Xiao et al. (2025) Research status of winter irrigation based on bibliometric analysis

Identification

Journal: Agricultural Water Management
Year: 2025
Date: 2025-11-10
Authors: Tingqi Xiao, Jinbao Shui, Fenxia Yu, Yanxia Zhong
DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109974

Research Groups

School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
School of Ecology and Environment, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China
National Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Northwest Land Degradation and Ecological Restoration, Ningxia University, Yinchuan, China

Short Summary

This bibliometric analysis reviews 61 articles on winter irrigation from the Web of Science (2000–2024) to map research trends, hotspots, and key challenges, highlighting the increasing focus on soil water-salt dynamics and the need for integrated, region-specific strategies.

Objective

To evaluate the basic characteristics of winter irrigation literature, including publication trends, citation frequency, and representative journals.
To identify the main research forces (countries, institutions, scholars) and their collaborations in the field.
To reveal the evolution of research hotspots and clarify differences over time.
To explore key issues, challenges, and future development trends and valuable research directions in winter irrigation.

Study Configuration

Spatial Scale: Global (bibliometric analysis of literature from various countries).
Temporal Scale: 2000–2024 (25 years).

Methodology and Data

Models used: VOSviewer (bibliometric visualization software).
Data sources: Web of Science (WOS) core collection database. A total of 61 articles were selected using the topic search "winter irrigation".

Main Results

The number of publications on winter irrigation showed an overall increasing trend from 2000 to 2024, with a stable stage from 2018–2024 accounting for 50.82% of total articles.
China (54.17%) and the USA (22.22%) are the leading countries in winter irrigation research, with China placing the greatest emphasis.
Key research institutions include the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shihezi University, Wuhan University, and Xinjiang Agricultural University.
High-frequency keywords include "yield", "winter irrigation", "irrigation", "use efficiency", and "growth". Recent hotspots focus on "soil salinity", "salt migration", and "soil moisture".
Core journals with high citation frequencies and strong co-citation relationships are Agricultural Water Management, Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology, Hydraulic Processes, and Science of The Total Environment.
Winter irrigation significantly impacts crops (e.g., improving cold resistance, ensuring water supply for spring growth, increasing yield), soil characteristics (e.g., decreasing bulk density, improving porosity, adjusting pH, increasing nutrient content, promoting microbial activity), and water-salt transport (e.g., promoting downward salt migration, suppressing salinity increase, changing soil moisture distribution).

Contributions

This study provides the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of winter irrigation research, offering a statistical and visual overview of the field's disciplinary background, historical process, current status, development direction, and emerging trends.
It identifies key research forces, collaboration patterns, and evolving hotspots, particularly highlighting the increasing focus on soil water-salt dynamics and the impact of freeze-thaw cycles.
The analysis reveals significant research gaps, such as the need for coupled models integrating soil thermal processes, machine learning-augmented models for freeze-thaw, and quantification of synergistic factor interactions (e.g., soil type, groundwater depth, cover materials) on winter irrigation effectiveness.
It proposes future research directions and strategies for sustainable winter irrigation, including technological upgrades (smart systems), management optimization (regional scheduling), and material innovation (biodegradable mulches, biochar).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (42277466)
Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia Autonomous Region of China (2025AAC020040)

Citation

@article{Xiao2025Research,
  author = {Xiao, Tingqi and Shui, Jinbao and Yu, Fenxia and Zhong, Yanxia},
  title = {Research status of winter irrigation based on bibliometric analysis},
  journal = {Agricultural Water Management},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109974},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109974}
}

Original Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2025.109974