Is Controlled Drainage of Agricultural Land a Common Used Practice?—A Bibliographic Analysis

Controlled drainage (CD) is one of the basic techniques used to manage groundwater levels. Farmers can optimize water levels for crop growth at different stages of the growing season. Proper drainage water management can reduce the risk of soil erosion and surface water pollution. By controlling drainage, sediment and nutrient runoff can be minimized, leading to improved water quality in nearby streams and rivers. A mixed methods approach was used, which was based on the bibliometric analysis and content analysis of 462 articles using the bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer software. The article aimed to analyze the Author Keywords and KeyWords Plus to indicate the resulting clusters of complex interdependence that emerge from the main research areas. Continuous research continues to improve drainage techniques and systems to optimize agricultural water use. The results indicated the importance of researching the feasibility of CD for agriculture. The innovation of this study is that it points out the relevance of taking up the possibility of changing the use of unilateral subsurface drainage systems with another method of controlling drainage outflows as a current global challenge, contributing to filling this gap in the literature.