A systematic review with bibliometric analysis of different approaches and methodologies for undertaking flood vulnerability research

Floods have always been associated with widespread devastation and destruction since the emergence of human civilization. Assessment of vulnerability is the primary objective of flood hazard management. This study makes a credible attempt to present a coherent review on the approaches and methodologies used for assessing flood vulnerability to improve our understanding of flood vulnerability in multiperspectives. A systematic review with content analysis and bibliometric analysis using Bibliometrix an R package were employed to analyze 193 selected documents published during 2010-2021 on Scopus and Web of Science. The bibliometric analysis results indicate the annual scientific publications, country scientific production, most relevant sources/authors of publications, and the foundation documents of publications in studies period. Besides, the content analysis provides the trend of methods used, main data sources of three major approaches in flood vulnerability assessment which are indicator-based approach, modeling approach and approach which based on damage survey; and analysis of key objectives and main findings of some most cited publications in each approach. The research states that the indicator-based approach is the most popular and provides a better understanding of overall flood vulnerability assessment in each area rather than other approaches. The results of this study is a comprehensive guide of materials and resources for undertaking flood vulnerability assessment.