Smart Drainage Education Governance: A Bibliometric Exploration of Disaster Education and Digital Innovation for Sustainable Urban Waterlogging Mitigation

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and climate variability have increased the frequency of urban waterlogging, a short-duration surface inundation resulting from insufficient drainage capacity. This phenomenon poses significant challenges to daily urban life and highlights the need for more integrated approaches that combine digital innovation, drainage governance, and disaster education. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis to examine the global research landscape on smart drainage governance and educational approaches to disaster mitigation in urban contexts. Two datasets were analyzed from Scopus: Tier 1 (188 journal articles) focusing on smart city technologies, ICT-based or drainage systems, and urban resilience, and Tier 2 (17 journal articles) centered on disaster education, risk perception, and community awareness on urban flood or waterlogging mitigation. Keyword co-occurrence mapping using VOSviewer revealed five dominant clusters in Tier 1, emphasizing technological and infrastructural perspectives, and two minor clusters in Tier 2, focused on human-centered and educational themes. The comparative analysis indicates a thematic and epistemological gap between technological governance and educational participation. While global research increasingly advances digital flood and urban waterlogging management, the integration of educational and participatory dimensions remains limited. The findings highlight the need for interdisciplinary collaboration between engineering, education, and information sciences to develop more inclusive and knowledge-driven approaches for sustainable urban waterlogging mitigation, supporting the goals of SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action).