Constructed wetlands as treatment systems: An overview and bibliometric analysis

Abstract Constructed wetlands have gained a major role in treating various forms of wastewaters. According to their cost-effectiveness and myriads of side benefits, a substantial body of research has grown around this topic in recent years. Being situated at the center of studies from diverse fields, there is a demand for a study to show different themes inside this field of research. This paper aims to explore research connected to the application of constructed wetlands for water and wastewater treatment using bibliometric analysis of data retrieved from Scopus database from the first appearance of this topic to 2021. The results suggest that more than three thousand papers have been published by 503 journals. About 8000 scholars have contributed to this topic, who are mostly from China, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, and India. The analysis on author keywords interaction network found 4 major clusters, each indicating to various parts of research on constructed wetlands. Finally, most recent research trends were detected via overlay network, indicating the focus on micropollutants and emerging contaminants (such as antibiotics) and microbial fuel cells as trends of future study in this field.