Abstract:Hydro-informatics is an interdisciplinary research field of modern information technology, water resources, water supply and drainage. It is receiving more and more concerns from water administrative departments and academic scholars. In this study, literatures on hydro-informatics and smart water archived in CNKI database from 1996to 2020 are selected as the sample data. Supported by knowledge graph visualization software of CiteSpace and VOSviewer, the study applies bibliometric method to analyze the research groups on hydro-informatics and their history, as well as the research hotspots at different stages. The results show that joint promotion and cooperative research by government agencies, research institutes, universities and industry have preliminarily formed. However, the research mainly focuses on conceptual discussion and qualitative analysis, with relatively few theoretical and authoritative research outputs. The study on hydro-informatics started in 1996, and large-scale development and application of information platforms took place during 2001—2010. The new stage of smart water research and development started since 2011. It is expected that in the future, driven by policy guidance, technological innovation and business demands, research outputs will increase rapidly, and research methods will gradually shift from qualitative to quantitative analysis.