The knowledge domain of crowd dynamics: Anatomy of the field, pioneering studies, temporal trends, influential entities and outside-domain impact

The literature of pedestrian, crowd and evacuation dynamics is captured in its approximate full scope and is analysed at various levels using scientometric indicators of its underlying articles (N≈6200). The analyses provide new insight into the structural make-up of this field, its distribution across various disciplines, its temporal and historical patterns of development, as well as its pioneering and influential entities (i.e., articles and authors). The analysis establishes that the field has exerted a high degree of influence beyond its borders while identifying these areas of influence. Studies with greatest impact within and beyond the borders of crowd dynamics literature; as well as, pioneering but neglected studies of the field are identified. It is determined that the beginning of the twenty-first century marks the most important milestone of this field, an intellectual turning point that set the field to become a standalone research domain. Temporal analysis indicates certain paradigm shifts in crowed dynamics research during the past decade. It identifies two streams of activities labelled “empirical methods” and “crowd counting/visual crowd analysis” as the two youngest and currently hottest research streams of this field. Outcomes suggest that further interactions and collaborations between the computer vision and the mainstream of crowd researchers could be warranted. This could lead to the next generations of data-driven crowd models and prevent the field from going to a state of stagnation. It is also hoped that these outcomes contribute to enhancing the quality (i.e., specificity and inclusiveness) of document referencing in crowd dynamics papers.