Temporal evaluation of global trends in water footprint, water sustainability and water productivity research

Abstract

Water security has been an evolving and swiftly developing research area, which is linked to the Water Footprint, Water Sustainability and Water Productivity (WFSP) concept, essential for ensuring food and water security for countries suffering from water scarcity. A scientometric analysis of WFSP studies was done to investigate the global research trends that occurred between 1987 and 2019, using data obtained from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The publications in overall scopes matched several subjects, countries and journals to WFSP growth trends. The findings from this study showed that WFSP research has significantly increased over the past decades. Countries such as China (22%), the United States of America (16%), India (14%) and the Netherlands (7%) have the most WFSP publications while publications in South Africa was relatively low (2%). Hoekstra was the most productive author with 14 WFSP research publications and 1711 citations (190 citations per year). The Netherlands has the highest number of cited WFSP research publications (24% of citations and an average of 80 citations). The Journal of Agricultural Water Management Journal of Cleaner Production and Ecological Indicators were the top three journals with the most citations and h-indices. The present study concludes that there was a global increase in WFSP research, with the most noticeable outcomes in developed countries compared to developing nations. Enhancing collaboration between multiple countries and authors in the field of WFSP research could provide important scientific solutions to global water scarcity.

Keywords

• Water footprint
• Water sustainability
• Water productivity
• Research trends