A Harmony-Based Approach for Assessing and Regulating Human-Water Relationships: A Case Study of Henan Province in China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have addressed the reviewer comments and improved the manuscript significantly. I noticed one minor thing

section 3.2 line 7 It is not 'NOVA'. It is ANOVA

Author Response

Reviewer 1:

 

Response: Thank you for your positive and constructive review. We appreciate your time and efforts, and acknowledgment was added in the revision. The changes were highlighted in bright blue for easy review.

We hope that the revision meets the requirement for publication.

 

The authors have addressed the reviewer comments and improved the manuscript significantly.

Response: Thank you for your positive review.

 

I noticed one minor thing

section 3.2 line 7 It is not 'NOVA'. It is ANOVA

Response: We are sorry for our careless and thank you for your careful review. The abbreviation “NOVA” has been changed to “ANOVA” in the revision and the sentence has been replaced as “The result of the single factor ANOVA test indicated that the difference of harmony degree among 18 cities in Henan Province was significant with the in analysis P<0.05.” (page 12, line 31).

We carefully read the manuscript and all the similar problems has been solved.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript presented a framework based on the harmony approach for assessing and regulating human-water relationships having the Henan Province in China as a case study. The study is interesting and is very relevant globally. The rapid changes in our landscape due to anthropogenic activities and change of climate would need a systematic assessment on human and water relationships to effectively manage its impact to human development and environment. Although the study presented to be useful, I have numerous comments to improve the research and the manuscript.

General comments and questions:

1. Substantial English edition- grammar and better use of terms.

e.g.

Page 1 Line 42- ..”precondition of..” to “to”

Page 1 Line 43- “explosive” better use “rapid”

Page 2 Line 3-  grammatical error- “…regions over the globe is facing and will continue facing in future the severely disharmony..”

Page 3 Line 30- “..followed by introduce..” à Introduction

 

2. There are other theoretical and practical research about human-water interaction. I would recommend to have a read on some literatures and reflect how your research can contribute and/or how these other approaches can be used to further improve the framework in your manuscript. For example:

Socio-hydrology- Sivapalan, M.; Savenije, H.H.G.; Blöschl, G. Socio-hydrology: A new science of people and water. Hydrol. Process. 2012, 26, 1270–1276

Pluralistic Water Research- Evers, M., Höllermann, B., Almoradie, A., Taft, L., und Garcia-Santos, G. (2017): The pluralistic water research concept: A new human-water system research approach. Water 9, 933 doi: 10.3390/w9120933

3. The research mentioned in comment point number 2 are interdisciplinary and inter-transdisciplinary (involvement of stakeholders) research. I think having an inter- and transdicipliary approach is vital to water management. How would you consider this in your research in the future?
4. Investigating the human-water relationship is complex and that would require to have an in-depth investigation of its causal relationships to better understand the main drivers and feedback mechanism. Such methods that can be used iis the drivers, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) framework and qualitative system dynamics. Describe how this can be useful and used in your research.
5. It is I think important to describe the harmony method prior to the framework. Describe elaborately. Elaborate in the introduction what harmony - disharmony means. It is unclear for me.

 

Specific comments and questions:

1. Page 1 Section Abstract Line 35: The text “HDE(X1201, X1202, X1203); DED(X2204,X2205, X2301); COD(X3203, X3204, X3205)” is not comprehensible. I would suggest to exclude this from the abstract. I would however suggest to instead describe this factors rather than codes.
2. Page 2 Line 21- proper referencing…” Lesparre et al. (????)”
3. Page 2 from Line 26- the methods and studies here are mixed. For example based on multi-criteria analysis methods, statistical methods, etc…. Please make this clear in the text
4. Figure 1- Caption. Reference website can be as a footnote
5. Have the Case study in a separate section
6. Table 1 is unclear. How were the numbers derived? Elaborate more about the description of these table, e.i. the Indicator layer how was these identified
7. Page 7 Line 6- “(1) A piece-wise fuzzy membership function was used to map each index to [0,1]”. Mention this as a normalization method (reference about piece-wise method) and why need for a normalization for a multi criteria methods.
8. Page 8 Line 8- “The correlation analysis was employed to reduce the correlation of the selected candidate indicators.” Why reduce the correlation? This is not clear for me.
9. Page 11 Line 27- "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating Water Conservancy Reform and Development". Reference list?
10. In the conclusion, what does it mean improvement of harmony in reality? I would suggest describing in the conclusion what is the practical impact for readers to easily understand.

Author Response

Reviewer 2:

The manuscript presented a framework based on the harmony approach for assessing and regulating human-water relationships having the Henan Province in China as a case study. The study is interesting and is very relevant globally. The rapid changes in our landscape due to anthropogenic activities and change of climate would need a systematic assessment on human and water relationships to effectively manage its impact to human development and environment. Although the study presented to be useful, I have numerous comments to improve the research and the manuscript.

Response: Thank you for your positive and constructive review. The comments are very helpful for us to improve the manuscript. We appreciate your time and efforts put on our manuscript. Acknowledgement was added in the revision. The point-to-point responses and corresponding corrections in the revision are given after each comment. All the changes were highlighted in bright blue for easy review.

We hope that the revision meets the requirement for publication.

 

1. General comments and questions:Substantial English edition- grammar and better use of terms.

Response: Thank you for your careful review. Concerning of the language issues, we carefully read and checked the full text and asked a colleague who is a native English speaker to check the whole manuscript thoroughly. All the language problems including grammatic and structural ones in the paper have been revised. We believed that the language is now satisfactory for publication.

 

e.g.

Page 1 Line 42- ..”precondition of..” to “to”

Response: Thank you for your careful review. The preposition “of” has been changed to “to” in the revision as “Water resources are a vital substrate and precondition to human development and eco-environmental protection [1].”( page 2 line 1)

We carefully checked the manuscript and all similar problems has been solved.

 

Page 1 Line 43- “explosive” better use “rapid”

Response: Thank you for your suggestion. The word “explosive” has been changed to “rapid” in the revision as “However, due to rapid increase of population, widespread economic growth, rapid urbanization and industrialization, low efficiency of water consumption, improper water management and insufficient water storage infrastructure [2], the relationship between water resources and human socio-economic development in many regions over the globe is facing and will continue facing in future the severely disharmony [3-8].” (page 2  line 2)

 

Page 2 Line 3-  grammatical error- “…regions over the globe is facing and will continue facing in future the severely disharmony..”

