ADAPTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT  TO CLIMATE CHANGE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF SCOPUS DATA

Abstract

Climate change adaptation (CCA) has become a critical condition for achieving sustainable development, particularly in climate-vulnerable contexts where governance constraints, uneven adaptive capacity, and limited access to technology hinder implementation. This study conducts a systematic literature review combined with bibliometric mapping and qualitative thematic synthesis to examine how the academic literature conceptualizes and operationalizes the relationship between climate adaptation and sustainable development. Using the Scopus database and PRISMA-guided screening procedures, 38 core studies published between 2010 and 2025 were selected from an initial pool of 8,902 records. VOSviewer was employed to analyze keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling patterns, while thematic content analysis was used to identify major research domains and comparative trends. The findings reveal three dominant themes: (1) policy mainstreaming and institutional integration, (2) sectoral and technological adaptation, and (3) equity, local capacity, and implementation barriers. The review also shows important differences across developed and developing country contexts, sectoral applications, governance scales, and methodological approaches. A central contribution of the study is the identification of a persistent theory-practice gap, driven by institutional fragmentation, resource limitations, unequal access to technology, and weak integration of local knowledge. Based on these findings, the paper proposes evidence-informed implications for future research and policy discussion in climate-vulnerable developing countries such as Vietnam.