Agriculture Land Use Change and Demographic Change in Response to Decline Suspended Sediment in Južna Morava River Basin (Serbia)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Congratulations to the authors. The paper is easy to follow and the methodology is clearly described. The results are well presented. They show the expected conjectures confirmed with a good data base. Therefore, I recommend the paper for publication after the text is edited again, as a few typos did creep in.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your support.

Revised version of manuscript you can find as attached file.

 

Kind regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The work is interesting, although it was done using standard approaches and methods. It is mainly of practical interest in terms of analyzing the sustainable development of river basin geosystems. I have several comments and suggestions for the content of the manuscript.

1. Please state the research aim more clearly in the Introduction.
2. You have defined 1983 and 1984 as years of essential change in long-term water discharge and sediment load series. Give more about what caused it. What socio-economic events in your country have led to a significant change in these hydrological variables?
3. What is the role of snow cover in the formation of water discharge and sediment load in the river basin? Was this role important in these hydrological variables' dynamics in 1960-1990, especially in the river basin's mountainous part? There is no information about this. If this role was insignificant, then it is also necessary to let the reader know about it.
4. How do you see the significance of your findings for the Južna Morava River basin's sustainable development?
5. Do not use the same phrases in keywords as in the title of the manuscript.

Additional comments:

1. Study area. “… huge mountains …“? Up to 2200 m?
2. Figure 1 is poorly readable; Basen?; Please show 16 meteorological stations on the map the data from which you used in your work.
3. In the text: “…the valley of the Južna Morava from Vladičin Han to Stalać belongs to potential flood zones.” Where are these settlements located on the map in Figure 1?
4. In the text: “… the territorial status of the province is steel not determined).” Steel? Maybe STILL?
5. In the text: “The suspended sediment concentration and sediment load decreased significantly (α=0.001), with average annual decrease rate being SSC=0.0144 g/l/yr and Qs=7.1x103 t/yr.”. It is also desirable to indicate the relative rate of change (% per year).
6. Table 4. 159279?
7. Figure 4 (caption). Please specify to which territory this information applies. Is this the Južna Morava River basin?
8. Figure 5. Legends are hard to read.
9. Figure 7. Arrange this figure carefully so that the vertical axes of the graphs are located one below the other. Write "Years" under the X-axes.
10. English needs improvement.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your support and comments. Co-authors and me made all the requested changes in the manuscript and highlighted it in yellow. Also we use MDPI English editing to improve English and style in the manuscript.

Please see the attachment.

 

Kind regards.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.