Research Hotspots and Evolution Analysis of Urban Flood Disaster Based on BERTopic Model

Under the influence of global change and human activities, many cities worldwide face increasingly severe flood risks. Systematically reviewing the hotspots and development trends in urban flood research is crucial for enhancing urban water safety and resilience. Based on 16,006 articles from the Web of Science Core Collection (1998—2024), this study employs the BERTopic topic model and Dynamic Topic Modeling (DTM) to systematically uncover key themes and trends in urban flood research. The results indicate that :①urban flood research has shown a continuous growth trend, with an expanding thematic system gradually shifting from traditional engineering governance to diversified directions such as comprehensive management, intelligent sensing, and climate adaptation.②The BERTopic model can effectively identify 10 major themes in urban flood research, among which "Urban flood disaster risk assessment and social resilience enhancement" has emerged as a core research focus in recent years. From a temporal evolution perspective, urban flood research has undergone a transformation process from "engineering prevention—risk assessment—intelligent governance." ③Thematic evolution is significantly driven by policies and extreme events. Overall, current research is transitioning from single hydrological process simulation to a comprehensive governance framework involving the coupling of "natural-social-engineering" systems, forming a new research paradigm centered on risk identification, governance response, and system resilience enhancement. The research findings can provide scientific references and technical support for future urban flood risk prevention, intelligent governance system construction, and policy formulation.