Disaster Risk, Climate Change, and Urbanization as Research Topics in Western Asia—A Bibliometric Literature Analysis

Abstract

Scientifically analyzing and documenting climate change and related disaster risks is demanded by international organizations such as the United Nations. However, global or national studies predominate, and cross-regional overviews are lacking, especially for Western Asia. In four countries in the region, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, transport accidents, floods, fires, and earthquakes are the predominant accidents and disasters in the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT). The result is different when analyzing the scientific publications via a bibliometric literature analysis using VOS viewer and the Web of Science, and earthquakes, climate change, COVID-19, and terrorism dominate here. Governance and management are also an important and recurring cluster topic. The conceptual components of vulnerability and resilience are discussed in most countries. The hazards are often associated with specific concepts and quantitative methods. GIS and remote sensing as specific methodologies also often appear in a cluster. Further clusters derived from the keyword search include floods and droughts, food security and agriculture, and posttraumatic stress and psychological aspects. The results help us to identify countries with a rich literature on certain hazards and gaps in relation to other types of disasters, which are more prevalent. The findings can help scientists and policymakers to support future studies based on either high or low research coverage.