functional combinations, and landscape design, in order to provide a high-quality spatial environment that supports sustainable development [81].

Knowledge value has also received significant attention in this phase, with researchers focusing on innovation and creativity within the creative industries, as well as intellectual property protection, technological research and development, and the cultivation of innovative and creative talent. By exploring knowledge value, scholars further promote the development of cultural and creative parks within the realm of innovation and creativity, enhancing their overall competitiveness [82].

Moreover, ecological protection and environmental friendliness have become focal points during this stage. Researchers have investigated how to fully consider ecological protection in the development of cultural and creative parks, ultimately achieving harmony between humans and nature [83]. For instance, they have explored ways to integrate the construction of cultural and creative parks with that of biosphere reserves, jointly providing novel avenues for sustainable development. In terms of economy, researchers have focused on tourists’ and consumers’ “willingness to pay,” delving into market demand and consumers’ recognition of products and services offered by cultural and creative parks, thereby informing their management decisions [84].

In summary, the third phase of research on sustainable development in cultural and creative parks emphasizes the multidimensional value of these parks, with scholars exploring various dimensions to support comprehensive sustainable development. They no longer limit their focus to a single aspect but instead concentrate on the overall development of the parks, striving to achieve balance and coordination across multiple domains, such as resource protection, cultural heritage, innovation-driven development, and ecological environment, and economic benefits.

In order to achieve this goal, scholars have continuously innovated their research methods, employing interdisciplinary theories and methods from fields such as sociology, psychology, and ecology, in conjunction with on-site investigations, case analyses, and model construction to enhance the depth and breadth of their research. Additionally, with the advent of new technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, researchers have applied these technologies to their studies on sustainable development in cultural and creative parks, providing more scientific and accurate foundations for decision-making.

On a practical level, governments, enterprises, and various social sectors have jointly promoted the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks [85]. Government departments have strengthened policy guidance, providing a favorable policy environment for the development of these parks [86]; enterprises have placed a greater emphasis on sustainable development in their business strategies, tapping into the parks’ intrinsic value to create unique core competencies [87]; meanwhile, public interest and involvement in cultural and creative parks have gradually increased, supplying a continuous driving force for their development [88].

The research results of this stage have accumulated a wealth of theoretical and practical experience, providing valuable references for the future exploration of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks. As global sustainable development issues continue to gain attention, research in this field will become more in-depth and extensive, making positive contributions to the construction of a green, harmonious, and innovative cultural ecosystem.

The evolution of research themes across these three stages demonstrates that the study of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks has progressed from a superficial to a more profound understanding, and from singular perspectives to a more comprehensive, systematic approach. Initially, cultural and creative parks aimed to foster vigorous economic growth at the national and regional levels, serving as spatial agglomerations of production factors and innovative elements, ultimately becoming engines for economic growth. Research in the first stage proposed the need for sustainable development in cultural and creative parks, emphasizing rational control over environmental protection and resource utilization. At this stage, the concept of “sustainable development” had been introduced but required further investigation and integration into the design and planning of cultural and creative parks. In the second stage, the assessment and transformation of parks received unprecedented attention, and the application of cultural and creative parks became more diverse. During this stage, a series of complex models and quantitative tools were proposed and implemented to measure the comprehensive performance of parks and evaluate their innovative capacities. In the third stage, the study of sustainable development in cultural and creative parks became more systematic, incorporating scenario analysis and risk assessment into the research framework. The symbiotic relationship between cultural and creative parks and urban transformation also attracted the attention of researchers. At this stage, the value extraction and sublimation of cultural and creative parks became the focus, advocating for comprehensive sustainable development. Although related concepts and strategies have been proposed and implemented, the volume of research remains insufficient, indicating the need for further expansion and deepening in the future.

4. Prospects for the Sustainable Development of Cultural and Creative Parks

The research themes on the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks have evolved from a preliminary exploration, focusing on environmental protection and resource utilization, to a design assessment period, emphasizing assessment and transformation status, and finally to a value excavation period for comprehensive sustainable development. Throughout this process, all research has been empirically validated and has achieved results in specific parks, rendering this research area highly relevant and practical. However, as urban development and global environmental changes become increasingly severe, the challenges and issues concerning the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks continue to evolve. Consequently, future research should focus on the following aspects:

