Advancing Water Security in the Tropical and Subtropical Regions: An Integrative Topic Modeling Approach

ABSTRACT Water security in tropical regions faces escalating pressures from climate change, land‐use shifts, and population growth. We conducted a bibliometric review of 1146 peer‐reviewed articles (1964–2023) on tropical water security. Latent Dirichlet Allocation identified 13 thematic topics and their evolution. Publications rose sharply after 2012, peaking post‐2018, mirroring mounting concern over climate‐related risks. Research has centered on climate‐water interactions, water quality and treatment, and hydrological modeling, whereas interest in soil‐moisture remote sensing declined. A new focus on land‐cover‐water linkages signals increasing interdisciplinary integration. Gap analysis revealed methodological compartmentalization: SWAT‐based modeling studies rarely intersect with empirical water‐quality work, creating a persistent evidence divide. Conversely, topics on vegetation, land use, and water balance show strong semantic coherence. Our reproducible topic‐modeling framework clarifies evolving research foci and highlights underexplored areas, offering a roadmap to bridge disciplinary divides and inform science‐based water‐governance strategies across the Global South.