Agricultural drought in the context of climate change: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Drought is a meteorological phenomenon of temporary shortage of precipitation coupled with the lack of water for agricultural and forestry activities in a prolonged period. Currently, research on climate change indicates that as the temperature increases, the availability of water is reduced and its demand increases, which aggravates the conditions of agricultural production in various regions of the world.

Drought as a meteorological phenomenon and cause of crop losses requires in-depth studies, in order to determine ways to mitigate the effects caused by climate change. Therefore, the aim of this study was to carry out a systematic review of the scientific research carried out on agricultural drought in the context of climate change and reported in the last ten years.

The methodology applied was of a documentary nature and was based on the bibliographic review in the referential database Scopus®, using the concepts "drugth agriculture", "vulnerability" and "climate change". In the last ten years (2014 to 2022), the countries of the United States of America, the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom stand out in publications on the subject, which are mainly focused on Environmental Sciences (33%), Agricultural Sciences (22%) Earth Sciences (13%) and Social Sciences (12%).

The research published (2014 to 2022) is isolated and lack connection between the major issues such as drought, climate change and vulnerability, thus detecting an area of opportunity to carry out research that unifies these three major issues.