Analysis on the Knowledge Evolution Path of Public Acceptance of Reclaimed Water Research

Abstract

Reclaimed water is an important component of available water resources, and public acceptance of reclaimed water is a key factor influencing the implementation of reclaimed water reuse projects. For this reason, it has received attention from different scholars in the international community. Based on the literature data on public acceptance of reclaimed water, this study analyzes the development status of research results and explores the knowledge evolution path with the help of bibliometric methods. Our results show that the field of research on public acceptance of reclaimed water began to grow rapidly after 1990, and identify influential countries, institutions, authors, and journals in the field. In addition, “water quality”, “public health”, and “irrigation” are themes that run throughout the research, and “sustainable development” and “potable reuse” are the emerging research hotspots. As research progresses, the scope of research on reclaimed water reuse and its influencing factors continues to expand, and reclaimed water management policies and standards continue to improve. In the future, in order to improve public acceptance, finding how to improve the public’s risk perception and trust in reclaimed water will become a central research focus.