Exploring the Link between Climate Change and Flood Risk: A Bibliometric Perspective

Abstract

Extreme weather changes had a significant negative impact on various aspect of ecosystems,  human life, ecology and the environment as a whole. Nowadys, climate change, rising water levels, floods, and landslides following heavy precipitation have occurred with increasing frequency in many countries. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of the academic literature exploring about relationship between climate change and floods. Publications from 1994 to 2024 were examined to identify prolific authors, influential institutions, collaboration networks, core research themes, and in total 2583 studies were found and analysis was performed using the Biblioshiny tool (R Studio 4.1) by taking into account the first 1000 most cited studies. The findings indicate a significant increase in research activity, particularly after 2015. Wuhan, Hohai, and Delft Technology University emerged as the most productive institutions. Xu Chong-Yu, Wasko Conrad, and Goodall Jonathan were identified as leading authors. Thematic analysis reveals that topics such as "climate change", "flood", and "flooding" form the core of the research, while emerging themes include "urban flooding", "flood risk management", and "precipitation". The most cited publications focus on climate-induced flood risk modeling and management strategies. Overall, highlights of this study are growing prominence of climate change impacts on flood research and emphasizes the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration and advanced analytical methods in this field. This research helps to determine research trends, most influential studies, authors and collaborations by providing a quantitative evaluation of scientific publications about studied subject. Thus, it is expected that this study will contribute to strategic planning and scientific decision-making processes in the fields of climate change, water management, floods and similar areas. This study also helps to track trends in climate change and floods, identifying which topics are gaining or losing popularity. So, researchers and institutions can use water resources more efficiently, do more informed strategic plans for water management, and increase their scientific productivity.