Response: Thank you for your careful review. The word “facing” in this sentence has been changed to “face” in the revision as “However, due to rapid increase of population, widespread economic growth, rapid urbanization and industrialization, low efficiency of water consumption, improper water management and insufficient water storage infrastructure [2], the relationship between water resources and human socio-economic development in many regions over the globe is facing and will continue face severe disharmony. “ (page 2 line 2)

 

Page 3 Line 30- “..followed by introduce..” à Introduction

Response: Thank you for your careful review. We are sorry for our careless. The word “introduce” has been changed to “Introduction” in the revision as “The framework showing the steps and the relationships between methods used in this study was then described for evaluating and regulating HWR, followed by introduction of the evaluation index system and method involved in the framework.” (Page 3 Line 31)

 

2. There are other theoretical and practical research about human-water interaction. I would recommend to have a read on some literatures and reflect how your research can contribute and/or how these other approaches can be used to further improve the framework in your manuscript. For example:

Socio-hydrology- Sivapalan, M.; Savenije, H.H.G.; Blöschl, G. Socio-hydrology: A new science of people and water. Hydrol. Process. 2012, 26, 1270–1276

Pluralistic Water Research- Evers, M., Höllermann, B., Almoradie, A., Taft, L., und Garcia-Santos, G. (2017): The pluralistic water research concept: A new human-water system research approach. Water 9, 933 doi: 10.3390/w9120933

Response: Thank you for your constructive suggestion, which is very helpful for improving our manuscript. We enhanced our manuscript from the following two aspects according to your suggestion.

With respect to the references and the contribution of our study, as you said, there are many methods that can be applied to study human-water relationship, including regression analysis method, socio-hydrological model method, system dynamic method and Drive force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) method. These methods play an important role in solving the human-water interaction problems. They also have their own advantages and disadvantages and applicable conditions. In order to better summarize the current research status, discover problems and lead to the research goals and innovations of this article, we summarized these research methods in the introduction and the following sentences were added in the revision as “Based on the qualitative exploration, a variety of methods have been proposed to quantitatively assess and regulate the discordant HWR, such as the commonly used Analytic Hierarchy Process method [17], fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method [18], multi-objective analysis method [19], regression analysis method, and Drive force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) method. [20, 21]. For example, the Analytic Hierarchy Process method is often used to construct an index system of water resources management evaluating, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is often used to evaluate level of water resources management. Teegavarapu et al. [22] analyzed the impact of climate change on water resources management and the application of a soft-computing approach, fuzzy set theory, for climate-sensitive management of hydro-systems; Multi-objective Models are often used to analyze the integration and optimization of water systems, and coordinate the relationship between the humanistic system and the water system. Mahaut and Andrieu [23] assessed the influence of different urban-development and water-management modes on sewer-system overflows by using hydrological models and multi-objective analysis method; the drivers, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) framework is an important method for identifying the interaction relationship between indicators of human - water system, Jamal Mosaffaie et al. [24] focused on analyzing watershed health, whereas Sirak Robele Gari et al. [25] found major water quality related public health problems and Economic activities impacting water quality using the DPSIR framework.” (page 2 line 31)

Although these methods are very important, they did not study human-water relationships from a harmonious perspective. More importantly, there is still no method to systematically study the process of evaluation and regulation of human-water relationship from the perspective of harmonious balance. However, the introduction of harmony is necessary to solve the current conflicts between multiple stakeholders. Because the improvement of human development and the protection of water resources are both important foundations for human-water sustainability. Compared to the current commonly used methods for the assessment of HWR mentioned above, the concept of harmony focuses on the mutual adaptation processes among stakeholders, rather than one party adapting to others. Therefore, only a high level of human development or only a well-protected water system is not a harmonious development of HWR, but if both are in good status, they are in balance. The harmonious assessment and regulation of HWR can provide a scientific basis for the formulation and implementation of water resources development and utilization strategies. We described these in the revision as “Studying HWR from the perspective of harmony is urgently needed, because the improvement of human development and the protection of water resources are both important foundations for human-water sustainability [26]. Compared to the current commonly used methods for the assessment of HWR mentioned above, the concept of harmony focuses on the mutual adaptation processes among stakeholders, rather than one party adapting to others. Therefore, only a high level of human development or only a well-protected water system is not a harmonious development of HWR, but if both are in good status, they are in balance [27]. The harmonious assessment and regulation of HWR can provide a scientific basis for the formulation and implementation of water resources development and utilization strategies. In recent years, the application of harmony related methods to water resources management has received attention in academia.” (page 2, line 45).

We propose a harmony-based approach that contains a systematic process of the harmony assessment, indicator identification, harmony balance constraints, and harmony regulation for assessing and regulating the discordant human-water relationship. In addition, in order to highlight our research purpose and innovation, the research purpose of this article were described in the introduction as “The specific objectives of this study include: (1) To proposes a harmony theory -based HWR evaluation approach to assessment and regulate the discordant HWR; (2) To analyze the spatiotemporal variation of the discordant HWR in Henan Province based on the proposed method; (3) To identify the main factors that affect the human-water disharmony in Henan Province.” (page 3, line 26).

With respect to the problem “how these other approaches can be used to further improve the framework in your manuscript.”, thank you for your careful review and constructive suggestion. The innovation of this study is to propose a harmony-based framework for assessing and evaluating human-water relationship. The harmony assessment and regulation methods were selected for applying to the case study of this research. In fact, many existing methods can be used to or help to further improve our proposed framework.

The following sentences were added in the revision as “In fact, many existing methods can be used to or help to further improve our proposed framework. For example, (1) As an alternative to the indicator selection method used in this study, the DPSIR method may be able to better identify evaluation indicators. Because the method focuses on supposed causal relationships in a clear way that appeals to policy actors and can be used to analyze socio-economic and ecological issues. (2) The social hydrological model has advantages of obtaining social hydrological index with long time series and high temporal and spatial resolutions. Therefore, this kind of method may be able to combine with our proposed research framework from the following two aspects. First, solving no gauge observations or low spatial and temporal resolution problems of indicators in the indicator system used in this study. Because social hydrological models can be used to obtain the complete indicator data with complete time series and high spatial and temporal resolutions. Second, it can be used to the harmony regulation in our proposed framework. Because the introduce of a social hydrological model can help to connect the relationship between the main impact indicators and their affecting factors such as meteorological and topographical factors. (3) Many regression analysis methods can be applied to identify the main influencing factors, which is critical to regulate the discord human-water relationship. (4) The method of qualitative system dynamics can help to study the interdependence of various factors within the human-water system. Based on the indicators selected by DPSIR method, combining with qualitative system dynamics and correlation analysis methods, the preliminary selection indicators can be further selected, and indicators with high importance and low relevance can be set as the final evaluation and regulation in accordance of the harmony degree of HWR.” (page 20, line 4).

 

3. The research mentioned in comment point number 2 are interdisciplinary and inter-transdisciplinary (involvement of stakeholders) research. I think having an inter- and transdicipliary approach is vital to water management. How would you consider this in your research in the future?

Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestions. We fully agree with you. Interdisciplinary research is important for water resources management in basins, which is complex and needs consider the balance of interests between socioeconomic development and water-related ecological protection. Therefore, water resources management needs knowledges of multiple disciplines such as hydrology, ecology, and environmental science. How to use the multidisciplinary related approaches to solve problems in balance of interests among multiple stakeholders is critical to sustainable water resources management. The framework proposed in this study, which focuses on solving the problem of harmonious balance among multiple stakeholders, provides an opportunity for solving this problem. We described this in the revision as “Therefore, it is urgently needed to assess and regulate the disharmony human-water relationship, realize a virtuous cycle of coordination between the humanistic system and the water system, that is, provide long-term support and guarantee for human survival and sustainable economic and social development under the premise of continuous improvement of the self-sustaining and renewal ability of the water system [9]. (page 2, line 10).

“In literature, the study of HWR has always been a hot topic with academic concern. Since 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) first proposed the concept of "sustainable development", and then many studies have been carried out to explore the path of sustainable human and water development relationship [10]. Therefore, human-water sustainability, which is defined as “harmony”, has become the focus of water resources management. Many international seminars have been held on this theme to discuss the countermeasures of discordant HWR, such as the International Symposium on Sustainable Management of Water Quality and Quality, the Academic Conference on Sustainable Management of Water Resources with Increased Uncertainty, and the International Conference on Water Resources Planning in a Changing World [11-13]” (page 2, line 15).

In fact, the key for the application of multidisciplinary approaches in evaluating and regulating the discord human-water relationship is the quantification of the balance point of interests among stakeholders. Although the introduction of harmony balance theory in this study can solve this problem to some extent, we solve this problem by setting the ideal harmony value simply, which is greatly affected by human subjective cognition. The following sentences were added in the revisions as “Although the introduction of harmony balance theory in this study can solve this problem to some extent, we solve this problem by setting the ideal harmony value simply, which is greatly affected by human subjective cognition.” (page 19, line 1)

In order to better apply the methods and framework proposed in this study to water resources management, our further research will mainly focus on: “(1) Further exploration of the selection of indicators using other methods for studying human-water interactions such as the regression analysis method and Drive force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) method; (2) Further research on the setting and quantification of the “target value” of harmony balance, which is critical to regulation of human-water relationship and exists the problem of difficulty for quantification as described above; (3) Explore how other methods solving the problem of human-water relationships can be applied to the framework proposed in this study, such as socio-hydrological model and system dynamic method.. The following sentences were added in the revision as “In order to better apply the methods and framework proposed in this study to water resources management, our further research will mainly focus on: “(1) Further exploration of the selection of indicators using other methods for studying human-water interactions such as the regression analysis method and Drive force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) method; (2) Further research on the setting and quantification of the “target value” of harmony balance, which is critical to regulation of human-water relationship and exists the problem of difficulty for quantification as described above; (3) Explore how other methods solving the problem of human-water relationships can be applied to the framework proposed in this study, such as socio-hydrological model and system dynamic method.” (page 19, line 17)

 

4. Investigating the human-water relationship is complex and that would require to have an in-depth investigation of its causal relationships to better understand the main drivers and feedback mechanism. Such methods that can be used is the drivers, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) framework and qualitative system dynamics. Describe how this can be useful and used in your research.

Response: Thanks for the your careful review. Indeed, it is almost impossible to completely clarify the complex relationship between human and water due to their complex interaction. However, in order to accurately evaluate and regulate human-water relationship of our interested regions, the main indicators should be selected based on the actual situation of the study area first, followed by the assessment of human-water relationship and identification of the main factors affecting human-water discord. Finally, according to the main influencing factors and the setting target value of harmonious balance, the harmonious regulation is carried out to provide scheme references for the harmonious development of the regional human-water system.

The drivers, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) framework and qualitative system dynamics are two important methods for analyzing the feedback mechanism between system indicators and screening indicators. In the framework proposed in this study, the first step is the construction of index system. We screen indicators using correlation analysis to minimize the overlap of information between indicators while ensuring the importance of indicators in the current studies. Since the DPSIR framework and the qualitative system dynamic method has advantages of identifying the interaction relationship between indicators of human - water system and screening the main indicators, they can be well applied to our proposed framework as follows. For example, the DPSIR framework selects indicators from five aspects: drivers, pressure, state, impact and response, to characterize the causal chain, and systematic decision-making process in a system. The selection of indicators using this method may be more reasonable for assessing human-water relationship based on our proposed framework. The drivers, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) framework and qualitative system dynamics are two important methods for analyzing the feedback mechanism between system indicators and screening indicators. In the framework proposed in this study, the first step is the construction of index system. We screen indicators using correlation analysis to minimize the overlap of information between indicators while ensuring the importance of indicators in the current studies. Since the DPSIR framework and the qualitative system dynamic method has advantages of identifying the interaction relationship between indicators of human - water system and screening the main indicators, they can be well applied to our proposed framework as follows. For example, the DPSIR framework selects indicators from five aspects: drivers, pressure, state, impact and response, to characterize the causal chain, and systematic decision-making process in a system. The selection of indicators using this method may be more reasonable for assessing human-water relationship based on our proposed framework. The following sentences were added in the revision as "As an alternative to the indicator selection method used in this study, the DPSIR method may be able to better identify evaluation indicators. Because the method focuses on supposed causal relationships in a clear way that appeals to policy actors and can be used to analyze socio-economic and ecological issues." (page 20, line 4)

    The method of qualitative system dynamics can help to study the interdependence of various factors within the human-water system. Based on indicators selected using DPSIR method, the preliminary candidate indicators can be further selected by combining with qualitative system dynamics and correlation analysis methods for obtaining indicators with high importance and low relevance. The following sentences were added in the revision as “The method of qualitative system dynamics can help to study the interdependence of various factors within the human-water system. Based on indicators selected using DPSIR method, the preliminary candidate indicators can be further selected by combining with qualitative system dynamics and correlation analysis methods for obtaining indicators with high importance and low relevance.” (page 20, line 16)

 

5. It is I think important to describe the harmony method prior to the framework. Describe elaborately. Elaborate in the introduction what harmony - disharmony means. It is unclear for me.

Response: Thank you for your constructive suggestion, which is very helpful for improving our manuscript. In the revised manuscript, we have put the research framework part behind the method description. The expression in this section was further enhanced. In the revision, the section of “Materials and Methods” was organized as followed. The basic theory and applying processes of harmony-related methods used in this study, including the harmony assessment method, the harmony balance method, the harmony identification method and the harmony regulation method, were first introduced, followed by the framework proposed in this study based on these harmony related methods (page 3, line 37). The first description of the method can make it easier for readers to understand our research framework.

