The geographer Andrew Goudie wrote in 2020 that waterfalls have received "surprisingly limited research."[29] Alexander von Humboldt wrote about them in the 1820s.[30] There is no name for the specific field of researching waterfalls, and in the published literature been described as "scattered",[31] though it is popular to describe studying waterfalls as "waterfallology".[32] An early paper written on waterfalls was published in 1884 by William Morris Davis, a geologist known as the "father of American geography". In the 1930s Edward Rashleigh published a pioneering work on waterfalls.[2] In 1942 Oscar von Engeln wrote of the lack of research on waterfalls:[33]

Waterfall sites more than any other geomorphic feature attract and hold the interest of the general public. Because they have such a popular approval waterfalls are not given serious attention by some students of systematic geomorphology. This attitude is not to be commended. Waterfalls are significant items for geomorphic investigation.

As late as 1985 a scholar felt that "waterfalls remain a very much neglected aspect of river studies".[34] Studies of waterfalls increased dramatically in the second half of the 20th century. Numerous waterfall guidebooks exist, and the World Waterfall Database is a website cataloging thousands of waterfalls.[2]