Current Situation, Dilemmas and Measures to Improve Horizontal Ecological Compensation Coordination Mechanisms in River Basins

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This paper shed light on various aspects of Ecological Compensation mechanism and current situation of wastewater pollutant discharges in major basins in china. The paper also attempts to explore various compensation modes according to local conditions under Ecological protection Compensation System and Guidance. There appears to be no discussion about the possible causes of  and variations in discharge of wastewater pollutants.  

Though paper has scientific data, mostly  procured from other sources, and analysis but it is oriented more towards discussing/suggesting policy matters about compensation etc. within the Chinese organizations/Govt. This paper is useful and  may attract the attention of the Scientists within China

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript "Current situation, dilemma and countermeasure optimization of horizontal ecological compensation coordination mechanism in the basin" reported the current situation, dilemma and countermeasure of HECB in Chinese basin. The mechanism explanation seemed to be not clear enough and the results should also be discussed in-depth.

 

Please carefully read the following suggestions to improve the quality of the manuscript:

 

1. Title: (i) The word “countermeasure optimization” was inappropriate. Optimization generally required the model construction through quantitative analysis. There was only the content of countermeasure in this paper instead of optimization. (ii) The word “in the basin” seemed to be inappropriate. The study area in the basin of China.

 

2. Abstract: (i) Core conclusions need to be specific, and this part was too general and conceptual. E.g., “By analyzing the current situation of wastewater pollutant discharge and the main indicators of water quality of major tributaries and provincial sections of major basins in China, it is found that the current task of water environment pollution control in China’s basins remains arduous.” Please explain specifically why these basins were arduous? Which indicators exceeded the standard? What was the proportion …? (ii) Quantitative data are missing in the abstract. E.g., “these systems and plans face the problems such as absence of laws and regulations for ecological compensation, imperfect coordination mechanism, single compensation mode and insufficient compensation amount.” Please detail.

 

3. Key words: Do not just repeat the title. Please rearrange.

 

4. Introduction: (i) The logical structure needed to be reorganized. At first, the research progress of HECB in the world should be introduced. What knowledge gap remains nonetheless? Then, the background of HECB in China could be introduced. (ii) The innovations of this paper should be clarified in the introduction section.

 

5. Data and system construction: This section only listed the relevant wastewater pollutant discharge data, water quality indexes and policy documents. However, there was not enough lucubration on the analysis of these phenomena. There is no research method in this study? I don’t see anything related to the research methodology in this section. Statistical analysis was also lacking. E.g., whether the spatial and temporal distribution of relevant wastewater pollutant discharge data and water quality indexes is significant? What were the differences and similarities between these policy documents? The relevant policy documents could be listed in the Supplementary information instead of manuscript.

 

6. Countermeasure optimization: (i) Four countermeasures were introduced, but there were no optimization model in this part. (ii) The “Results” section should be added in this paper. The results should be concise and directly underscore the major and novelty of the findings. The theoretical implications of the paper should be presented. The limitations of the study should also be presented.

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

1. In the Abstract part, Line 14, what did the authors mean when they referred to “the former”, it seemed that the “vertical compensation” was correct according to the last sentence. Line 17-18, the authors stated that the current task of water environment pollution control in China’s basins remains arduous, why? Line 26, how to determine the amount of compensation funds? What ecological protection projects did the authors intend to suggest? They should be summarized in the Abstract part. After reading the Abstract, I am still confused about the main conclusion obtained by the authors. Furthermore, the authors mentioned “basin” in the title and also “basins” in the Abstract and Data and system construction parts, the authors should explain clearly which one they really investigated, a specific basin or all the basins in China?

2. In the Introduction part, the authors should point out what is/are the objective(s) of this research.

3. The authors mentioned watershed environmental protection in many parts of the manuscript, but I am curious about the protection measures in detail. For example, how the governments coordinated in the ecological environment aspect? How to improve the water quality by coordination of those governments?

4. Line 71, what did the authors mean when they referred to “data”? What data?

5. What is the method to calculate the horizontal ecological compensation shared by the downstream counties (cities or provinces)? The authors did not introduce that in this manuscript.

 

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have improved the text of the ms in the light of the suggestions

Reviewer 2 Report

• This article can be published in its current version.

Reviewer 3 Report

1, I do not find any response to the question “how to determine the amount of compensation funds?”, which was mentioned last time.

2, If the authors meant all the river basins in China, I think the basin in the title should be “basins”.

3, The research objectives of this paper should be summarized and clearly stated.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx