Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:26:40.838Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emerging topics in scientific research on global water-use efficiency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2019

J. L. Aleixandre-Tudó ,
L. Castelló-Cogollos ,
J. L. Aleixandre Open the ORCID record for J. L. Aleixandre [Opens in a new window]  and
R. Aleixandre-Benavent
J. L. Aleixandre-Tudó
Affiliation:
Department of Viticulture and Enology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa
L. Castelló-Cogollos
Affiliation:
Departamento de Sociología y Antropología Social, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain UISYS, Joint Research Unit, Universitat de València-CSIC, Valencia, Spain
J. L. Aleixandre*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ingeniería de Alimentos para el Desarrollo (IIAD), Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
R. Aleixandre-Benavent
Affiliation:
UISYS, Joint Research Unit, Universitat de València-CSIC, Valencia, Spain Ingenio (CSIC-Universitat Politècnica de València), Valencia, Spain
*
Author for correspondence: J. L. Aleixandre, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A bibliometric analysis of research articles published on water-use efficiency was performed using the Web of Science database and evaluated. Journal titles, publication years, subject categories, keywords and countries publishing were obtained. A number of 2077 papers were retrieved, two-thirds of them published in the last decade. The articles were published in 439 journals, with Agricultural Water Management, Agronomy Journal, Crop Science, Field Crops Research and Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences the most productive. Most of the leading productive journals have Impact Factors in the top quartiles of the Journal Citation Reports. Agronomy, Plant Sciences, Water Resources and Agriculture Multidisciplinary were the most common journal subject categories, indicating a wide diversity of research fields ascribed to this topic. The predominant key words and phrases used were growth, ‘carbon isotope discrimination’, yield, photosynthesis, ‘gas exchange’, evapotranspiration and ‘stomatal conductance’. The productivity ranking for countries was headed by China (456 papers), followed by the USA (410), Australia (176) and India (165). A content analysis of the papers made identification of the key issues of greatest scientific concern possible, as well as their evolution over time. The most cited papers relate to physiological aspects, but also important studies on experimental biology, drought resistance, effects of climate, crop production and ecology, among others.

Keywords

Bibliometricsscientific journalsscientific researchwater-use efficiency
Type
Crops and Soils Research Paper
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 157 , Issue 6 , August 2019 , pp. 480 - 492
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adrian, R, O´Reilly, CM, Zagarese, H, Baines, SB, Hessen, DO, Keller, W, Livingtone, DM, Sommaruga, R, Straile, D, van Donk, EV, Weyhenmeyer, GA and Winder, M (2009) Lakes as sentinels of climate change. Limnology and Oceanography 54, 2283–2297.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Al-Jawad, JY, Alsaffar, HM, Bertram, D and Kalin, RM (2019) A comprehensive optimum integrated water resources management approach for multidisciplinary water resources management problems. Journal of Environmental Management 239, 211–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Aleixandre-Benavent, R, Aleixandre-Tudó, JL, Castelló Cogollos, L and Aleixandre, JL (2017) Trends in scientific research on climate change in agriculture and forestry subject areas (2005–2014). Journal of Cleaner Production 147, 406–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aleixandre-Benavent, R, Aleixandre-Tudó, JL, Castelló Cogollos, L and Aleixandre, JL (2018) Trends in global research in deforestation. A bibliometric analysis. Land Use Policy 72, 293–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allan, C, Xia, J and Pahl-Wostl, C (2013) Climate change and water security: challenges for adaptive water management. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5, 625–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alperovits, E and Shamir, U (1977) Design of optimal water distribution systems. Water Resources Research 13, 885–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreu, J, Capilla, J and Sanchis, E (1996) Aquatool, a generalized decision-support system for water-resources planning and operational management. Journal of Hydrology 177, 269–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batagelj, V and Mrvar, AP (2002) Pajek – analysis and visualization of large networks. In Mutzel, P, Jünger, M and Leipert, S (eds), Graph Drawing: 9th International Symposium, GD 2001 Vienna, Austria, September 23–26, 2001 Revised Papers. Notes in Computer Science, vol. 2265. Berlin, Germany: Springer, pp. 477–478.Google Scholar
