Rapid-Survey Methodology to Assess Litter Volumes along Large River Systems—A Case Study of the Tamsui River in Taiwan
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript “Rapid-survey methodology to assess litter volumes along large river systems – A case study of the Tamsui river in Taiwan” is very comprehensibly and well-written paper dealing with an interesting and very relevant topic of water pollution in river systems of Taiwan that are under heavy anthropogenic influence.
The new sampling methodology is well designed and implemented and really commendable because it is applied through citizen science which is, among others, important for raising awareness. The authors specify all advantages of applied methodology, but also objectively point out its disadvantages and consider how to improve it. The study area is well suited for the objectives and there is a pretty good sample size, so one can see the great effort that authors and their volunteers put in the sampling and data processing. This hard fieldwork is well reflected in the results section, where the obtained results are presented in an understandable and concise manner.
In my opinion, this manuscript presents a valuable scientific contribution and deserves to be published in the journal Sustainability. The authors' approach to the observed problem is original and brings a new perspective in citizen science as well as in the way litter monitoring could be conducted along accessible riverbanks and coastlines.
There are just two small comments.
Line 57. I would consider adding “Its main impacts TO MARINE LIFE include entanglement…” because the main impacts of the marine litter generally include a much broader list.
Line 242 and forward. To me it is not clear the meaning of the range instead of the exact number of transects. I’m sure there is some good explanation, but maybe to write it here to be more comprehensible and to follow the results easily.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you very much for your positive and encouraging feedback on our manuscript: “Rapid-survey methodology to assess litter volumes along large river systems – A case study of the Tamsui river in Taiwan” which we prepared for the special issue on “Research on Estimating Plastic Leakage into the Environment” of the journal Sustainability.
Based on your suggestions, we made the following changes:
- We added “to marine life” into the first paragraph of the introduction (previously Line 57, now Line 26)
- We clarified the meaning of the transect ranges by adding the following sentence to section 3.2: “As the waste composition was assessed by item frequency and by volume, ranges are used to present the different results from those two methods.” (Now: Line 211-213).
We are convinced that those changes add clarity to the manuscript, which is why we would like to thank you again for your feedback.
Yours sincerely,
Falk Schneider, Alexander Kunz, Chieh-Shen Hu, Ning Yen, and Hsin-Tien Lin
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript is acceptable for publication. The story and language of the whole manuscript are fine.
The authors should redraw figure 7 to be more readable.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
thank you very much for your positive and encouraging feedback on our manuscript: “Rapid-survey methodology to assess litter volumes along large river systems – A case study of the Tamsui river in Taiwan” which we prepared for the special issue on “Research on Estimating Plastic Leakage into the Environment” of the journal Sustainability.
Based on your suggestion, we did redraw Figure 7 to be more readable. As this represents an important improvement to the manuscript we would like to thank you again for your feedback.
Yours sincerely,
Falk Schneider, Alexander Kunz, Chieh-Shen Hu, Ning Yen, and Hsin-Tien Lin
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
