Water Utilities Challenges: A Bibliometric Analysis

Andrés Ortega-Ballesteros, Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro and Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno
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Andrés Ortega-Ballesteros: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Radiología y Medicina Física, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus Universitario de Rabanales, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro: Department of Engineering, CEIA3, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain
Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno: Departamento de Física Aplicada, Radiología y Medicina Física, Universidad de Córdoba, Campus Universitario de Rabanales, 14071 Córdoba, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-21

Abstract: The water utilities are under big pressure to guarantee water access to their customers with the right level of service and quality due to challenges such as climate change, aging infrastructure, water scarcity, and growing populations, which put pressure on their operations. The scientific community has worked intensively over the last years to propose solutions and alternatives for the utilities to improve their operation and management in order to overcome these challenges. This paper aims to review scientific contributions to this field. The result shows increasing awareness from the scientific community in this topic which translates into a growing number of publications since the beginning of the current century. This paper analyzes the evolution of the publications, identifies the main countries and institutions working in this field and their scientific relationships over time. It also identifies the main keywords in the literature, which are grouped into three main topics: water quality, water management, and water optimization. The development of smart technologies is accelerating the scientific production towards the topic of water optimization, which is acquiring more importance over the last years. Future trends of research are related to identifying specific challenges per country and the specific solutions proposed by the scientific community to address them and its feasibility to be applied in other places.

Keywords: urban water; water distribution network; water utility challenges; sustainability; bibliometric (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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