• Diversification of sustainable development strategies for cultural and creative parks: Future research should delve deeper into achieving a balance between economic, social, and environmental aspects in cultural and creative parks with different cultural backgrounds, geographical locations, and development stages. This includes absorbing and integrating sustainable development concepts, as well as researching innovative business models, industrial structure adjustments, and resource utilization efficiency improvements to achieve comprehensive park development.
• Synergistic development of cultural and creative parks with urban, regional, and global sustainable development goals: Strengthen research on the synergistic development between cultural and creative parks, urban transformation, and global sustainable development goals to provide beneficial practical experiences and theoretical support for urban transformation and global sustainable development. This requires researching how to align the development of cultural and creative parks with national and regional development strategies and how to address global challenges, such as climate change and resource scarcity.
• Enhancement of interdisciplinary research: This can be achieved by combining knowledge from economics, sociology, environmental science, and other disciplines and conducting in-depth research on various aspects of the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks to provide a more comprehensive and profound understanding. This will help to promote interdisciplinary research collaboration and collectively provide a scientific basis and decision support for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks.
• Deepening stakeholder participation in cultural and creative parks: This aspect explores how to strengthen collaborative cooperation among various stakeholders in cultural and creative parks, including government departments, enterprises, and community residents, to jointly promote sustainable park development. Simultaneously, research should focus on the distribution of interests among stakeholders in the sustainable development process of cultural and creative parks, ensuring fairness and justice. This requires investigating how to establish effective stakeholder participation mechanisms, promote information sharing and resource integration, and fully consider the interests of all parties in the policy formulation and implementation process.
• Improvement of the sustainable development assessment indicator system for cultural and creative parks: Future research should continue to refine the assessment indicator system for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks to better reflect the comprehensive development status of parks and provide a basis for policy formulation and management decisions. This includes reviewing and revising existing assessment indicators, as well as researching new assessment indicators and methods to more comprehensively and objectively measure the sustainable development performance of cultural and creative parks in terms of multiple values.

In summary, future research related to the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks needs to delve deeper into aspects such as strategy diversification, synergistic development, interdisciplinary research, stakeholder participation, and improvement of the assessment indicator system. This will contribute to forming a more scientific and rational concept and practice of sustainable development for cultural and creative parks, promoting the synergistic development of the cultural and creative industries with urban, regional, and global sustainable development goals, and contributing to the shared prosperity of humanity and the Earth.

5. Constructing a Multidimensional Value System Design Framework for Sustainable Development in Cultural and Creative Parks

Under the impetus of global sustainable development goals, cultural and creative parks have achieved numerous accomplishments in sustainability research. Nevertheless, contemporary research needs to advance in the direction of multidimensional value management to better facilitate the comprehensive development of these parks. Traditional park designs tend to lack a comprehensive consideration of multidimensional values, relying excessively on commercial constructs and failing to deeply integrate cultural, creative, social, educational, environmental, and life values. Current research on cultural and creative parks seldom incorporates equally important multidimensional value factors in their planning considerations, resulting in incomplete park systems, management, and services that struggle to satisfy the ever-growing and diversified demands of modern life.

Ecosystem services encompass a variety of values, and the need to capture and integrate multiple perspectives is widely recognized [89]. Therefore, it is essential to integrate different value dimensions to provide information for the decision-making process. In light of this, the present study proposes a broad-based, multidimensional value management framework for sustainable development in cultural and creative park ecosystems to guide future research. The constituents of the multidimensional value system design for sustainable development can be summarized as follows:

Creative Value: Creative value pertains to the innovative capabilities of a cultural and creative park, as well as its innovative performance in product design, production processes, and market marketing [50]. Parks should actively attract innovative enterprises, support the development of creative talents, and provide an environment conducive to nurturing creativity and fostering innovative collaboration [90]. This implies that future research should focus more on the role of creative value in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks, as well as on how to enhance creative value in practice [91].

Commercial Value: Commercial value is primarily manifested in the economic benefits and market competitiveness of cultural and creative parks. Parks should strive to optimize industrial structures, explore and cultivate enterprises and products with core competitiveness, and elevate their competitive standing in domestic and international markets [73]. This suggests that research should pay greater attention to how to maximize commercial value in cultural and creative parks and explore the synergistic development of commercial value and other values [92].

Social Value: Social value involves the role of cultural and creative parks in promoting social harmony and improving people’s well-being. Parks should provide a diverse array of public services to meet the needs of various groups and actively participate in community development to advance social equity and justice [93]. At the same time, attention should be given to the equitable distribution of benefits among stakeholders in the sustainable development process of cultural and creative parks to ensure fairness and justice. Additionally, research should explore how to strengthen collaborative cooperation among various stakeholders, including government departments, enterprises, and community residents, to jointly promote sustainable development in parks [94].

