Drought Research Exhibits Shifting Priorities, Trends and Geographic Patterns

Abstract. Drought research addresses a major natural hazard with adverse impacts towards achieving the sustainable development goals. Here, we analyzed more than 130,000 peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus, spanning from 1901 to 2022 using a generative model. The results delineate distinct shifts in research priorities. Plant genetic research for drought-tolerant genotypes and methods in drought forecasting are the major topics with highest and still increasing relative contribution to drought research. Importance of ecology, groundwater and forest research decreases in relative terms. Until 1983, interdisciplinarity of drought research was steadily decreasing, marking a pivotal shift, followed by a consistent rise in interdisciplinarity from 2007 onwards. Geospatial patterns reveal a focus on forecasting methods in all regions, and particular focus on policy and society in Africa and Oceania. In future, we recommend research and funding agencies to strengthen the track of more interdisciplinary and systemic cross-topic drought research in order to cope with drought as a multi-sectoral risk requiring multi-sectoral response frameworks.