Topography Impacts Hydrology in the Sub-Humid Ethiopian Highlands

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I do not think that the contents of this manuscript are suitable for publication of Water. The manuscript looks more like a technical manuscript rather than a scientific one. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for your time reviewing the manuscript.  Our detailed response and the original manuscript with tracked changes are attached.

For all authors, with high regards

Tammo, Demis, and Christian

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

I think that the subject is of local interest, which should not distract from the merits of the work. I have some concerns on the overemphasis on statistical analysis as a primary tool to analyze the results. Particularly, the relationship between the infiltration rate and water table depth doesn't strike me as being causal. Why is the hardpan so near the surface downslope? Maybe the lower permeability of the soil plays a factor in the shallow hardpan and the low infiltration rate. The broader point is that the use of statistical packages for understanding the relationships here is not the best way. Additionally, not enough effort was placed in explaining the different responses over the two study years and how representative these two years are over the longer record.

In short, I think it is an interesting data set that has been collected, but I hope that a little more effort can be given in teasing out the hydrological implications of the results.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for your time and effort in reviewing our manuscript.  The detailed response and the original manuscript with tracked changes are attached.

For all authors, with high regards

Tammo, Demis, and Christian

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Need Minor revision 

New references  should be added 

Please include the previous study results before present the aims of the study. This will be more important to understand the earlier study and also importance of the current study.

Improve the objectives of the study.

A bit more discussion is needed for geology of the study region

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for your thoughtful comments  Our detailed response to the comments and the original manuscript with tracked changes are attached.

For all authors, with high regards

Tammo, Demis, and Christian

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

Dear Authors,

the present paper provides a sound analysis about hydrological controls in sub-humid African drylands.

The approach is solid and the database well structured. Some biases are present. I recommend some revisions of the manuscript as follows.

• lines 34-35: please avoid self-citation and refer to comprehensive works on the topic (reviews, etc)
• lines 62-63: some studies do exist: https://www.aidic.it/cet/17/58/115.pdf, https://ssl.tamu.edu/media/93432/1-s20-s0048969715308834-main.pdf
• lines 86-91 and 95-96: it would be better to know from where the information about the implementation of soil and water conservation comes from
• Figure 1: please provide also a map highlighting the different slopes zones explicitly
• line 147: please provide the coordinates of the rain gauge or show it in the map
• Table 1. Insert "(piezometer)" instead of "piezometer"
• Line 199: was groundwater inflow from outside of the river catchment?
• Figure 4: why the dots representing rainfall events are scattered in time? In which period are the runoff coefficients calculated?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer

Thank you for your time reviewing the manuscript.  Your comments were very helpful. the detailed response and the original manuscript with tracked changes are attached.

For all authors, with high regards

Tammo, Demis, and Christian

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf