Bibliometrics-based Research Hotspots and Development Trends in Eco-hydrology of Dammed Rivers

Abstract

Water conservation initiatives satisfy the demand for water supply, electricity generation, irrigation, and flood control. While helping humanity, they have also altered the ecosystem of natural rivers, impacted river ecology, disrupted river continuity, and jeopardized the existence of aquatic creatures in rivers. Studying the impacts of dam construction on rivers can enhance our knowledge of river ecological and environmental concerns and help sustain the health of river ecosystems, thereby realizing the harmony between humans and water in both theoretical and practical aspects. This study used bibliometrics and constructed an author-keyword 2-mode matrix network using Co-Occurrence software to identify the hotspots and research trend in eco-hydrology of dammed rivers. We identified ‘FLOW’ ‘SEDIMENT’ ‘QUALITY’ and ‘MODEL’ as the research hotspots in the ecological impact of dammed rivers, and combined the related literatures, we highlight the research progress in the four directions. Then the research shortcomings and prospect were discussed, including strengthening the monitoring and analysis of critical ecological variables, enhancing the hydrological monitoring density for small rivers, strengthening the research of relationship between eutrophication and zooplankton, establishing multiscale approaches, and combining multi-sources information technologies to improve parameter accuracy in the model research.