Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Exploring the spatial-temporal variations and policy-based driving force behind groundwater contamination and remediation research in past decades

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Groundwater has been recognized as one of the most critical and vulnerable natural sources which is utilized in potable water supply, agricultural irrigation, and industrial manufacture worldwide. In past decades, groundwater issues have drawn more and more attention and enable groundwater contamination and remediation research achieve dramatic development. This study depicted the spatial-temporal evolution of groundwater contamination and remediation research by evaluating related literatures published from 1989 to 2017 based on databases of Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Sci, and Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Science and Humanities with Bibliometric Analysis and explored the policy-based driving force with laws and regulations collected from United States Code (U.S. Code) system and Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) system behind those variations. The results demonstrated a rapid growth of groundwater contamination and remediation–related publications, and the USA identified as the leading country in terms of contributing the largest number of articles and possessing the greatest influence. From the temporal view, scholars from different countries have made in-depth studies in the fields of groundwater, pollutants and groundwater quality, remediation materials, and remediation approaches. The spatial analysis demonstrated America and Asia are the two continents that have published the most articles. In the past decades, the evolutionary progress of groundwater research is demonstrated that the hot spots are developed from groundwater contamination and remediation to more specific researches. Simultaneously, laws and regulations about groundwater are developed as well and to some extent, those laws and regulations boost the development of groundwater contamination and remediation research publications. These findings, as important references, could be utilized to depict the evolutionary progress of groundwater contamination and remediation research and explore the directions and trends of this specific research field in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study about publications are available in the Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science (CPCI-S), and Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Social Science and Humanities (CPCI-SSH) repositories.

References

  • Aeschbachhertig W, Gleeson T (2012) Regional strategies for the accelerating global problem of groundwater depletion. Nat Geosci 5(12):853–861

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Albort-Morant G, Ribeiro-Soriano D (2016) A Bibliometric Analysis of international impact of business incubators. J Bus Res 69(5):1775–1779

    Google Scholar 

  • Andris C (2016) Integrating social network data into GISystems. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 30(10):2009–2031

    Google Scholar 

  • Bastian M, Heymann S, Jacomy M (2009) Gephi: an open source software for exploring and manipulating networks. Icwsm. 8(2009):361–362

    Google Scholar 

  • Baun A, Jensen SD, Bjerg PL, Christensen TH, Nyholm N (2000 May 1) Toxicity of organic chemical pollution in groundwater downgradient of a landfill (Grindsted, Denmark). Environ Sci Technol 34(9):1647–1652

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bouyssou D, Marchant T (2011) Ranking scientists and departments in a consistent manner. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 62(9):1761–1769

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brito L, Rodrigues M, Paiva JG. (2019) A computational system for temporal visual analysis of labour accident data. In2019 23rd International Conference Information Visualisation (IV) (pp. 88-93). IEEE.

  • Chowdhury TR, Mandal BK, Samanta G, Basu GK, Chowdhury PP, Chanda CR, Karan NK, Lodh D, Dhar RK, Das D, Saha KC. (1997) Arsenic in groundwater in six districts of West Bengal, India: the biggest arsenic calamity in the world: the status report up to August, 1995. In Arsenic (pp. 93-111). Springer, Dordrecht.

  • Cook WJ, Cunningham WH, Pulleyblank WR, Schrijver A (1998) combinatorial optimization. John Wiley and Sons, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Czecze B, Bondár I (2019) Hierarchical cluster analysis and multiple event relocation of seismic event clusters in Hungary between 2000 and 2016. J Seismol 23(6):1313–1326

    Google Scholar 

  • Daim TU (2006) et al. Forecasting emerging technologies: use of bibliometrics and patent analysis. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 73(8):981–1012

    Google Scholar 

  • Du H, Li N, Brown MA et al (2014) A bibliographic analysis of recent solar energy literatures: the expansion and evolution of a research field. Renew Energy 66(6):696–706

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farhadian M, Vachelard C, Duchez D, Larroche C (2008) In situ bioremediation of monoaromatic pollutants in groundwater: a review. Bioresour Technol 99(13):5296–5308

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fendorf S, Michael HA, Van GA (2010) Spatial and temporal variations of groundwater arsenic in South and Southeast Asia. Science 328(5982):1123–1127

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gleeson T, Befus K, Jasechko S, et al. (2015) The global volume and distribution of modern groundwater. EGU General Assembly Conference. EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts, .

  • Han D, Currell MJ, Cao G (2016) Deep challenges for China’s war on water pollution. Environ Pollut 218(218):1222–1233

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ho Y-S (2008) Bibliometric Analysis of biosorption technology in water treatment research from 1991 to 2004. Int J Environ Pollut 34(1-4):1–13

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jacomy M, Venturini T, Heymann S, Bastian M (2014) ForceAtlas2, a continuous graph layout algorithm for handy network visualization designed for the Gephi software. PLoS One 9(6):e98679

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston DA, Linton JD (2000) Social networks and the implementation of environmental technology. IEEE Trans Eng Manag 47(4):465–477

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn HD, Rubin MB (1989) Use of statistical methods in industrial water pollution control regulations in the United States. Environ Monit Assess 13(2-3):129–148

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Karim MM (2000) Arsenic in groundwater and health problems in Bangladesh. Water Res 34(1):304–310

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ke J, (2013). Social network analysis of Facebook brand communities.