For the concept of harmony and disharmony, we are sorry for our unclear expression. In order to express the concepts of harmony and disharmony more clearly, we have made supplementary explanations in the introduction. (1) The meaning of harmony refers to “a virtuous cycle in which the humanistic system and the water system coordinate with each other, that is, on the premise of continuously improving the self-sustainment and renewal capabilities of the water system, water resources can provide long-term support and guarantee for human survival and sustainable economic and social development." (page 2, line 11)  (2) In addition, we distinguished “harmony” and “disharmony” quantitatively through Harmony Balance Method, “In this study, we considered that the harmony of HWR was mainly determined by whether the harmony degree of HWR met the minimum harmonious balance threshold constraint. If the constraint was met, the HWR in the region was considered harmonious. Otherwise, the region is considered disharmony and the main affecting factors needed to be identified and the regulation schemes should be formed to achieve a satisfactory harmonious status of HWR in the region.”（page 9 line 14）Therefore, disharmony is the opposite of harmony. (3) In section 3.4, we cite Henan province as an example to illustrate the regulation process of HWR from “disharmony” to “harmony”. The specific process is as follows. “According to the previous description of harmony balance, the harmony regulation model put forward in 2.7 was applied to regulate HWR in Henan Province, based on the reference level of the human–water harmony degree in 2018. The target threshold and constraint conditions for the harmony balance were determined for each city of the province. Because of the serious pollution in Henan Province [50], the minimum target threshold of human–water harmony was set to be 0.7 in 2018. When each city reached this threshold, a satisfactory level of harmony balance was considered to have been achieved, which means the status of the HWR in the city is “harmony”.” （page 17, line 2）

 

 

Specific comments and questions:

 

1. Page 1 Section Abstract Line 35: The text “HDE(X1201, X1202, X1203); DED(X2204,X2205, X2301); COD(X3203, X3204, X3205)” is not comprehensible. I would suggest to exclude this from the abstract. I would however suggest to instead describe this factors rather than codes.

Response: Thank you for your careful review and constructive suggestion. All these abbreviations have been change to the specific main influencing factors in the revision as “At present, Henan Province has serious discordant indicators in these three aspects (water system health, humanistic system development, and human-water system coordination), which proves that it is still facing pressure from both socio-economy sustainable development and water resources protection.” （page1, line 34）

 

2. Page 2 Line 21- proper referencing…”Lesparre et al. (????)”

Response: Thank you for your helpful review. We are sorry for missing the year of references. According to the requirement of reference in the journal “Water”, the year of references should not appear in the citations in the main body of the manuscript. Therefore, the publication year of references are not added in citations. We have added all the year of references in the paper when there is the writer’s name and the reference in the revision is as follows “For example, Lesparre et al. (2020)[14] believed that the human-water relationship should be focused on the interrelationship between the human economy and the earth’s hydrological system”. (page 2, line 25)  The reference has been changed to “14. Lesparre, N., et al., Magnetic resonance sounding measurements as posterior information to condition hydrological model parameters: Application to a hard-rock headwater catchment. Journal of Hydrology, 2020. 587: p. 124941.”

 

3. Page 2 from Line 26- the methods and studies here are mixed. For example based on multi-criteria analysis methods, statistical methods, etc…. Please make this clear in the text

Response: Thank you for your careful review and constructive suggestion. This paragraph has been reorganized in the revision for expressing it more clearly. We first summarized the commonly used methods for assessing and regulating human-water relationship, followed by their importance and advantage for solving human-water relationship problems and the examples that how these methods are applied to solve the problem of human-water relationship by combining with the specific applications. Finally, we summarized the common problem existed in these methods for forming our study purpose. That is, “However, to our best knowledge, there is no or limited studies about assessment and regulation of HWR from a harmonious perspective.”. The paragraph in the revision is as follows “Based on the qualitative exploration, a variety of methods have been proposed to quantitatively assess and regulate the discordant HWR, such as the commonly used Analytic Hierarchy Process method [17], fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method [18], multi-objective analysis method [19], regression analysis method, and Drive force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) method and socio-hydrological models. [20, 21]. For example, the Analytic Hierarchy Process method is commonly used to calculate the weights of indicators for assessing HER [22]. Multi-objective Models are often used to analyze the integration and optimization of water systems, and to coordinate the relationship between the humanistic system and the water system [23]. The drivers, pressure, state, impact and response (DPSIR) framework is an important method for identifying the interaction relationship between indicators of human - water system[24, 25]. However, to our best knowledge, there is no or limited studies about assessment and regulation of HWR from a harmonious perspective, although these methods play an important role in quantifying HWR.” (page 2, line 31).

 

 

4. Figure 1- Caption. Reference website can be as a footnote

Response: Thank you for the suggestions. In order to facilitate readers to apply our research data, we provide a website to download the data used in this study. Sorry for the inappropriate expression. We cited the data source (website) in references according to the Journal requirement in the revision as “The economic and social data in Henan Province from 2006 to 2018 used in this paper were mainly provided by Henan Statistical Yearbooks [44] and Statistical Yearbooks of Urban and Rural Construction [45]; the water resources data from 2006 to 2018 were mainly provided by Henan Water Resources Bulletins and Municipal Water Resources Bulletins [46].” (page 11, line 3). 

The citations in the references are as follows. 

44.  Henan Provincial Bureau of Statistics. Henan Statistical Yearbooks. China Statistics Press. http://www.ha.stats.gov.cn/tjfw/tjcbw/tjnj/
45.  Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China. Statistical Yearbook of Urban and Rural Construction. http://www.mohurd.gov.cn/xytj/tjzljsxytjgb/jstjnj/
46.  Water Resources Department of Henan Province, People's Republic of China. Henan Water Resources Bulletin. http://slt.henan.gov.cn/bmzl/szygl/szygb/

 

 

 

5. Have the Case study in a separate section

Response: Thank you for your careful review. According to your suggestion, the case study has been separated from methods. The adjusted manuscript is organized as follows.

1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Harmony Assessment Method

2.2. Harmony Balance Method

2.3. Harmony Identification

2.4. Harmony Regulation Model

2.5. Research Framework

2.6. Study Area and Data

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Temporal Variation of Human–Water Harmony Degree

3.2. Spatial Variation of Human–Water Harmony Degree

3.3. Identification of key influencing factors for the harmony of HWR

3.4. Regulation of Human–Water Harmony Degree in Henan Province

3.5. Future research

4. Conclusions

 

6. Table 1 is unclear. How were the numbers derived? Elaborate more about the description of these table, e.i. the Indicator layer how was these identified

Response: Thank you for your careful review. We are sorry for our unclear expression.

