Water resources issue is affecting regional stability and national relationship, which has become a vital issue. Based on SCIE papers from database of Web of Science, we analyze the international development trend of water governance research using the bibliometric analysis method. The results show that the number of publications in this field has been increasing rapidly since the 1990s. Most of the research subjects are interdisciplinary and mainly focus on the field of water resources and environmental science. Base on publications and its cited, the United States has the absolute advantage in total numbers of papers, but the articles has a low average influence in terms of citations; The total number of papers in China on water governance research ranks 10th among major countries in the world, but all papers in this field are cited, ranking second only to Germany. International water governance research focuses on water resource acquisition and water quality assessment, water vulnerability, adaptation and water demanding related to climate change; decision-making, water governance policies and water rights; water resource management, such as groundwater management, watershed management and comprehensive water resources management; global water governance and urban water crisis.