Mapping of water footprint research: A bibliometric analysis during 2006-2015

A bibliometric analysis of the research in the field of Water Footprint (WF) during 2006-2015 was presented with the information related to countries, institutions, journals, categories, top cited publications, keywords, hot issues and research trends. Researches on WF have increased sharply over the past decade. The United States (24.1%), China (19.2%) and Netherlands (16.0%) had high productivity in total publications. Based on co-word and social network analysis (SNA), the USA-China has been most closely correlated in the cooperative web system. University of Twente took the leading position of institutions in total articles and also conducted the most independent, collaborative, first authored, and corresponding authored articles. Journal of Cleaner Production, Environmental Science & Technology and Ecological Indicators are the top three journals with the most publications in this field. A summary of the most frequently used keywords obtained from title, author keywords and keywords plus analysis provided the clues to discover the current research emphases. The mainstream research related to WF was its accounting methodologies and application in water resource management. Water-food-energy nexus, driving mechanism of WF variation, environmental impact of water use and integration of footprint indicators strongly promoted the development of WF research and are getting popular in recent years. Findings provide a better understanding of characteristics of WF research which serves as a useful reference for future studies.