With respect to the number of indicator system (a-c) in Table 1, we clearly described the number of indicator system in the revision. The following sentences were added as “the index system for assessing human–water harmony was formed from three dimensions of water system health, humanistic system development, and coordination of the human–water system (Table 1(a-c)). In the table, the candidate indicators were selected from three dimensions, water system in Table 1 (a), humanistic system in Table 1 (b), and the coordinated human–water system in Table 1 (c), for quantifying HWR. The correlation analysis was employed to reduce the correlation of the selected candidate indicators. For each indicator, a simple explanation was added for helping understand the meaning and calculation method of the indicator.” (page 6, line 8)

For numbers of indicators in the Indicator layer of the Table 1 (a-c), the followed sentences were added in the revision for more clearly expressing as “The indicators were selected and numbered based on the following consideration. The index numbers start with X, the first digit is the criterion level number (1 for HED, 2 for DED, 3 for COD), the second digit is the classification level number corresponding to the criterion level, and the third and fourth digits are the index numbers in each classification level. For example, the number X1101 means the indicator 01 in the first classification level of water system.” (page 6, line 17)

For the determination of the index node value (a-e) in this table. The following sentences were described in detail in the section of “2.1. Harmony Assessment Method”, as follows.

“The piecewise function of each index was divided into six sections by five note values, i.e., (a) the worst value, (b) the worse value, (c) the medium value, (d) the better value, and (e) the optimal value. The different harmony degrees of these five notes were assigned as 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.8, and 1, respectively. The specific values of these five representative notes were determined according to the following principles: the optimal value was determined based on the national optimal level and then plus a suitable percentage; the medium value was determined based on the multi-year average of the indicator in the study area; the worst value was determined by the worst value of the indicator over many years in the study area; the worse value and the better value were determined based on the combination of interpolation method and the nature of the indicator [32, 38].”  (page 3, line 46)

 

 

7. Page 7 Line 6- “(1) A piece-wise fuzzy membership function was used to map each index to [0,1]”. Mention this as a normalization method (reference about piece-wise method) and why need for a normalization for a multi criteria methods.

Response: Thank you for your suggestions. Due to different units, dimensions and magnitudes of indicators in the index system reflecting human-water system, they are normalized using a piece-wise fuzzy membership function for ensuring the reliability of the results. More importantly, the normalization using this method by setting the five note values for each indicator can more accurately reflect the importance of these indicators contributing to the harmony of human-water relationship. The following sentences were added in the revision as “Due to different units, dimensions and magnitudes of indicators in the index system reflecting human-water system, they are normalized using a piece-wise fuzzy membership function for ensuring the reliability of the results.” (page 3, line 42) and  “the normalization using this method by setting the five note values for each indicator can more accurately reflect the importance of these indicators contributing to the harmony of human-water relationship.” (page 3, line 44) 

 

8. Page 8 Line 8- “The correlation analysis was employed to reduce the correlation of the selected candidate indicators.” Why reduce the correlation? This is not clear for me.

Response: Thank you for your careful review. Since large correlation means strong data consistency and large information overlap between indicators, independent indicators were recommended in previous studies. Therefore, we use the correlation analysis method to select mutually independent indicators to avoid the overlap of information between the selected indicators. We are sorry for our unclear expression and the following sentences were added in the revision as “In order to avoid information overleap between indicators, correlation analysis method was employed to select mutually independent indicators to avoid the overlap of information between the selected indicators based on previous studies [42].” (page 6, line 12)

 

9. Page 11 Line 27- "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating Water Conservancy Reform and Development". Reference list?

Response: Thank you for your careful review.

Thank you for your careful review. The reference has been added in the revision as “In particular, the first comprehensive document on water conservancy was issued in the No. 1 Document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2011 [47], which clarified China’s water conservancy development strategy in the new era and determined the policy initiatives, goals and tasks for accelerating water conservancy reform and development.” (page 11, line 13)

10. In the conclusion, what does it mean improvement of harmony in reality? I would suggest describing in the conclusion what is the practical impact for readers to easily understand.

Response: Thank you for your careful review. We are sorry for our unclear expression. We want to show the increase of human-water harmony degree from 2006 to 2018, which reflects the improvement of human-water relationship. We re-described the unclear conclusions for summarizing the practical impact of these conclusions in the revision as follows.

“The purpose of the study is to propose a harmony-based framework for assessing the harmony of HWS. A clearly process for harmony assessment and regulation of HWS is described in the framework, including index system construction, harmony assessment, identification of main affecting factors, and harmony regulation of HWS. The proposed framework is applied to Henan Province in China for assessing and regulating the harmony development of HWS in the Province. The results showed that::

(1) HWS in Henan Province shows a poor harmony development relationship. The mean harmony degree of HWS in 18 cities of the province was 0.61 and 0.53 in 2018 and 2006, respectively. The human-water harmony degree in southern part of the province is significantly higher than that of its northern part, meaning that human-water relationship in southern part of the province is better than its northern part. In 2006, only three cities in the northern and western part of the province have the value of human-water harmony degree lower than 0.45, whereas all the six cities in southern part have the value of human-water harmony degree greater than 0.6.

(2) The spatial distribution of HWS harmony degree in Henan Province shows that water resources in the southwest part of the province is better than its northeast part. The human-water harmony degree in Sanmenxia City and Xinyang City, located in the west and south of Henan Province, has improved from 0.45 in 2006 to 0.75 in 2018. Similarly, the human-water harmony degree in the northeastern cities has increased from 0.45 to 0.65. By 2018, the human-water harmony in all cities of the Henan Province is higher than 0.55.

(3) The health degree of water system in the 18 cities of the Henan Province is lower than the development degree of the humanities system. As the southern part of Henan Province is rich in precipitation and poor in water consumption and pollution discharge, the health degree of water system in Zhumadian City has reached 0.70. Due to water shortage in the northern region, the health degree of water system in Hebi City is only 0.28.

(4) In order to improve the harmony degree of HWR, Henan Province needs to focus on the following indicators, including the proportion of the length of river with quality above level IV to total river, wastewater discharge per 10,000 Yuan industrial value-added, the proportion of COD inflow to total water resources, industrial output value as a percentage of GDP, water consumption per 10,000 GDP, public awareness of river protection, public water saving awareness, and construction of monitoring site and information system.

The method proposed in this article can quantitatively evaluate and regulate the harmonious relationship between human and water, but there are still some problems that need to be further deepened. First, the construction of the evaluation index system for human-water harmony may vary from person to person. How to build a unified and perfect index system is a further effort. Second, in the single-index quantitative calculation, the selection of each index node value is considered subjective. How to avoid this problem needs to be further studied.”(page 19, line 34)

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

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.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I think authors have to explain the reason to select Henan Province for the study. I cannot find the necessity to do the research in this area.

Figure 3 and 5 is difficult to understand.

I cannot understand why you use the city as a unit for the analysis, not a mesh or other methods.

No statistical analysis has been done, but it may be necessary to do a statistical analysis to see if the changes and differences are significant.

Author Response

Comment 1: I think authors have to explain the reason to select Henan Province for the study. I cannot find the necessity to do the research in this area.

