To clarify the development process, research status and existing problems of the complex relationship among water resources, energy and carbon, the paper utilizes CiteSpace software to systematically review relevant literature from 2010 to 2024. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis methods is adopted to summarize the related research progress, analyze the existing problems and summarize the future development inspirations. The results show that the publication trend can be divided into three stages:germination, exploration and development. The research hotspots in domestic and international fields have different focuses. International research focuses on mechanism and methods, while domestic research focuses on policy implementation in regions with prominent water resources, energy and carbon conflicts, such as the Yellow River Basin, as well as in typical scenarios within these areas. The existing research mainly covers the nature and society systems, current and future time dimensions, macro and micro perspectives, and internal and external hierarchical levels. A comprehensive research system characterized by multi-system, multi-dimensional, multi-perspective and multi-hierarchical level has been formed, aiming to reveal the mechanism of the complex relationship among water resources, energy and carbon, and interpret dynamic spatiotemporal evolution laws, cross-scale linkage effects and hierarchical interaction mechanisms. Future research should strengthen mechanism exploration, integrate multi-disciplinary approaches and establish a quantitative evaluation system and a full-chain framework, so as to support the multi-objective coordinated development. Keywords: water resources; energy; carbon; complex relationship; knowledge map 〖FL