Scoping Review (SR) via Text Data Mining on Water Scarcity and Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change is causing the risk of weather events and instable water accessibility, making water insufficiency a serious problem. According to the 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 70% of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods have been water-related in the last 15 years. Since the climate change processes are speeding up, this percentage is expected to increase. A plethora of researchers have been working on the correlation between water scarcity and climate change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the published research dealing with water scarcity and climate. Therefore, the study carries out a scoping review (SR) via text data mining and reveals the related topics. Two kinds of analysis were carried out using IRaMuTeQ software: descriptive analysis (TTR, Giraud index, Herdan index and Zipf’s curve) and cluster analysis (Reinert’s method). The results show that the topic of water scarcity refers to the direct and indirect economic impacts on its availability for irrigation, the willingness to pay more for an irrigation water supply and the role of public institutions in “achieving sustainable development goals”. The conclusion of the paper highlights the role of this analysis for developing future research and identifies implications for theory, practice and policy in order to overcome the current global challenges related to water scarcity and climate change.