 

Response: We are very grateful for the reviewer’s reminder. The reason why we chose Henan Province for the study is that Henan Province is an important central province in China and shoulders the important responsibility of the country’s main grain production area. At the same time, the region has a large population and relatively intense human activities, leading to a complicated relationship between human and water (HWR). Although it has rich humanistic resources, however, water resources are relatively scarce, and the problem of HWR is prominent and typical. Choosing Henan Province as a research area has important practical significance for guiding the harmonious development of human-water in Henan Province. In addition, the focus of this paper is to propose a harmony-based approach for assessing and regulating the discordant human–water relationship, based on the harmony theory method. Henan Province is only used as a real example to verify the rationality and scientificity of the method proposed in this article. Any other area that studies the harmonious of HWR can be studied by this method.

 

Revision: 

(Page 1, Line 26) The Henan Province of China, which has a complicated relationship between human and water, was selected as a case study to apply and verify the approach proposed in this study.

(Page 3, Line 27) The proposed method was applied to Henan Province, with a large population and a prominent conflict between social development and water resources protection (the problem of HWR is prominent and typical), for assessing and regulating the harmonious development relationship of HWR in the region.

(Page 4, Line 1) Choosing Henan Province as a research area has important practical significance for guiding the harmonious development of human-water in Henan Province.

 

 

Comment 2: Figure 3 and 5 is difficult to understand.

 

Response: Many thanks for the reviewer’s valuable comment. We have redrawn Figure 3 and Figure 5 to make it easier for readers to understand. Figure 3 is a comparison of temporal and spatial changes in human-water harmony degree (HD) in 18 cities in Henan Province from 2006 to 2018. Figure 5 is a comparison of the degree of harmony between the three dimensions of the human-water system (water system health (HED), humanistic system development (DED), and coordination of the human–water system (COD)) in 18 cities in Henan Province from 2006 to 2018.

Revision: 

(Page 11, Line 28)

 

Figure 3. Temporal variation of human–water harmony degree in Henan Province from 2006 to 2018.

 

Revision: 

(Page 14, Line 1)

 

Figure 5. Evaluation results of the subsystem harmony degree for reflecting human–water relationship (HWR) in Henan Province from 2006 to 2018.

 

 

Comment 3: I cannot understand why you use the city as a unit for the analysis, not a mesh or other methods.

 

Response: Many thanks for the reviewer’s valuable suggestion. We use the city as a unit for the analysis is because cities are the basic unit of Henan Province. This article takes Henan Province as an example to study in order to evaluate and improve the harmonious HWR between cities, taking the city as a unit is sufficient and meets the requirements. In addition, due to the limitation of the data scale, most indicators are only accurate to the city scale. In order to ensure the consistency and continuity of the data, it is more reasonable to conduct research with the city as the smallest unit. Of course, if the data accuracy allows, it is also feasible to carry out research with mesh or other methods.

 

 

Comment 4: No statistical analysis has been done, but it may be necessary to do a statistical analysis to see if the changes and differences are significant.

 

Response: Many thanks for the reviewer’s valuable comment. We performed a paired-sample t-test on the human-water harmony of Henan Province from 2006 to 2018 in Figure 3.

 

Revision: 

(Page 11, Line 11) The results showed that the p-value was less than 0.05, which proved that the human-water harmony of Henan Province in 2018 was significantly different from that in 2006. The overall level of water harmony is showing an increasing trend.

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

Title: OK
Abstract: adequate
Keywords: the keyword "human–water relationship" occurs in the title. It should be replaced by another word specific to the study.

Introduction: Harmony in the context of the study has to be defined explicitly in the very beginning.

Page 2: Introduction second paragraph, line 7: Symposium on Sustainable Management of Water Quality and Quality. That should be changed to "Quantity and Quality" (OR) "Quality and Quantity"
The authors need to provide appropriate references for the conferences.

Page 10 has different line spacings in different paragraphs.

Table 1 Units needed for each of the variables described in the table.

What is the rationale for selecting the indicators for water system, humanistic
system, and coordinated human–water system

Section 2.3 the first sentence is not clearly identifying the column.

How the per capita availability of water resources is computed? more details are needed.

more clear references needed for the note values you have chosen.

Results and discussion

section 3.3 There are many parameters in the health of water systems. However, in the discussion, changes in precipitation alone is discussed as
the main reason for the increase/decrese in harmony index. How?

What is river water quality rating IV?

Figures
Quality appears OK

Figure 6 item (b) Indicators of humanistic system development. The caption appears twice. But the graphs are different. Corrections needed.

Tables

Table 2 should clearly identify the units for the different variables. Also there has to be an indication of what is regulated and what is not.

References:
The list of references is adequate.

Conclusions:

The last sentence of conclusion 1 (provided below) doesn't make sense. Poor water quality doesn't necessarily increase water demand. It reduces the
quantity of usable water.

The water resource per capita in Henan Province is only 445 m3, with an uneven spatial distribution, whereas the continuous increase in water demand is directly caused by an increase in sewage discharge and a deterioration of water quality.

Conclusion 2: It will read better if the authors say that "Better human-water harmony exists in the Southwestern part of the ....province".

Author Contributions: The last sentence is inappropriate for the manuscript at this stage. The paper is under review. that's all. The
authors can include the statement when the manuscript is finally accepted for publication.

Author Response

RESPONSES TO REVIEWER 2’ COMMENTS

 

Comment 1: Keywords: the keyword "human–water relationship" occurs in the title. It should be replaced by another word specific to the study.

 

Response: We are very grateful for the editor’s reminder. We have replaced the key word "human-water relationship" with "harmony theory".

 

Revision: 

(Page 1, Line 42) Keywords: harmony theory; harmony assessment; harmony regulation; harmonious development; water resources management

 

 

Comment 2: Introduction: Harmony in the context of the study has to be defined explicitly in the very beginning.

 

Response: We are very grateful for the reviewer’s suggestion. We added the definition of harmony at the very beginning of the introduction.

 

Revision:

(Page 2, Line 3) Harmony refers to the actions taken to achieve a coordinated relationship with a consistent goal. Harmony between human and water is a virtuous cycle of coordination between humanities system and water system.

 

Comment 3: Page 2: Introduction second paragraph, line 7: Symposium on Sustainable Management of Water Quality and Quality. That should be changed to "Quantity and Quality" (OR) "Quality and Quantity".

The authors need to provide appropriate references for the conferences.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s carefulness. We have corrected the content here and marked the citation.

 

Revision:

(Page 2, Line 22) Many international seminars have been held on this theme, to discuss the countermeasures of discordant HWR, such as the Elevent International Symposium on Water Management and Hydraulic Engineering, the 6th International Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management, and International Conference on Water Resource and Environment (WRE 2019) [8-10].

 

 

Comment 4: Page 10 has different line spacing in different paragraphs. 

