Knowledge Mapping of Water Governance: Introduction of a New Approach for Managing Agricultural Research

Although publications of water governance reports have rapidly been increasing recently, no researches utilized knowledge and word co-occurrence mapping as a novel methodology. The Knowledge map reveals major scientific nodes and trends of the study area with its strengths and weaknesses; so it was conducted through focusing on the topic of water governance as a new area of knowledge. After extracting and processing documents, retrieved by searching water AND governance, and indexed in the Scopus site- as the most comprehensive indexing site- the data were analyzed using the VOSwiever-1.6.9 software including network, overlay and density visualizations. Out of over 7000 documents and 14000 authors who published on the subject matter up to 2019, the US, the Netherlands and Australia were found to have published the highest number of the documents. Meanwhile, China and India ranked to the end of the ten-nation list. Not only Claudia Pahl-Wostl and Joyeeta Gupta received the most citations; but also their clusters showed to have the highest density scores as well. The word co-occurrence network revealed the following five research clusters: collective action, adaptation, groundwater, experience; capacity, agriculture, climate, drought, and resilience; evidence, participation, integrated management, technology, and implementation; human rights, energy, sanitation, solutions, and environment; and conflicts, collaboration, evaluation, politics, and power. Knowledge mapping is recommended for offering a holistic insight regarding the subject matter under study to future agricultural extension education researchers.