The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) is a new type of regional cooperation mechanism in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). It was officially co-founded by six Lancang-Mekong countries in 2016. Water resources cooperation is the flagship field of the LMC. The goal of this article is to introduce comprehensively the LMC and to illustrate why it can be regarded as a new choice for regional water resources cooperation in the GMS. This paper first reviews the background to LMC's foundation, and then introduces the structural framework, operating mechanism and recent advances of the LMC. It will then analyze the deficiencies of the present water resources cooperation mechanisms in the GMS and the comparative advantages of water resources cooperation under LMC. Finally, some suggestions were given to improve and reinforce water resources cooperation under the LMC. This research concludes that the LMC is more suitable for the actual needs and objective reality of Lancang-Mekong countries owing to its high-level and all-round regional cooperation mechanism. It was established jointly by all riparian states, with a shared vision to enhance the well-being of six countries' people, and works to narrow the development gap among regional countries.

The purpose of this study is to outline global performance, and to quantitatively evaluate the current research field hot spots, and the future trends about the Lancang‐Mekong River (LMR). Bibliometric methods are used to analyze 3,924 records retrieved from the collection of the Web of Science Core (WoS). The performance of publications, categories, countries, institutes, research hot spots and trends is analyzed in this study by applying CiteSpace and VOSviewer tools. The results revealed that publications about the LMR field have been increasing rapidly since the beginning of the 21st century. The research pertaining to LMR is mainly in the fields of environmental sciences & ecology, water resources, geology, engineering and agriculture. Vietnam, The People's Republic of China, The United States of America, Japan and Thailand get higher rankings in paper output, and Can Tho University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University and the University of Tokyo achieve a high ranking on LMR research. In addition, further studies in research frontiers have revealed that health, security, climate change and international waters will become the new and popular directions and trends in the LMR research.

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The purpose of this study is to outline global performance and to quantitatively evaluate the current research field hot spots, and the future trends about the water footprint. Bibliometric methods are used to analyze 861 records retrieved from the collection of Web of Science Core (WoS). The performance of publications, categories, countries, institutes, research hot spots, and trends is analyzed in this study by applying CiteSpace and VOSviewer tools. The results revealed that publications about water footprint have experienced two stages: a stable rising period and a rapid rising period. The research pertaining to water footprint is mainly in the fields of virtual water, water use efficiency, water scarcity, water pollution, etc. The People’s Republic of China, The United States of America, Iran, New Zealand, and Italy get higher rankings in paper output, and the Chinese Acad of Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Northwest A&F University, Beijing Forestry University, University of Twente and Hohai University achieve a high ranking on water footprint research. In addition, further studies in research frontiers have revealed that climate change, sustainable agriculture, and water conservation will become popular directions and trends in water footprint research.