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Topic · Water Science and Technology

Water Resources and Sustainability

Water Resources and Sustainability is a research topic within Water Science and Technology. Science Explorer counts 6.1k research works in it since 1964. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the development and application of the Water Poverty Index, carrying capacity assessment, water resources sustainability, urban development, ecological environment evaluation, and system dynamics modeling. The research covers a wide range of topics related to water poverty, resource management, and sustainability assessment at regional and urban scales.

  • Water Poverty Index
  • Carrying Capacity
  • Water Resources
  • Sustainability Assessment
  • Urban Development
  • Ecological Environment
  • System Dynamics Model
  • Regional Assessment
  • Resource Management
  • Environmental Capacity
Research works
6.1k
fractional, since 1964
In the world top 10%
602
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+44%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
81% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Water Resources and Sustainability

Which countries lead Water Resources and Sustainability research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.2k and 46 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.2k works
  2. 2 United States 46 works
  3. 3 Vietnam 45 works
  4. 4 India 44 works
  5. 5 Indonesia 43 works
  6. 6 Iran 24 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 20 works
  8. 8 Brazil 16 works
  9. 9 Japan 14 works
  10. 10 Canada 13 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.

China: 81.4%United States: 3.2%Vietnam: 3.1%India: 3.1%6 others listed: 9.1%81%largest
China1,164 · 81.4%United States46 · 3.2%Vietnam45 · 3.1%India44 · 3.1%6 others listed130 · 9.1%

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

Which institutions lead Water Resources and Sustainability research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Water Resources and Sustainability research, followed by Hohai University and Beijing Normal University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 73 works
  2. 2 Hohai UniversityChina 38 works
  3. 3 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 30 works
  4. 4 Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of ChinaChina 24 works
  5. 5 China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower ResearchChina 20 works
  6. 6 North China University of Water Resources and Electric PowerChina 19 works
  7. 7 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 16 works
  8. 8 Ministry of Natural ResourcesChina 13 works
  9. 9 Zhengzhou UniversityChina 13 works
  10. 10 Wuhan UniversityChina 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in Water Resources and Sustainability?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Water Resources and Sustainability include Guangming Zeng, Robert Costanza and Yong‐Guan Zhu.

  1. 1 Guangming Zeng China 204k citations
  2. 2 Robert Costanza Australia 107k citations
  3. 3 Yong‐Guan Zhu China 107k 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 Water Resources and Sustainability?

The most cited paper in Water Resources and Sustainability is "Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out" (William E. Rees, 1992), with 2,414 citations. Next come "Water footprints of nations: Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern" (1,471) and "Water scarcity: Fact or fiction?" (1,349).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out William E. Rees · Environment and Urbanization Oct 1992 2,414
2 Water footprints of nations: Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Ashok Kumar Chapagain · Water Resources Management 26 Jun 2006 1,471
3 Water scarcity: Fact or fiction? Frank Rijsberman · Agricultural Water Management 9 Aug 2005 1,349
4 Water scarcity assessments in the past, present, and future Junguo Liu, Hong Yang, Simon Newland Gosling et al. · Earth s Future Open access 22 Mar 2017 1,156
5 Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment Kenneth Joseph Arrow, Bert Bolin, Robert Costanza et al. · Ecological Economics Open access Nov 1995 861
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Water Resources and Sustainability research done?

The largest centres of Water Resources and Sustainability research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Zhengzhou (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Zhengzhou, Guiyang and Lanzhou.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 282 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 79 works
  3. 3 ZhengzhouChina 58 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 50 works
  5. 5 Xi'anChina 45 works
  6. 6 LanzhouChina 32 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 29 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 29 works
  9. 9 ShanghaiChina 27 works
  10. 10 GuiyangChina 23 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ZhengzhouCN · 57.6 works13×
  2. GuiyangCN · 23.2 works11×
  3. LanzhouCN · 31.6 works9.6×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Water Resources and Sustainability than the world average.

See Water Resources and Sustainability on the map

Where is the best place to study Water Resources and Sustainability?

Among universities, judged by research, Beijing Normal University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Northeast Agricultural University 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 15.65%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northeast Agricultur…Beijing Normal Unive…University of Chines…Hohai University
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
1Beijing Normal UniversityChina 90.920.3%27.6×30 +1.8%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 58.318.2%7.2×16 +2.8%
3Northeast Agricultural UniversityChina 54.422.4%24.7×9 +247.6%
4Hohai UniversityChina 50.912.8%47.1×38 -5.5%
5China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 49.618.4%7.8×8 +28.7%
6North China University of Water Resources and Electric PowerChina 42.614.4%94.2×19 +166.0%
7Zhengzhou UniversityChina 34.613.9%7.7×13 +44.3%
8China University of GeosciencesChina 33.110.3%16.2×10 +51.7%
9Wuhan UniversityChina 31.414.4%5.5×11 +70.1%
10Xi'an University of TechnologyChina 13.011.4%20.8×9 -19.2%

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 Water Resources and Sustainability, country by country

Is Water Resources and Sustainability research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 44% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011. The fastest-growing topics are Water Resources and Sustainability.

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 Water Resources and Sustainability as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0053% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Water Resources and Sustainability0.0068% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Water Resources and Sustainability 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%Water Resources and Sustainability10.3% in 202520102020

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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