Water Resource Management in Sustainable Architecture: A Bibliometric Review of Green Buildings and Water Footprint Reduction

Water management has become a critical dimension of sustainable architecture, as buildings increasingly interact with limited freshwater resources and energy-intensive water treatment systems. In this context, the present study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and review of scientific research addressing water management within sustainable buildings in order to assess the most important quantitative information about this topic and identify the most relevant research trends. A total of 3283 documents indexed in Scopus before 2024 were identified and analyzed through a two-stage approach combining bibliometric performance indicators and network analysis using SciMAT (v1.1.06). Publication trends, document types, leading countries, institutions, sources, and thematic distributions were examined, followed by analysis of the conceptual evolution of the field. Results revealed a sustained growth in scientific output, with engineering, environmental science, and materials science as the dominant subject areas. Keyword and cluster analyses identified construction materials and their water-related properties and water resource management as central research themes, while also highlighting the nexus between water, energy, and environmental impacts in building sustainability. Based on the bibliometric findings, a structured review of current research is presented following a circular-economy-oriented framework adapted to water, organized around three strategies: decreasing water demand, optimizing the use of non-conventional water resources, and retaining water through reuse.