Berg, M, Tran, HC, Nguyen, TC, Pham, HV, Schertenleib, R and Giger, W (2001) Arsenic contamination of groundwater and drinking water in Vietnam: a human health threat. Environmental Science and Technology 35, 2621–2626.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bhojwani, S, Topolski, K, Mukherjee, R, Sengupta, D and El-Halwagi, MM (2019) Technology review and data analysis for cost assessment of water treatment systems. Science of the Total Environment 651, 2749–2761.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bjurström, A and Polk, M (2011) Physical and economic bias in climate change research: a scientometric study of IPCC Third Assessment Report. Climatic Change 108, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolisetty, S, Peydayesh, M and Mezzenga, R (2019) Sustainable technologies for water purification from heavy metals: review and analysis. Chemical Society Reviews 48, 463–487.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brönmark, CH and Hansson, LA (2002) Environmental issues in lakes and ponds: current state and perspectives. Environmental Conservation 29, 290–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carvalho, L, McDonald, C, de Hoyos, C, Mischke, U, Phillips, G, Borics, G, Poikane, S, Skjelbred, B, Solheim, AL, Wichelen, JV and Cardoso, AC (2013) Sustaining recreational quality of European lakes: minimizing the health risks from algal blooms through phosphorus control. Journal of Applied Ecology 50, 315–323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, ZS, Wang, HM and Qi, XT (2013 a) Pricing and water resource allocation scheme for the South to-North Water Diversion Project in China. Water Resources Management 27, 1457–1472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, D, Webber, M, Finlayson, B, Barnett, J, Chen, ZY and Wang, M (2013 b) The impact of water transfers from the lower Yangtze River on water security in Shanghai. Applied Geography 45, 303–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunha, MD and Sousa, J (1999) Water distribution network design optimization: simulated annealing approach. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 125, 215–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dörnhöfer, K and Oppelt, N (2016) Remote sensing for lake research and monitoring – recent advances. Ecological Indicators 64, 105–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dossantos, LMF and Livingston, AG (1995) Membrane-attached biofilms for VOC waste-water treatment. 1. Novel in-situ biofilm thickness measurement technique. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 47, 82–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudgeon, D, Arthington, AH, Gessner, MO, Kawabata, ZI, Knowler, DJ, Lévêque, C, Naiman, RJ, Prieur-Richard, AH, Soto, D, Stiassny, MLJ and Sullivan, CA (2006) Freshwater biodiversity: importance, threats, status and conservation challenges. Biological Reviews 81, 163–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fu, Z, Wang, MH and Ho, YS (2013) Mapping of drinking water research: a bibliometric analysis of research output during 1992–2011. Science of the Total Environment 443, 757–765.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gahr, F, Hermanutz, F and Opperman, W (1994) Ozonation: an important technique to comply with new German lows for textile waste-water treatment. Water Science and Technology 30, 255–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heberer, T (2002) Occurrence fate and removal of pharmaceutical residues in the aquatic environment: a review of recent research data. Toxicology Letters 131, 5–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howell, TA (2001) Enhancing water use efficiency in irrigated agriculture. Agronomy Journal 93, 281–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huai, C and Chai, L (2016) A bibliometric analysis on the performance and underlying dynamic patterns of water security research. Scientometrics 108, 1531–1551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahil, M, Albiac, J, Dinar, A, Calvo, E, Esteban, E, Avella, L and Garcia-Molla, M (2016) Improving the performance of water policies: evidence from drought in Spain. Water 8(34), 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolpin, DW, Furlong, ET, Meyer, MT, Thurman, EM, Zaugg, SD, Barber, LB and Buxton, HT (2002) Pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants in U.S. streams, 1999–2000: a national reconnaissance. Environmental Science and Technology 36, 1202–1211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Launiainen, S, Futter, MN, Ellison, D, Clarke, N, Finér, L, Högbom, L, Laurén, A and Ring, E (2014) Is the water footprint an appropriate tool for forestry and forest products: the Fennoscandian case. AMBIO 43, 244–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le Maitre, DC, Van Wilgen, BW, Chapman, RA and McKelly, DH (1996) Invasive plants and water resources in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: modelling the consequences of a lack of management. Journal of Applied Ecology 33, 161–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medrano Gil, H, Bota Salort, J, Cifre Llompart, J, Flexas Sans, J, Ribas-Carbó, M and Gulías León, J (2007) Eficiencia en el uso del agua por las plantas (efficiency in the use of water by plants). Investigaciones Geográficas 43, 63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middelkoop, H, Daamen, K, Gellens, D, Grabs, W, Kwadijk, JCJ, Lang, H, Parmet, BWAH, Schädler, B, Sculla, J and Wilke, K (2001) Impact of climate change on hydrological regimes and water resources management in the Rhine basin. Climatic Change 49, 105–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moghaddam, A, Raza, A, Vollmann, J, Ardakani, MRW, Gollner, G and Friedel, JK (2013) Carbon isotope discrimination and water use efficiency relationships of alfalfa genotypes under irrigated and rain-fed organic farming. European Journal of Agronomy 50, 82–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molle, F and Berkoff, J (2007) Water pricing in irrigation: mapping the debate in the experience. In Molle, F and Berkoff, J (eds), Irrigation Water Pricing: The Gap Between Theory and Practice. Wallingford, UK: CABI, pp. 21–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, DR and Goulter, IC (1985) Optimal urban water distribution design. Water Resources Research 21, 642–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, B (2012) Cogs in the endless machine: lakes, climate change and nutrient cycles: a review. Science of the Total Environment 434, 130–142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mrvar, A and Batagelj, B (2019) Programs for Analysis and Visualization of Very Large Networks. Reference Manual: List of Commands with Short Explanation, Version 5.07. Ljubljana, Slovenia: Mrvar.Google Scholar
