Abstract Water security is a growing field of research in water resources management and has been increasingly examined from the perspectives of Indigenous knowledge. This study presents a scoping review that explores how Indigenous knowledge perspectives on water security are represented in the scientific literature. A systematic search was conducted through the Web of Science and Scopus databases, focusing on the intersection of water security and Indigenous knowledge concepts. 61 selected publications were identified and analysed according to four themes: publication trends and disciplinary characteristics, geographic distribution, methodological and contextual characteristics, and conceptualization and evaluation of Indigenous knowledge related to water security. The review shows that Indigenous perspectives broaden conventional understandings of water security beyond material dimensions by incorporating cultural, spiritual, relational and governance dimensions. The review also identifies several knowledge gaps, including limited regional coverage, a lack of studies on different settlement types and multi‐ethnic Indigenous communities, limited attention to climate change and the need for additional evaluation frameworks that better integrate Indigenous knowledge into understanding water security. Future research should focus on addressing these gaps to contribute to a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of water security that reflects the diversity of Indigenous knowledge systems. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Cueva-Orjuela et al. (Sat,) studied this question.