Technical and Agronomical Assessment of the Use of Desalinated Seawater for Coastal Irrigation in an Insular Context

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled “Technical and agronomical assessment of the use of desalinated seawater for coastal irrigation in an insular context” provides an excellent endorsement of the surveyed farmers in the studied area regarding the use of desalinated seawater for agricultural purposes suggesting the strategy of combining types of water with other water resources such as groundwater and/or reclaimed water can guarantee water and food security in the Gran Canaria Island’s territory.

The manuscript is within the topics of Water journal and the work to the reviewer’s best knowledge is original. Another strong point of the manuscript is the good quality of the English language and its logical structure which facilitates its reading. Finally, the manuscript provides significant quantity of new data, especially concerning the endorsement of the surveyed farmers in the studied area regarding the use of desalinated seawater for agricultural purposes; these data may be valuable for studying the strategy of combining types of water with other water resources such as groundwater and/or reclaimed water can guarantee water and food security. I personally feel that the manuscript should be accepted in Water journal.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for you positive reply and excellent reception of the paper proposal.

Best and wishes for 2020.

Dr. Baltasar Peñate

Reviewer 2 Report

The study is an interesting critical report on advantages and disadvantages of using desalinated water for agricultural uses. The work is well written with an adeguate English and grammar.

I have some suggestion about the paper

Line 31: Freshwater supply has been altered worldwide due to human-induced changes like habitat 30 degradation, anthropogenic subsidence, climate-related risks... I suggest to add a reference for each changes described. Here some suggestion: 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771416301858?via%3Dihub

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/8/1/8

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/7/1502/htm

Introduction need more detailes with the description of state of art of the study and the connection with the current literature.

Figure 1 need a deep restailing:

Eliminate world image, add coordinate grids and think to the possibility to merge the figure 3 in figure 1 with a panel stucture, where a) is the general localization, b) Canarian island and c)land use

Figure 2

Like for figure 1 organize it in panel and add coordinate grid.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you for our revision and comments. In general have been very positive and fruitful to review the manuscript. The introduction and methods sections have been revised and completed with more information, description and some new references.

Besides, Figures 1, 2 and 3 have been re-disegned following your recommendation.

English languaje has been revised in the whole document.

I hope the changes proposed could be enough to accept the manuscript.

Regards,

Dr. Baltasar Peñate

Editor P.S. I have to upload the jpg of the new figures. I keep waiting for instructions.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I would to congratulate with the authors for the good work done in this review. Now the manuscript is suitable for pubblication.

Only 1 modification to do 

Line 556 reference [6] the correct form of the reference is: 

Mastrocicco, M.; Busico, G.; Colombani, N.; Vigliotti, M.; Ruberti, D. Modelling Actual and Future Seawater Intrusion in the Variconi Coastal Wetland (Italy) Due to Climate and Landscape Changes. Water 2019, 11(7), 1502 [doi.org/10.3390/w11071502.