Abstract
Intermittent water supply systems (IWSSs) are prevalent in most developing countries and some developed ones. Their usage is driven by necessity rather than as a principal objective, mostly due to technical and economic deficiencies. Major health risks and socio-economic inequities are associated with such systems. Their impacts are aggravated by climate changes and the COVID-19 crisis. These are likely to have profound implications on progress toward advancing sustainable development goals (SDGs). Motivated by providing a comprehensive overview of global knowledge on IWSSs, the present work proposed to track and analyze research works on IWSSs utilizing bibliometric techniques and visual mapping tools. This includes investigating the trends and growth trajectories of research works on IWSSs and analyzing the various approaches proposed to expand our understanding with respect to the management, modeling, optimization, and impacts of IWSSs. The national and international contributions and collaboration figures are further analyzed at country, institution, author, and source levels. This analysis indicates that research works conducted on IWSSs have certain expectations in terms of productivity (total global productivity; 197 documents). The United States was the best country in terms of productivity (58 documents; 29.4%), while the Water Switzerland journal was the most productive journal (19 documents; 9.6%). The impacts of IWSSs on health and well-being have attracted considerable attention. The outcomes showed deep and justified worries in relation to the transition from intermittent to continuous supply, equity, and mitigating the health risks associated with IWSSs in the foreseen future. The utilization of artificial intelligence techniques and expert systems will drive and shape future IWSS-related research activities. Therefore, investments in this regard are crucial.
Highlights
Intermittent water supply systems (IWSSs) are water systems providing water services to their customers for less than 24 h a day or less than a few days a week [1,2]
The overall research works retrieved from the Scopus database and related to IWSSs comprised 197 documents published in a timeframe of about 147 years (1875–2021)
The oldest article that addressed an issue in relation to IWSSs, a health issue, was published in the British Medical Journal and entitled “The fever at Croydon; and intermittent water-supply as a cause of typhoid” [78]
Summary
Intermittent water supply systems (IWSSs) are water systems providing water services to their customers for less than 24 h a day or less than a few days a week [1,2] Such an operation model is counterproductive to the goals of water supply networks which ought to assure a water service providing their customers with sufficient quantities of water at a good quality, as in the case of continuous water supply systems. As an optimal operating system, the inputs to the networks and the hydraulic capacity in a continuous water supply system are enough to satisfy the needs of customers [4]. Continuous water supply services are prevalent in developed and wealthy countries, where customers are able to acquire their water demands at a full pressure 24 h/day, 7 days/week.
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