Bibliometric analysis of global multi-hazard flood risk research: trends, knowledge gaps, and emerging topics (2010–2024)

Understanding multi-hazard interactions in flood risk contexts has emerged as a critical area of environmental research. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis covering scientific publications indexed in Web of Science from 2010 to 2024, focusing specifically on compound and cascading flood events within multi-hazard frameworks. The dataset comprises 1,096 scientific documents published across 290 academic sources, authored by 4,166 scholars affiliated with 1,326 institutions from 94 countries. Annual scientific production increased significantly, rising from fewer than 10 publications per year prior to 2018 to a peak of 78 documents in 2023. Geographically, the literature is highly concentrated; China (27%) and the United States (24%) dominate publications, whereas contributions from African institutions remain minimal, reflecting critical geographic disparities in research engagement.  Using paper-level counting, 505 papers (46%) include at least one European affiliation, based on a European country set of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. European output is led by the United Kingdom (145 papers) and Italy (134), followed by the Netherlands (94) and Germany (83). A detailed keyword evolution analysis identified a pronounced thematic shift from vulnerability and traditional hazard management toward compound-flood risk, climate-driven extremes, and resilience-oriented approaches in recent years. Topic-cluster analysis further demonstrates fragmented research efforts across methodological domains, with limited interdisciplinary integration. Citation trajectory analysis reveals that key studies published between 2022 and 2023 received more than 45 citations within two years, indicating a rapid recognition and scholarly impact within the research community. However, uncertainty quantification remains notably underrepresented (only 17% of studies), and emerging approaches such as nature-based solutions constitute less than 5% of the total literature, underscoring key research gaps. These findings offer a robust, empirical foundation highlighting underexplored themes, geographic disparities, and methodological challenges, guiding future research priorities in multi-hazard flood risk management under changing climatic conditions. International collaboration is a defining feature of the European contribution. Almost half of the European papers also include non-European affiliations (245 of 505). The strongest links are with the United States (89 papers) and China (56 papers), while 16 papers include Europe, the United States, and China together. In full counting, European countries account for 39.88% of all countries’ occurrences in the dataset (737 of 1,848). These results position Europe as both a major producer and a collaboration hub in multi-hazard flood risk research.