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REVIEW PAPER
A Review of Current Research of Water Footprints
and Recommendations for Future Directions
1
School of Economics and Management, Hubei University of Technology, China
2
Research Center of Hubei Rural Social Management Innovation, China
3
Hubei Industrial Research Institute, China
4
School of Management, Wuhan Textile University, China
5
College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, China
Submission date: 2024-10-16
Final revision date: 2025-01-05
Acceptance date: 2025-02-09
Online publication date: 2025-03-18
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
This study aims to outline the global performance and evaluate the current research hot spots
and future trends in the water footprint. 1140 records between 2006-2023 retrieved from the Web of
Science’s core database were analyzed. The performance of publications, categories, countries, institutes,
research hot spots, and trends is analyzed using CiteSpace and VOSviewer tools. The research on water
footprint is mainly in the fields of virtual water, water use efficiency, water scarcity, water pollution, etc.
China, the USA, Iran, and New Zealand get higher rankings in paper output, and the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Northwest A&F University, and the University of Twente
achieve a high ranking in this field. In addition, further studies in research frontiers have revealed
that climate change, sustainable agriculture, and water conservation will become popular directions
and trends in water footprint research. The article provides a visual overview of the current status
of global water footprint research and predicts future research trends. While enriching the literature
in this field, it also helps scholars to pay attention to the latest developments in water footprint.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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