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Opportunities and challenges of interbasin water transfers: a literature review with bibliometric analysis

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Abstract

Interbasin water transfers and diversions are among the most controversial water-resources-planning topics worldwide. They provide supply alternatives to receiving basins and potential challenges to the donor basins within a context of changing global water problems. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global interbasin water transfer research between 1900 and 2014. The bibliometric analysis analyzes general characteristics of publications, the national, institutional, and personal research outputs, participating regions and their research activity, and global trends and hot issues in the field of water transfers. Our results show that the rate of annual publication of interbasin water transfer research grew steadily after 1972 and is rising quickly at present. The United States produced the largest number of single-country publications (37.4 %) and international collaborative publications (46.6 %). However, China had a high growth rate of publications after 2001, and surpassed the United States and ranked 1st in 2012, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences playing a leading role in the emergence of China’s research output. The global geographic distribution of publication activity shows that an increasing number of countries, agencies, and scholars have become part of the research enterprise. There is ample opportunity for cooperation between them to be strengthened in the future. The results of keyword evolution generally indicate that the research on interbasin water transfers expanded from 1991 through 2014. The hydrological and eco-environmental impacts of the South-to-North Water Transfer/Diversion Project in China and the corresponding long-term monitoring and conservation strategy have become one of the top topics of attention.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41471433), the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (Grant 2012BAC06B03), and the China Scholarship Council.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Environment and Disaster Monitoring and Evaluation of Hubei, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430077, China

    Liang Zhang, Sisi Li, Yanhua Zhuang & Yun Du

  2. Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Hugo A. Loáiciga

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  1. Liang Zhang
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Zhang, L., Li, S., Loáiciga, H.A. et al. Opportunities and challenges of interbasin water transfers: a literature review with bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 105, 279–294 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1656-9

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