  • Kim Y, Choi TY, Yan T, Dooley K (2011) Structural investigation of supply networks: a social network analysis approach. J Oper Manag 29(3):194–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirchherr WW (1992) Kolmogorov complexity and random graphs. Inf Process Lett 41(3):125–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer AD, Guillory JE, Hancock JT (2014) Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci 111(24):8788–8790

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li M, Vitányi PM. (1991) Combinatorics and Kolmogorov complexity. In[1991] Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Structure in Complexity Theory Conference Jun 30 (pp. 154-163). IEEE.

  • Li Y, Wang Y, Rui X, Li Y, Li Y, Wang H, Zuo J, Tong Y (2017) Sources of atmospheric pollution: a bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics. 112(2):1025–1045

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang L, Wang Z, Li J (2019) The effect of urbanization on environmental pollution in rapidly developing urban agglomerations. J Clean Prod 237:117649

    Google Scholar 

  • Ma T, Sun S, Fu G, Hall JW, Ni Y, He L, Yi J, Zhao N, Du Y, Pei T, Cheng W (2020) Pollution exacerbates China’s water scarcity and its regional inequality. Nat Commun 11:650

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mao G, Liu X, Du H et al (2016) An expanding and shifting focus in recent environmental health literature: a quantitative bibliometric study. J Environ Health 78(6):54–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Mapoma HWT, Xie X, Zhang L, Nyirenda MT, Maliro A, Chimutu D (2016) Hydrochemical characteristics of rural community groundwater supply in Blantyre, southern Malawi. J Afr Earth Sci 114:192–202

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Margat J, Van der Gun J. (2013) Groundwater around the world: a geographic synopsis. Crc Press.

  • Merigó JM, Gil-Lafuente AM, Yager RR (2015) An overview of fuzzy research with bibliometric indicators. Appl Soft Comput 27:420–433

    Google Scholar 

  • Moody DW (1990) Groundwater contamination in the United States. J Soil Water Conserv 45(4612):713–718

    Google Scholar 

  • Murakami M, Kuroda K, Sato N, Fukushi T, Takizawa S, Takada H (2009) Groundwater pollution by perfluorinated surfactants in Tokyo. Environ Sci Technol 43(10):3480–3486

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy HM, Prioleau MD, Borchardt MA et al (2017) Review: Epidemiological evidence of groundwater contribution to global enteric disease, 1948–2015. Hydrogeol J 25(4):1–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Pawłowski A (2010) The role of environmental engineering in introducing sustainable development. Ecol Chem Eng S 17(3):263–278

    Google Scholar 

  • Rahmati O, Samani AN, Mahmoodi N, Mahdavi M (2015 Jun 1) Assessment of the contribution of N-fertilizers to nitrate pollution of groundwater in western Iran (Case Study: Ghorveh–Dehgelan Aquifer). Water Qual Expo Health 7(2):143–151

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rivett MO, Buss SR, Morgan P, Smith JW, Bemment CD (2008) Nitrate attenuation in groundwater: a review of biogeochemical controlling processes. Water Res 42(16):4215–4232

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shu Z, Mao G, Crittenden J et al (2017) Groundwater remediation from the past to the future: a bibliometric analysis. Water Res:119–114

  • Su X, Wang H, Zhang Y (2013) Health risk assessment of nitrate contamination in groundwater: a case study of an agricultural area in Northeast China. Water Resour Manag 27(8):3025–3034

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang C, Yi Y, Yang Z, Sun J (2016) Risk analysis of emergent water pollution accidents based on a Bayesian Network. J Environ Manag 165(2):199–205

    Google Scholar 

  • Tiehm A, Schulze S (2003) Intrinsic aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation for groundwater remediation. Oil Gas Sci Technol 58(4):449–462

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Q, Yang Z (2016) Industrial water pollution, water environment treatment, and health risks in China. Environ Pollut 218:358–365

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Welch AH, Westjohn DB, Helsel DR, Wanty RB (2000) Arsenic in ground water of the United States: occurrence and geochemistry. Ground Water 38(4):589–604

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson L, Friendly M (2009) The history of the cluster heat map. Am Stat 63(2):179–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Wongsasuluk P, Chotpantarat S, Siriwong W, Robson M (2014) Heavy metal contamination and human health risk assessment in drinking water from shallow groundwater wells in an agricultural area in Ubon Ratchathani province, Thailand. Environ Geochem Health 36(1):169–182

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang S (2017) et al. Groundwater remediation from the past to the future: a bibliometric analysis. Water Res 119:114–125

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research has been supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 91846301, 41871211, 41571522).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100012, China

    Bo Li, Yaling Lu & Hongqiang Jiang

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Yaling Lu, Jiao Li & Yuan Wang

Authors
  1. Bo Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yaling Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jiao Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hongqiang Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yuan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Bo Li and Jiao Li analyzed and interpreted the data. Bo Li and Yaling Lu performed visualization of data and were major contributors in writing the manuscript. Yuan Wang and Hongqiang Jiang both gave helpful advices on the frame and schematic of this research. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yaling Lu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Code availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study about laws, acts, bills, rules, and regulations are available in the United States Code and the Code of Federal Regulations system [https://uscode.house.gov and https://beta.regulations.gov/].

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Xianliang Yi

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Highlights

• Bibliometric Analysis for 15416 related publications during 1989–2017

• Spatial-temporal variations and visualization based on Bibliometric Analysis

• Evolutionary progress dendrograms of publications, laws, and regulations

• Qualitative analysis to demonstrate policy-based driving force behind variations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, B., Lu, Y., Li, J. et al. Exploring the spatial-temporal variations and policy-based driving force behind groundwater contamination and remediation research in past decades. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 13188–13201 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11382-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11382-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation