Review on Eco-Environment Research in the Yellow River Basin: A Bibliometric Perspective

The Yellow River Basin (YRB) is an important economic zone and ecological barrier in China. The analysis of its research characteristics and hotspots has been helpful to grasping the future research direction. This work carried out text mining and analysis on scientific papers related to eco-environment research in the YRB from English and Chinese publications. It showed that: there was a fluctuating upward trend over the past 30 years, which was closely related to major events in the YRB during the same period. Chinese research institutions have a closer cooperation with the USA, Australia and other developed countries. More articles were from high-quality journals in ecology, the environment, and others. Interestingly, research institutions with more Chinese articles were mainly located around Beijing or the YRB. Additionally, from a research object perspective, both the English and Chinese articles have mainly focused on large areas such as the lower Yellow River, the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and the upper reaches of the Yellow River, then turning to small areas such as the Yellow River estuary and the source area of the Yellow River. Eco-environment research in the YRB has involved multiple disciplines, and “water–soil–vegetation–ecological protection” has been widely concerned. From the evolution law of hot topics, it has shown a transformation from quantity to quality, from utilization to management, from macro to micro, from construction to high-quality development. It suggests that future research should focus on water, soil, the ecological environment and local high-quality development in small regions and small watersheds.