A survey on constructed wetland publications in the past three decades

Decentralised wastewater treatment systems, such as constructed wetlands, are becoming increasingly popular these days because they are more economical and cost-effective than conventional plants. The primary objective of this review paper is to determine the number of studies that have been conducted on constructed wetlands, specifically 'free water surface flow constructed wetlands', 'horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands', 'vertical subsurface flow constructed wetlands', and 'hybrid constructed wetlands'. In addition, the paper examines the status of research publications on constructed wetlands by country, author, and journal. Based on the review, it has been found that although constructed wetland technology is economical and cost-effective, it is still not among the top 10 effluent treatment methods. Compared to other constructed wetland systems, 'hybrid constructed wetlands' have received minimal attention. Based on the search results, 4639 documents published between 1989 and 2021 have been extracted from the online edition of SCI-EXPANDED, Web of Science. The documents associated with constructed wetlands are divided into eight main document types. Articles and proceedings papers are the most common document type, accounting for 93% of all publications, followed by reviews (4%), meeting abstracts (1.3%), corrections (0.56%), editorial materials (0.38%), news items (0.2%), letters (0.04%), and book reviews (0.02%).