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s carefulness. We have corrected this issue and re-checked the format of the full text.

 

 

Comment 5: Table 1 Units needed for each of the variables described in the table. 

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comment. We have added the unit of each variable in Table 1, see the revised draft for details.

 

 

Comment 6: What is the rationale for selecting the indicators for water system, humanistic system, and coordinated human–water system.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. In order to select indicators accurately and scientifically, we further subdivided the three criteria of human-water harmony (water system health, humanistic system development, and coordination of the human–water system), narrowed the scope of indicator selection, and selected representative indicators from them in conjunction with relevant references. The rationale for selecting the indicators of each criteria layer is as follows:

Water system health

Only when the function of the water system is not destroyed can the health of the water system be ensured. The Water system has three functions, namely resource function, environmental capacity function, and ecological maintenance function. The resource function of the water system provides resources for production and living activities. The environmental capacity function of the water system can bear pollutants at a certain level of discharge, while the water system shoulders the important task of maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. The three functions of the water system vary from region to region and from condition to condition. To maintain the health of the water system, the balance of the three functions must be guaranteed. Accordingly, the water system health criterion layer is divided into three classification layers: water resource subsystem, water environment subsystem, and water ecology subsystem.

Humanistic system development

The development of the humanistic system is manifested in the efficient use of resources and the sustainable development of the economy and society. Human beings are the creators of the development of humanistic systems, science and technology are the promoters of the development of humanistic systems, and the economy is the embodiment of the development of humanistic systems. The level of social development, economic development and scientific and technological development all reflect the development of the humanistic system. Accordingly, the criterion level of humanistic system development is divided into three sub-levels: social development sub-level, economic development sub-level, and scientific and technological development sub-level.

Coordination of the human–water system

The coordination of human-water system shows that the water system provides resources support for the development of the humanistic system, and the humanistic system provides guarantee measures for the health of the water system. The two promote each other and achieve a virtuous cycle through action and feedback. According to this, the coordination of human-water system criterion layer is divided into two classification layers: the water supply subsystem and the protection and management subsystem.

 

Revision:

(Page 8, Line 10) The indicators were selected and numbered based on the following consideration. The indicators for reflecting the water system were considered from aspects of water resources (X1101–X1102), water environment (X1201–X1203), and the water ecological (X1301–X1302) status. The indicators of humanities system development were considered from social development (X2101–2109), economic development (X2201–X2207), and technology progress (X2301–X2306). The indicators for reflecting the coordinated human–water system were considered from water supply (X3101–X3104) and protection and management (X3201–X3205).

 

Comment 7: Section 2.3 the first sentence is not clearly identifying the column.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. In section 2.3, we clearly supplemented and defined the meaning of each column in Table 2.

 

Revision:

(Page 8, Line 8) Table 1 is the index system for the assessment of HWR. The correlation analysis was employed to reduce the correlation of the selected representative indicators. Three dimensions, water system, humanistic system, and coordinated human–water system, corresponding to the HED, DED, and COD, were selected in the Table 1(a-c) for quantifying HWR and facilitating the selection of specific indicators. The first to fourth columns are the names, explanation, units and numbers of the selected indicators, respectively. The indicators were selected and numbered based on the following consideration. The indicators for reflecting the water system were considered from aspects of water resources (X1101–X1102), water environment (X1201–X1203), and the water ecological (X1301–X1302) status. The indicators of humanities system development were considered from social development (X2101–2109), economic development (X2201–X2207), and technology progress (X2301–X2306). The indicators for reflecting the coordinated human–water system were considered from water supply (X3101–X3104) and protection and management (X3201–X3205). The fifth to ninth columns are the five node values of each indicator in the quantitative calculation of single index, respectively. The last column represents the relationship between the indicator and the degree of harmony. If it is "+" (a positive indicator), indicating that the single index harmony degree increases with the increase of the indicator value; If it is "-" (a negative indicator), indicating that the single index harmony degree decreases with the increase of the indicator value.

 

Comment 8: How the per capita availability of water resources is computed? more details are needed.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. The indicator X1101 in Table 2 is the average per capita water resources, not the per capita availability of water resources. This value can be obtained directly from Henan Water Resources Bulletins and Municipal Water Resources Bulletins (http://www.hnsl.gov.cn/viewCmsCac.do?cacId= ff8080812afa870c012afae4033c00c0). The calculation method of this indicator is as follows:

Average per capita water resources = Total water resources/total population

 

 

Comment 9: More clear references needed for the note values you have chosen.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comment. Regarding the selection of node values, we have added clear references.

 

Revision:

(Page 8, Line 29) The specific values of these five representative notes for each index were determined according to the current industry-recognized standards (such as the State Environmental Protection Administration of China, and General Administration of Quality Supervision, and Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, 2002 [41]), research reports from international and domestic organizations [42], national or regional designated development plans [43-44], domestic average and optimal worst levels (Henan Statistical Yearbooks, Statistical Yearbooks of Urban and Rural Construction, Henan Water Resources Bulletins and Municipal Water Resources Bulletins, etc), the level of developed countries, and the expected indicators [45] (Table 1).

 

Comment 10: Section 3.3. There are many parameters in the health of water systems. However, in the discussion, changes in precipitation alone is discussed as the main reason for the increase/decrese in harmony index. How?

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. There are many indicators that affect the health of the water system. Here we only analyze the impact of changes in precipitation, because it has the most significant impact among many indicators. We have modified and supplemented this part of the article.

 

Comment 11: What is river water quality rating IV?

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comment. The standard in the "surface water environmental quality standard" ( GB3838-2002， China ) has a specific provision, it is divided into 5 grades, and arranged according to the order from good to poor, they are I, II, III, IV, and V. Among them, the river water quality rating IV is divided according to the requirements of agricultural water and industrial water. In addition to being suitable for agricultural and part industrial water, it can also be used as drinking water after proper treatment.

 

 

Comment 12: Figure 6 item (b) Indicators of humanistic system development. The caption appears twice. But the graphs are different. Corrections needed.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s carefulness. We have corrected this error and used Table 2 to represent Figure 6. Please refer to Table 2 in the revised draft for details.

 

 

Comment 13: Table 2 should clearly identify the units for the different variables. Also there has to be an indication of what is regulated and what is not.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. In Table 2 we have added units for different variables. The eight variables in Table 2 are the regulation indicators identified by the harmony identification method. Among them, the variables with numerical values ​​are the values ​​of the variables after regulation, and the variables without numerical "/" indicate that no regulation is required. We have annotated it at the bottom of Table 2.

 

 

Comment 14: The last sentence of conclusion 1 (provided below) doesn't make sense. Poor water quality doesn't necessarily increase water demand. It reduces the quantity of usable water.

