Water security (WS) is a critical global issue that has become increasingly important in recent years. Numerous water security assessment systems have been developed worldwide, but there is a lack of comprehensive study that documents and summarises the published literature on the development of assessment systems specifically for water security assessment. To address this research gap, a bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine trends in publications related to WS assessment. The R-package tool ‘bibliometrix’ was used to extract and transform data into visual formats. Scopus database was used to identify relevant articles which were analysed and presented various aspects such as annual publication trends, author contributions, citation counts, popular keywords, and trending scientific journals. A comprehensive review of 72 metrics (resource-based) used for water security assessment was conducted. It was focused on metrics that assess the availability of freshwater and the security of water resources. The arguments and approaches used to develop these metrics were compared, recognizing the importance of considering the interconnectedness of different water domains while acknowledging the challenges associated with their aggregation for measurement purposes. This study contributes to the existing knowledge of WS assessment by providing a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. The findings from analysis can serve as valuable insights for the development of future assessment systems aimed at measuring water security.