To systematically explore the developmental trajectory and direction of China's ecological compensation in river basins, trace its evolution, clarify research themes, core challenges, and emerging hotspots within this field, and deeply elucidate the intrinsic logic of embedding ecological compensation in river basins within water ecological conservation practices in the new era, this study employs a combined approach of inductive analysis and bibliometric methods. Based on 711 core journal articles in CNKI from 2002 to 2024, this paper uses the CiteSpace software to conduct visual network analysis on annual publication volumes, highly cited literature, author groups, and keyword distributions within this field. Findings indicate that research articles on ecological compensation in river basins exhibit a distribution pattern characterized by initial rapid growth followed by fluctuating decline. Overall, the field boasts a substantial number of researchers, yet frequent shifts in research focus occur due to factors such as interdisciplinary development and changing policy demands, resulting in relatively short sustained attention to individual themes. In terms of research hotspots, academia primarily focuses on core issues including the coordination and systematization of compensation mechanisms, the scientific standardization and differentiation of compensation criteria, and the marketization and diversification of compensation models.