Mapping Maritime Governance and Oversight: Bibliometric Trends and Future Directions

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Maritime governance; Blue economy; Local government oversight; Bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Maritime governance has become a central theme in global sustainability debates, particularly under the framework of the blue economy and SDG 14 (Life Below Water). While existing literature extensively addresses ecological and economic aspects, the political and institutional dimensions—especially oversight by local governments and parliaments, remain underexplored. This study seeks to fill that gap by mapping the intellectual structure of maritime governance research and evaluating the extent to which oversight has been integrated. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using publications indexed in Scopus from 1993 to 2024. The dataset was analyzed through performance indicators, co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic mapping. Visualization tools from the Bibliometrix R package were employed to identify trends, influential authors, leading journals, and emerging research themes. Findings reveal significant growth in maritime governance research, particularly after 2015, driven by the global blue economy agenda and SDG implementation. Dominant themes include sustainable development, marine policy, and climate change, which function as motor themes in the field. In contrast, topics such as local government, parliament, and policy oversight occupy peripheral positions, indicating limited scholarly attention. The geographic analysis highlights contributions from countries such as China, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, with varying levels of international collaboration. The study demonstrates that while maritime governance research has advanced considerably, the oversight dimension remains marginalized. This gap suggests a need to integrate theories of multi-level governance with legislative accountability frameworks. Practically, strengthening the role of local parliaments in maritime oversight is crucial for ensuring accountability and sustainability. Future research should combine bibliometric mapping with qualitative case studies to better capture the interplay between ecological, economic, and political dimensions of maritime governance.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Umy Asyiatun Khadijah
AU  - Andi Lukman Irwan
AU  - A. Hasyim Asyari Amir Husni
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - Mapping Maritime Governance and Oversight: Bibliometric Trends and Future Directions
BT  - Proceedings of the World Conference on Governance and Social Sciences 2025 (WCGSS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 178
EP  - 197
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-545-4_14
ID  - Khadijah2026
ER  -