Assessment of the Impact of Industrial and Municipal Discharges on the Surface Water Body Status (Poland)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Paper is interesting, I have accepted the paper before publication one time English language should be check by native speaker. In methodology section should add the flow chart . Overall paper quality good and acceptable for publication. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your comments. We added a flow chart to the methodology sections and improved English language.

Sincerely,

Marta Wiesner-Sękala and Beata Kończak

Reviewer 2 Report

Journal: Sustainability

Ms. ID.: sustainability-2120731

Title: Assessment of the impact of industrial and municipal discharges on the surface water body status (Poland)

 

Marta Wiesner-Sękala and Beata Kończak aimed to study the impact of industrial and municipal discharges on the surface water body status of the Kłodnica river in Poland. The classification of this water body was performed based on the results of the physicochemical analysis of selected parameters in accordance with the limit values included in the Regulation. This topic is local but of high importance. The manuscript is well prepared. I find it suitable for the Journal. Still, I have some suggestions for improvement.

The authors should emphasize the motivation for the paper more directly within the Introduction.

I find that the authors should compare present findings with some similar type of locality described in the literature.

Also, they could make some suggestions to overcome the low probability of fulfilling ecological ambitions by 2027. I find it very important.

 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your comments. According to your recommendations we have made the following changes:

• We corrected the Introduction and emphasized the purpose and validity of the results presented in the paper (line: 38-49).
• We improved the Results&Discussion section by adding the information about the results taken from the other locality with similar problem (line: 341-344; 445-453; 489-494).
• We added suggestions to overcome the low probability of fulfilling ecological ambitions by 2027 in Conclusion section (line: 534-547).
• We improved the English language.

Sincerely,

Marta Wiesner-Sękala and Beata Kończak

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors have presented an interesting article on threats to aquatic ecosystems in urban areas. I recommend the article for publication after incorporating the following corrections.

Chapter 1 Introduction should include a clearly defined purpose of the research. In addition, a broader reference to the existing state of knowledge (other studies in the region) and not describe which institution is responsible for which monitoring. This lends itself to the Materials and methods chapter.

The description of the research object should be in Chapter 2.

Figure 1. Black and white and as a result hardly clear. Please mark the boundary PLRW60006116159 "Klodnica to Promna".

The methods section does not include information on the statistical methods used in the work, software, etc.

What was the volume of water flow at each measurement point on each sampling date? Did it affect the dilution of contaminants?

Line 148-169-This passage should be in the Metarials and methods section

Some research results and conclusions are obvious. The authors emphasize in the introduction that the analyzed area is the most transformed in Poland as a result of human activities hence the state of the environment will relate to this situation.

In addition, it is obvious to state that a more detailed picture is given by monitoring carried out at several points than at only one (Chief Inspectorate Of Environmental Protection).

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for your comments. According to your recommendations we have made the following changes:

• the purpose of the research is added to the Introduction section (line: 38-49)
• a broader reference to the existing state of knowledge is introduced into the text (line: 73-83)
• a description which institution is responsible for which monitoring is shifted to the Materials and methods section
• a characteristic of study area is shifted to chapter Materials and methods
• Figure 1. is corrected
• information on the statistical methods used in the work, software is included in chapter chapter Materials and methods (168-170)
• Line 148-169 is shifted to Metarials and methods section
• English language is improved.

In case of comment concerning the volume of water flow - The water flow volume was measured twice at measurement point no. 5 and it was 0.85 m/s. According to Institute of Meteorology and Water Management the average of the annual average flows over the multi-year period in point located near our measurement point no. 5 was 0.9 m/s. We assumed that the contaminants have not been diluted.

Sincerely,

Marta Wiesner-Sękala and Beata Kończak