Niu, BB, Loáiciga, HA, Wang, Z, Zhan, FB and Hong, S (2014) Twenty years of global groundwater research: a Science Citation Index Expanded-based bibliometric survey (1993–2012). Journal of Hydrology 519, 966–975.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oturan, MA (2000) An ecologically effective water treatment technique using electrochemically generated hydroxyl radicals for in situ destruction of organic pollutants: application to herbicide 2,4-D. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry 30, 475–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahmstorf, S (2002) Ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years. Nature 419, 207–214.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Resh, VH, Norris, RH and Barbour, MT (1995) Design and implementation of rapid assessment approaches for water resource monitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates. Australian Journal of Ecology 20, 108–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, DR, McCully, P and Pringle, CM (2000) Global-scale environmental effects of hydrological alterations: introduction. BioScience 50, 746–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawaya, KE, Olmanson, LG, Heinert, NJ, Brezonic, PL and Bauer, ME (2003) Extending satellite remote sensing to local scales: land and water resource monitoring using high-resolution imagery. Remote Sensing of Environment 88, 144–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staddon, C and James, N (2014) Water security: a genealogy of emerging discourses. In Schneier-Madanes, G (ed.), Globalized Water: A Question of Governance. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer Science + Business media, pp. 261–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stendera, S, Adrian, R, Bonada, N, Canedo-Arguelles, M, Hugueny, B, Januschle, K, Pletterbauer, F and Hering, D (2012) Drivers and stressors of freshwater biodiversity patterns across different ecosystems and scales: a review. Hydrobiologia 696, 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, X, Li, H, Desai, AR, Nagy, Z, Luo, J, Kolb, TE, Olioso, A, Xu, X, Yao, L, Kutsch, W, Pilegaard, K, Köstner, B and Ammann, C (2014) How is water-use efficiency of terrestrial ecosystems distributed and changing on Earth? Scientific Reports 4(7483), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07483.Google Scholar
United Nations Water (2018) Step-by-step Methodology for Monitoring Water Use Efficiency (6.4.1). New York, USA: the United Nations. Available at https://www.unwater.org/publications/step-step-methodology-monitoring-water-use-efficiency-6-4-1/ (Accessed 1 August 2019).Google Scholar
Vidyasagar, D (2007) Global minute: water and health – walking for water and water wars. Journal of Perinatology 27, 56–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vörösmarty, CL, McIntyre, PB, Gessner, MO, Dudgeon, D, Prusevich, A, Green, P, Glidden, S, Bunn, SE, Sullivan, CA, Reidy Liermann, C and Davies, PM (2010) Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity. Nature 467, 555–561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, MH, Yu, TC and Ho, YS (2010) A bibliometric analysis of the performance of water research. Scientometrics 84, 813–820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, MH, Li, J and Ho, YS (2011) Research articles published in water resources journals: a bibliometric analysis. Desalination and Water Treatment 28, 353–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, GS, Huang, JS, Li, J and Yin, W (2014) Study on green water management in a typical watershed in water resource area of the mid-route of south-to-north water transfer. Advanced Materials Research 864–867, 2240–2248.Google Scholar
Zare, F, Elsawah, S, Iwanaga, T, Jakeman, AJ and Pierce, SA (2017) Integrated water assessment and modelling: a bibliometric analysis of trends in the water resource sector. Journal of Hydrology 552, 765–778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, L, Li, SS, Loáiciga, HA, Zhuang, YH and Du, Y (2015) Opportunities and challenges of interbasin water transfers: a literature review with bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 105, 279–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Y, Zhang, Y, Shi, K and Yao, X (2017 a) Research development, current hotspots, and future directions of water research based on MODIS images: a critical review with a bibliometric analysis. Environmental Science Pollution Research 24, 15226–15239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, Y, Huang, K, Yu, YJ and Yang, BB (2017 b) Mapping of water footprint research: a bibliometric analysis during 2006–2015. Journal of Cleaner Production 149, 70–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhi, W, Yuan, L, Ji, G, Liu, Y, Cai, Z and Chen, X (2015) A bibliometric review on carbon cycling research during 1993–2013. Environmental Earth Sciences 74, 6065–6075.CrossRefGoogle Scholar