Environmental vulnerability in tropical estuaries: a systematic bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Among the environmental features existing in the world, tropical estuaries are environments that show great environmental vulnerability due to their geographical location, human pressures, and climate change. Due to its importance, the article analyzes bibliometrically the scientific productions about the environmental vulnerability of tropical estuarine regions, identifying the main studies and the current challenges for the integrated management of these environments. To this end, a Systematic Bibliographic Review was conducted in the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases, and subsequent analysis of its variables. The research resulted in 110 articles on the topic that, even though it has been addressed since 1995, has gained more expressiveness since 2018, when investigations have found the susceptibility of estuarine environments to various and challenging environmental problems. The articles recorded the main study localities in estuaries in Australia, the United States, India, and Brazil. Among the existing challenges for the management of these locations are: the complexity of the elaboration and execution of an integrated management of these regions; the lack of depth of scientific knowledge related to the consequences of climate change, sea level rise, and saline intrusion flows; the need for greater detail on the causes of vulnerabilities of estuarine environments; the influence of anthropic pressure, with the improper use and occupation of the land, causing impacts associated with coastal erosion and the increase of pollutants in rivers; the need to apply practices, policies, and strategies to reduce vulnerability; the achievement of social justice for the players in vulnerable regions; among others. In this way, the bibliometric study became fundamental to analyze the development of studies related to environmental vulnerability in tropical estuaries, whose approach to the theme is growing due to the eminent concern related to climate in the last decades and its interferences in coastal regions.