Climate change is a global problem, and it is receiving increasing scientific attention due to its significant impact. To provide valuable insights for understanding and summarizing the research trends and prospects on climate change risk perception, this study takes a qualitative and quantitative analysis by using bibliometric tools. This analysis presents information related to authors, countries, institutions, journals, top cited publications, research hot spots, trends, and prospects. The analysis involved 4429 articles after rigorous screening and evaluated them on the risk perception of climate change in countries and the public. The majority of publications were published during the period of 2016–2022 (70.92%), with Climatic Change being the dominant journal and most research originating from the USA, England and Australia. The research content of this topic is primarily divided into several categories, including environmental sciences, atmospheric sciences, water resources and public health. The results showed that adaptation and vulnerability attract much attention. Finally, this paper identifies and discusses five research themes that should be further studied: determinants of perception, human behavior, human mental health risk, agriculture and adaptive strategy.

Water-saving in agriculture is critical for building a water-conserving society. However, the application of high-efficiency water-saving technology in agriculture may create a paradox of irrigation efficiency. Efficiency improvement in agricultural water utilization may not lead to the expected agricultural water-saving. In this paper, a rebound intensity model of the irrigation efficiency paradox is established and combined with remote sensing measurement to verify the irrigation efficiency paradox caused by expanding the irrigation area in the Shenwu Irrigation Area, China. Based on ideas in the principal–agent theory and stakeholder theory, it is concluded that the essence of the irrigation efficiency paradox is the conflict of interests among stakeholders with asymmetric information due to inadequate regulatory capacity. A dual principal–agent model is formulated to optimize the conflict among heterogeneous stakeholders in the paradox. The results show that the paradox should be restrained by a suitable distribution mechanism of water-saving gains, improved irrigation water metering, and enhanced water-use monitoring.