Monitoring Inland Water Quantity Variations: A Comprehensive Analysis of Multi-Source Satellite Observation Technology Applications

The advancement of multi-source Earth observation technology has led to a substantial body of literature on inland water monitoring. This has resulted in the emergence of a distinct interdisciplinary field encompassing the application of multi-source Earth observation techniques in inland water monitoring. Despite this growth, few systematic reviews of this field exist. Therefore, in this paper, we offer a comprehensive analysis based on 30,212 publications spanning the years 1990 to 2022, providing valuable insights. We collected and analyzed fundamental information such as publication year, country, affiliation, journal, and author details. Through co-occurrence analysis, we identified country and author partnerships, while co-citation analysis revealed the influence of journals, authors, and documents. We employed keywords to explore the evolution of hydrological phenomena and study areas, using burst analysis to predict trends and frontiers. We discovered exponential growth in this field with a closer integration of hydrological phenomena and Earth observation techniques. The research focus has shifted from large glaciers to encompass large river basins and the Tibetan Plateau. Long-term research attention has been dedicated to optical properties, sea level, and satellite gravity. The adoption of automatic image recognition and processing, enabled by deep learning and artificial intelligence, has opened new interdisciplinary avenues. The results of the study emphasize the significance of long-term, stable, and accurate global observation and monitoring of inland water, particularly in the context of cloud computing and big data.