Monitoring Water-Related Ecosystems with Earth Observation Data in Support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 Reporting
, Alfred Hubbard 1,3, Frederick Policelli 1, Amy Pickens 4, Matthew Hansen 4, Temilola Fatoyinbo 1, David Lagomasino 5, Nima Pahlevan 1,3, Sushel Unninayar 1,6, Argyro Kavvada 7, Mark Carroll 1, Brandon Smith 1,3, Margaret Hurwitz 8, Danielle Wood 9 and Stephanie Schollaert Uz 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors, please find my comments on your manuscript.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript supports the SDG 6 reporting by monitoring water-related ecosystems with Earth Observation data. The paper is interesting and I have enjoyed reading this paper and believe it is worthy of getting published.
The introduction section needs to be somewhat expanded and give more context on the Landsat and MODIS usage and impacts. For instance, the Landsat imagery has been widely used to model hydrology and water quality impacts and make decisions (White et al., 2010; Singh and Saraswat, 2016; Kumar et al., 2020; etc.).
Some more discussion on the uncertainties in land use products will help readers get a clear overall picture.
References:
White, M. J., Storm, D. E., Busteed, P., Stoodley, S., & Phillips, S. J. (2010). Evaluating conservation program success with Landsat and SWAT. Environmental management, 45(5), 1164-1174.
Singh, G., & Saraswat, D. (2016). Development and evaluation of targeted marginal land mapping approach in SWAT model for simulating water quality impacts of selected second generation biofeedstock. Environmental modelling & software, 81, 26-39.
Author Response
The manuscript supports the SDG 6 reporting by monitoring water-related ecosystems with Earth Observation data. The paper is interesting and I have enjoyed reading this paper and believe it is worthy of getting published.
- We thank the reviewer for recognizing the potential contribution of this research to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals reporting effort and appreciate the thoughtful review of the manuscript.
The introduction section needs to be somewhat expanded and give more context on the Landsat and MODIS usage and impacts. For instance, the Landsat imagery has been widely used to model hydrology and water quality impacts and make decisions (White et al., 2010; Singh and Saraswat, 2016; Kumar et al., 2020; etc.).
- We have expanded the introduction to include more context on the operational applications of satellite EO data, especially highlighting Landsat. Lines 84-90 in the introduction reflect this change. We thank the reviewer for the recommended references, which we have cited.
Some more discussion on the uncertainties in land use products will help readers get a clear overall picture.
- This is an important concept and we are happy that it has been highlighted by the reviewer. We have expanded the discussion section to include an overview of uncertainties in land use products and the importance of conducting accuracy assessments when using EO data for reporting on wetland area changes. This is reflected in lines 592-611. We have also added a related recommendation in lines 684-685.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
I'm happy with the incorporated changes in the manuscript and answers to my questions/remarks. In my view, the paper is ready for being published. Well done.
