Systematic review of flood and drought literature based on science mapping and content analysis

Abstract

The severity and frequency of flood and drought events have increased in recent decades. These climate change-induced and anthropogenic stressors on water resources represent the leading water-related hazards to communities. Further, the increasing exposure of the population and infrastructure to such events has heightened the risks. Assessing the impact scope of these events in different subfields towards comprehensively evaluating the risks requires an unbiased systematic approach. This paper combines content analysis and science mapping to investigate the existing multidisciplinary body of knowledge on analyzing flood and drought together. Searching the literature using selected search terms yielded a sample of 119 publications. Initially, various contents, such as the authors’ keywords, applied methods and indices, and study scale, were extracted from these articles. These contents were then incorporated into the science mapping technique to form communicative networks. Analyzing these publications revealed 13 major research themes, with a sustained focus on hydrological issues. However, a more diverse range of themes was recently revealed, including economy, sociology, insurance, and policymaking. Producing such computational and visual networks explained informative insights that can help further develop both existing and new frameworks to support the management, design and policymaking sectors in responding to both flood and drought events.