Educational Value: The educational value of cultural and creative parks is primarily manifested in their support for talent cultivation [90], knowledge dissemination, and technological innovation [95]. It is vital for these parks to establish close partnerships with educational institutions, actively engage in industry–academia research collaborations, and provide professional training and technical support for businesses and talents within the park [96]. At the same time, the parks should encourage enterprises to participate in social education initiatives, enhancing public awareness and interest in the cultural and creative industries [97]. This implies that research should place a greater emphasis on the role of educational value in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and explore ways to enhance this value in practice [98].

Environmental Value: The environmental value of cultural and creative parks encompasses their responsibilities and contributions to the protection of natural resources, conservation of resources, and pollution reduction [99]. Parks should adhere strictly to environmental regulations, promote the application of green building and eco-friendly technologies, and actively organize environmental awareness campaigns and educational activities [100]. Furthermore, environmental protection should be integrated into the parks’ overall planning and operational management to ensure sustainable development is aligned with environmental preservation [101]. This suggests that research should focus more on the significance of environmental value in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and explore ways to enhance this value in practice [102].

Life Value: Life value is mainly embodied in the enhancement of people’s quality of life and sense of well-being within cultural and creative parks [103]. By creating livable, work-friendly, and recreational environments, these parks can cater to people’s pursuit of a better life while achieving a balance between economic, environmental, and social objectives. Parks should provide residents with high-quality public spaces, facilities, and services, promoting community integration and interaction, and fostering physical and mental well-being [104]. This implies that research should pay a greater attention to the importance of life value in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks and explore ways to enhance this value in practice [105].

The multi-dimensional value management framework will help cultural and creative parks to better achieve sustainable development objectives in future research and practice. By strengthening the integration of diverse values, including cultural, creative, commercial, social, educational, environmental, and life, the parks will become more vibrant and attractive, serving as a crucial driving force for urban transformation and global sustainable development.

Future research should continue to delve into the multi-dimensional value management framework, refining and perfecting the framework through empirical case studies. Additionally, interdisciplinary research and collaboration among stakeholders must be reinforced to ensure the effectiveness and fairness of sustainable development policies and implementation in cultural and creative parks. The construction of the sustainable development system design framework should be a dynamic process, constantly adjusting and improving principles, elements, and measures in response to changes in external environments and internal conditions. Simultaneously, the framework should be tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of different cultural and creative parks, applied flexibly, and adjusted accordingly to achieve the best sustainable development outcomes.

6. Conclusions

This article, based on a corpus of 662 papers from the WoS database published between 2012 and 2023, utilized CiteSpace and bibliometric analysis to identify research hotspots and evolving frontiers in the field of sustainable development for cultural and creative parks. According to descriptive statistics, the number of articles gradually increased, exhibiting a growing trend over time, with the articles primarily distributed across disciplines such as environment, local research, social sciences, and education. The analysis of the collaboration network revealed a relatively close cooperation among countries in this research field, an emerging inter-institutional collaboration network, and a lack of substantial collaboration among scholars.

Through keyword co-occurrence network analysis and keyword clustering, several themes were identified and subsequently classified into three research stages based on a timeline visualization: ecosystem services, assessment models, and multiple values. Each stage’s knowledge evolution was summarized in accordance with the temporal zone view and burst detection. The article concluded that future research should focus on value excavation and refinement within the context of the cultural and creative parks’ ecosystem services, with the sustainable development trend of these parks being important for their multiple value co-development.

To delve deeper into the theoretical implications of this research, the study’s findings underscore the role of ecosystem services and multiple values in the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks. They signify the importance of multifaceted value realization, suggesting that such an approach could form the basis for theoretical frameworks guiding future research in this area. This perspective also presents potential pathways to align park development with broader sustainability goals at the urban, regional, and global levels, thereby advancing our understanding of sustainable development theories as they pertain to cultural and creative parks.

Furthermore, our findings open up new avenues for interdisciplinary research, especially at the intersection of environmental science, social sciences, and education. By investigating the cooperation networks among these disciplines, researchers could build upon the existing theoretical knowledge in a way that is integrative and holistic. Moreover, this study underlined the importance of stakeholders in sustainable park development, potentially leading to new theories on stakeholder engagement and collaboration in this context.

In conclusion, the present study outlined the prospective research directions in this field: the diversification of sustainable development strategies for cultural and creative parks; coordinated development with urban, regional, and global sustainability goals; strengthening interdisciplinary research; deepening stakeholder engagement; and refining the sustainability assessment indicator system for cultural and creative parks. With the goal of achieving sustainable development in cultural and creative parks, this article proposed a guiding framework for multiple values under ecosystem services, offering valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars. Nonetheless, certain limitations exist in this study, such as the timeliness of the literature data and the shortcomings of knowledge mapping analysis methods. Therefore, further research is required to continuously improve and deepen our understanding in order to provide more profound wisdom and support for the sustainable development of cultural and creative parks.