The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD)) is a massive hydropower plant currently being constructed on the Upper Blue Nile River, known locally as Abbay, in EthiopiaEthiopia. This project has attracted the attention of both political and scientific communities, resulting in numerous multidisciplinary studies over the past 11 years, covering a broad range of topics, including hydrologyHydrology, geologyGeology, ecology, socioeconomics, politics, and legal issues associated with the dam and the basin. While most of the studies have been conducted using rigorous scientific approaches, there is concern that nationalism may influence water research. Therefore, the objective of this study is to synthesize and review GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD)-related literature using a more objective, efficient, and automatic approach. By October 2022, over 340 peer-reviewed papers had been published on GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD), and traditional literature review approaches are not efficient for scanning, reading, and reviewing such a large volume of literature. The study aims to assess the knowledge and information generated by the scientific community since the start of GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) construction using text miningText mining (TM) and natural language processing (NLPNatural Language Processing (NLP)) techniques. The TM results explore and appraise key knowledge and findings and enable the identification of key topics related to GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) and its basin. Specifically, we focused on (1) conducting basic bibliometric statistics and discussing key topics related to GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) over time; (2) reviewing and synthesizing a large set of publications using TM and NLPNatural Language Processing (NLP) approaches transforming the traditional review process; (3) employing the network of keywords to identify the most studied topic or thematic area related to GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) and vice versa; (4) identifying the sentiment orientation of the identified topics towards the GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) project; and (5) recommending future research directions regarding GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) and the basin. The study's findings indicate that the literature on GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) mainly focuses on seven central topics, namely, water conflictWater conflict, law and negotiation for water sharing, temporal variability in access to water, land degradationLand degradation, soil erosionSoil erosion, agricultural livelihoodLivelihood, sustainable ecology/ecosystem development, and the application of satellite and remote sensingRemote sensing technology in GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) analysis. The study also notes subtle variations in the focus of articles from riparian states and other countries. The sentiment orientation on these topics is found to be largely neutral, indicating that the scientific community takes a neutral position regarding GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) issues in academic writing. These findings can improve academic discourse on GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) and guide policymakers and government agencies in prioritizing their interventions regarding the GERDGrand Ethiopian Reminiscence Dam (GERD) project.