TITLE:
Trends and Prospects from Climatic Research of Inner-Niger-Delta Wetland: A Bibliometric Analysis
AUTHORS:
Moussa Ibrahim Maiga, Souleymane Sanogo, Elijah Adesanya Adefisan
KEYWORDS:
Inner-Niger-Delta, Climate Change, West Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.13 No.2,
February
19,
2025
ABSTRACT: The fate of wetlands in arid regions has become a matter of concern in the context of global warming. The Inner Niger Delta (IND) has received increasing attention from researchers and others to explore whether this largest wetland in Africa will shrivel due to climate change and increasing water use. An essential study goal is to understand what has been done so far in the Research of Inner-Niger-Delta Wetland in order to address its future challenges. The present study provides a comprehensive analysis of climate related research on the IND wetland through bibliometric means to diagnosis the evolution, lag and hotspot of relevant features in the literature. Key aspects of analysis included 1) trends of IND wetland related research 2) nature of collaboration networks, 3) co-occurrence of keywords and 4) emerging themes related to IND wetland over the last three decades, between the years 1991-2022. The results indicate that the IND wetland gained momentum in 2000, peaking in 2013 and then in 2018. IND wetland research has, on average, reach 2.5 publication in 2000 and exceed 5 papers by 2017. The leading countries that have produced high numbers of published documents are in order, France, Nigeria, USA, Germany and Mali. Therefore, more efficient scientific collaboration among regional African institutions is recommended to face local perspectives. The identified emerging topics are Niger delta, climate change, floods and rivers. The variables considered in analyses are river discharge, evapotranspiration, water level and rain. Variables relevant to global temperature warming are missing, which implies that researches on Inner Niger Delta wetland are less focusing on climate change and variability analyses.