Bibliometric Network Analysis of “Water Systems’ Adaptation to Climate Change Uncertainties”: Concepts, Approaches, Gaps, and Opportunities

In response to the impact of climate change and to the uncertainties associated with the various dimensions of hydrologic variability, water systems’ adaptation has risen to the top of global agendas. In accordance, identifying the additional science needed to improve our understanding of climate change and its impacts, including the scientific advances needed to improve the effectiveness of actions taken to adapt water systems, is of the utmost importance. To this aim, this research draws on a systematic bibliometric study of data, generated from the Web of Science research engine between 1990 and 2019, combined with a statistical analysis, to explore academic publication trends, and identify the strategic gaps and opportunities in global scientific research. The analysis shows the consistent level of national and international collaboration among authors, institutions, and countries, and highlights the substantial contribution of the USA and the UK to this research field. The statistical examination shows that the adaptation-informed literature on water systems remains fragmented, and predominantly centred on the framing of water resource planning and management, in addition to water engineering and infrastructure. The analysis also revealed a relatively skewed understanding of various important dimensions, such as governance, integrated water resources management, and stakeholder engagement, which are crucial for planning and implementing an efficient adaptation process. Observations reflect on the need to build water-related adaptive approaches based on a thorough understanding of potential climate uncertainties, rather than to generically address all the uncertainties in one scenario analysis. These approaches are required to combine short and longterm actions rather than considering only current and short-term measures, and to similarly associate policy and engineering, and equally consider the robustness, flexibility, reliability, and vulnerability during the planning phase.