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Topic · Water Science and Technology

Geography and Environmental Studies

Geography and Environmental Studies is a research topic within Water Science and Technology. Science Explorer counts 25k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the management and conservation of water resources, including topics such as hydrographic basins, environmental conservation, geospatial analysis, climatology, land use planning, erosion control, geoinformatics, sustainable development, remote sensing, and biodiversity preservation.

  • Hydrographic Basins
  • Environmental Conservation
  • Geospatial Analysis
  • Climatology
  • Land Use Planning
  • Erosion Control
  • Geoinformatics
  • Sustainable Development
  • Remote Sensing
  • Biodiversity Preservation
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-20%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Brazil
90% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Geography and Environmental Studies

Which countries lead Geography and Environmental Studies research?

By volume, Brazil and the United States publish the most (4.5k and 169 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Brazil 4.5k works
  2. 2 United States 169 works
  3. 3 Portugal 104 works
  4. 4 Spain 74 works
  5. 5 France 38 works
  6. 6 ?? 30 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 30 works
  8. 8 Mexico 21 works
  9. 9 Argentina 17 works
  10. 10 Colombia 17 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Brazil: 90.0%United States: 3.4%Portugal: 2.1%Spain: 1.5%6 others listed: 3.1%90%largest
Brazil4,490 · 90.0%United States169 · 3.4%Portugal104 · 2.1%Spain74 · 1.5%6 others listed155 · 3.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Geography and Environmental Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco publishes the most Geography and Environmental Studies research, followed by Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) and Universidade Federal do Pará.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Universidade Federal de PernambucoBrazil 132 works
  2. 2 Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)Brazil 125 works
  3. 3 Universidade Federal do ParáBrazil 93 works
  4. 4 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulBrazil 91 works
  5. 5 Universidade Federal de Minas GeraisBrazil 83 works
  6. 6 Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroBrazil 81 works
  7. 7 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 79 works
  8. 8 Universidade Federal do CearáBrazil 77 works
  9. 9 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do NorteBrazil 74 works
  10. 10 Universidade Federal da ParaíbaBrazil 74 works

Who are the leading researchers in Geography and Environmental Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Geography and Environmental Studies include Philippe Ciais, Meinrat Otto Andreae and Yadvinder Singh Malhi.

  1. 1 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  2. 2 Meinrat Otto Andreae Germany 105k citations
  3. 3 Yadvinder Singh Malhi United Kingdom 90k citations
  4. 4 Hai Cheng China 81k citations
  5. 5 Ranga B. Myneni United States 80k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Geography and Environmental Studies?

The most cited paper in Geography and Environmental Studies is "Brazilian structural provinces: An introduction" (Fernando Flávio Marques de Almeida, Yociteru Hasui, Benjamim Bley de Brito Neves et al., 1981), with 1,382 citations. Next come "The drought of 2010 in the context of historical droughts in the Amazon region" (755) and "Land cover mapping of the tropical savanna region in Brazil" (619).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Brazilian structural provinces: An introduction Fernando Flávio Marques de Almeida, Yociteru Hasui, Benjamim Bley de Brito Neves et al. · Earth-Science Reviews Apr 1981 1,382
2 The drought of 2010 in the context of historical droughts in the Amazon region José Antonio Marengo, Javier Tomasella, Lincoln Muniz Alves et al. · Geophysical Research Letters Open access Jun 2011 755
3 Land cover mapping of the tropical savanna region in Brazil Edson Eyji Sano, Roberto Rosa, Jorge Luís Silva Brito et al. · Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 5 Jun 2009 619
4 Uso da análise de séries temporais em estudos epidemiológicos José Leopoldo Ferreira Antunes, Maria Regina Alves Cardoso · Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde Open access Sep 2015 618
5 Spatial patterns and fire response of recent Amazonian droughts Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Yadvinder Singh Malhi, Rosa María Román-Cuesta et al. · Geophysical Research Letters Open access Apr 2007 576
All 101 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Geography and Environmental Studies research done?

The largest centres of Geography and Environmental Studies research in 2022-now are São Paulo (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Recife (Brazil) and Belém (Brazil). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Sobral, Cáceres and Mossoró.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 São PauloBrazil 428 works
  2. 2 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 288 works
  3. 3 RecifeBrazil 234 works
  4. 4 BelémBrazil 173 works
  5. 5 BrasíliaBrazil 166 works
  6. 6 Belo HorizonteBrazil 158 works
  7. 7 FortalezaBrazil 150 works
  8. 8 ManausBrazil 129 works
  9. 9 CuritibaBrazil 112 works
  10. 10 Porto AlegreBrazil 105 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SobralBR · 32.0 works190×
  2. CáceresBR · 37.3 works85×
  3. MossoróBR · 59.5 works82×
  4. DiamantinaBR · 36.0 works80×
  5. ItajubáBR · 31.0 works74×
  6. Boa VistaBR · 22.2 works72×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Geography and Environmental Studies than the world average.

See Geography and Environmental Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Geography and Environmental Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas and Universidade Federal de Rondônia score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 13.74%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Universidade Federal…Universidade Federal…Universidade Federal…Universidade Federal…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Universidade Federal do Sul da BahiaBrazil 66.922.4%128.8×19 +40.9%
2Universidade Federal do AmazonasBrazil 65.911.5%72.4×69 +28.3%
3Universidade Federal de RondôniaBrazil 64.023.6%85.5×35 -6.4%
4Universidade Federal de PernambucoBrazil 63.112.0%60.2×132 -13.1%
5Universidade de São PauloBrazil 61.013.9%8.8×79 -23.9%
6Universidade de BrasíliaBrazil 60.97.3%29.3×74 +27.3%
7Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroBrazil 60.411.1%24.0×81 -0.9%
8Universidade Federal do ParáBrazil 60.011.8%53.6×94 -26.6%
9Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulBrazil 59.912.6%26.4×91 -12.9%
10Universidade Federal de Minas GeraisBrazil 59.911.2%25.4×82 -9.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Geography and Environmental Studies, country by country

Is Geography and Environmental Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 20% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2017.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Geography and Environmental Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.024% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Geography and Environmental Studies0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Geography and Environmental Studies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Geography and Environmental Studies9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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