Groundwater in the commonwealth of independent states: A bibliometric analysis of scopus-based papers from 1972 to 2023, emphasizing the significance of drainage

Abstract

Groundwater is increasingly recognized as a vital natural resource for industrial and residential water supply, as well as for irrigated agriculture. Research on groundwater quality in agricultural areas has become particularly relevant in this field. It is a crucial source of irrigation water in many arid and agricultural regions, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. This paper presents a comprehensive review to understand the research trends in this area. We aim to analyze the scientific output and publications addressing groundwater in CIS countries from 1972 to 2023. For this purpose, we collected, reviewed, and analyzed 1998 publications that met our selection criteria in the Scopus database during this period. Our bibliometric analysis revealed that all articles were published in English, with the highest number of publications originating from the Russian Federation, followed by Kazakhstan, the United States of America, China, Germany, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Japan. Notably, our study shows that the majority of papers were research articles (95.69%), followed by review papers (2%), while only 2.31% were other document types such as conference proceedings, editorials, errata, notes, short surveys, and retracted papers. The analysis underscores the need for international research on groundwater to broaden scientific discourse on this topic. Additionally, it highlights the importance of long-term, continuous research and the sustainable development of groundwater concepts for the integration of future agriculture and groundwater management. This study may pave the way for new trends in agricultural development, focusing on irrigation efficiency, wastewater reuse, mining, treatment, and the impact of climate change within a sustainable, circular economy framework.