The water resource per capita in Henan Province is only 445 m³, with an uneven spatial distribution, whereas the continuous increase in water demand is directly caused by an increase in sewage discharge and a deterioration of water quality.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s carefulness. We have changed this sentence.

 

 

Comment 15: Conclusion 2: It will read better if the authors say that "Better human-water harmony exists in the Southwestern part of the ....province".

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have changed this sentence to “Better human-water harmony exists in the Southwestern part of the Henan province”.

 

Revision:

(Page 20, Line 18) The spatial distribution of the human–water harmony degree in Henan Province shows that better human-water harmony exists in the Southwestern part of the Henan province.

 

Comment 16: Author Contributions: The last sentence is inappropriate for the manuscript at this stage. The paper is under review. That’s all. The authors can include the statement when the manuscript is finally accepted for publication.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s reminder. We have deleted this sentence.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 3 Report

In my opinion the paper is interesting, applying the HWR methodology to a concrete part of China. But in my opinion the paper needs some more work

The introduction section is ok

In the section 2.2 it will be useful if you introduce a short explanation about how you measure each "indicator layer".

The results and discussion section is really extensive in information: a lof of years, a lot of regions, and a lot of measures. Sometimes only a descriptive of the results, but no explanation is given to understand the "potential" reason of the observed result. It will be interesting that you reduce the number of comments and explanations, and concentrate in the most important ones, givien a potential explanation of the observed evolution/result/measure

You need to restructure the tables and figures, in order to generate a more claar source of information

Other comments:

Table 1:

• it will be easier for the reader, if you divide this table in 3 subtables, one for each "principle layer"
• it will be more simple if you introduce in the table a short explanation of each Indicator layer. This will help you to reduce the text

Page 8, first paragraph "research reports from international and domestic organisations ...". Which are these ones? Introduce the report and explain

In the results and discussion section, you need to reduce this section. You have to analyze the most intersting results, and expose a comprehensive explanation of the result. Examples:

• This benefit in Anyang City was a result of the fovernment investment in the conservancy. In this point you explain in a good way the reasons of the observed results
• But in the spatial distribution, no clear reasons are exposed. For example "henan province shows that water resources in the southwest are better than in the northeast part". But why? Which is the reason?

Figure 5: is not really "friendly" for the reader. Try to elaborate another figure, more easy for the reader

The same for Figure 6. Is not easy to observe the differences among teh diferent indicators

Please rewrite the conclussions section, in order to offer recomendations for authorities, policy makers, and main stakeholders

Additionally, introduce your opinion about the results obtained, and your main conclussion

 

 

Author Response

RESPONSES TO REVIEWER 3’ COMMENTS

 

Comment 1: In the section 2.2 it will be useful if you introduce a short explanation about how you measure each "indicator layer".

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have added a short explanation about how we measure each "indicator layer" in table 1. For a detailed explanation, please see Table 1 of the revised draft

 

 

Comment 2: The results and discussion section is really extensive in information: a lot of years, a lot of regions, and a lot of measures. Sometimes only a descriptive of the results, but no explanation is given to understand the "potential" reason of the observed result. It will be interesting that you reduce the number of comments and explanations, and concentrate in the most important ones, given a potential explanation of the observed evolution/result/measure.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. In accordance with the reviewers’ comments, we have supplemented and revised the results and discussion sections. As the content is scattered, please refer to the revised manuscript for detailed revisions.

 

 

Comment 3: Table 1:

• It will be easier for the reader, if you divide this table in 3 sub tables, one for each "principle layer".
• It will be more simple if you introduce in the table a short explanation of each Indicator layer. This will help you to reduce the text.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestion. We have divided Table 1 into 3 sub tables and added a short explanation of each indicator layer.

 

Revision: 

(Page 4, Line 22) 

Table 1. Index system for the assessment of the human–water relationship (a-c)

(a) Health Degree of water system

Indicator Layer	explanation	Unit	Index Number	a	b	c	d	e	Indicator Direction
average per capita water resources	total water resources/total population	m3/ capita	X1101	145	400	1000	1500	2400	+
Development and utilization degree of water resources	water consumption*100%/total water resources	%	X1102	150	100	60	40	20	−
Proportion of the length of river with quality above level IV to total river	length of rivers with water quality above level IV*100% /total river length	%	X1201	80	60	60	40	20	−
Industrial value-added wastewater discharge per ten thousand yuan	Wastewater discharge/10,000 yuan industrial value-added	t/104 yuan	X1202	30	20	11	7	3	−
Proportion of COD inflow to total water resources	COD inflow /total water resources	t/ 108 m3	X1203	8000	5000	3000	1000	120	−
Satisfaction of ecological water demand	ecological water consumption*100%/ecological water demand	%	X1301	10	40	60	80	100	+
Green coverage of built-up area	Green area*100%/built-up area	%	X1302	20	27.5	35	42.5	50	+

（f the human–water relationship.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript is interesting. Nevertheless, it needs some further improvement before being accepted for publication. In general, there are still some occasional grammar errors through the manuscript, especially the article ‘’the’’, ‘’a’’ and ‘’an’’ is missing in many places; please make a spellchecking in addition to these minor issues. The reviewer has listed some specific comments that might be helpful to the authors to enhance the quality of the manuscript further.

 

1. Specific Comments

 

• Introduction

• The objectives are not explicitly stated.
• The authors need to enrich further the background; please highlight the importance of e-flows in ecosystem conservation and ensuring the right balance among humans’ needs and the ecosystem. I would suggest considering the following literature << Flow regime aspects in determining environmental flows and maximizing energy production at run-of-river hydropower plants. >> and << Water-energy-ecosystem nexus: Balancing competing interests at a run-of-river hydropower plant coupling a hydrologic–ecohydraulic approach>> you may review other additional relevant references as well.
• What is the novelty of this work?

 

• Methods

• Methodology limitations should be mentioned.
• All variables should be explained.
• Please justify why your model-approach is feasible?
• What was the data resolution used in the computations?

 

 

• Results
• This section well is written
• Figure 4, the north arrow, and the scale bar are missing.
• Figure 5, north arrow and scale bar is missing.
• Figure 6, almost unreadable, please present the result using another type of presentation

 

• Discussion

This section is missing. The discussion should provide a summary of the main finding(s) of the manuscript in the context of the broader scientific literature, as well as addressing any limitations of the study or results that conflict with other published work.

Author Response

RESPONSES TO REVIEWER 4’ COMMENTS

 

Comment 1: Introduction:

• The objectives are not explicitly stated.
• The authors need to enrich further the background; please highlight the importance of e-flows in ecosystem conservation and ensuring the right balance among humans’ needs and the ecosystem. I would suggest considering the following literature << Flow regime aspects in determining environmental flows and maximizing energy production at run-of-river hydropower plants. >> and << Water-energy-ecosystem nexus: Balancing competing interests at a run-of-river hydropower plant coupling a hydrologic–ecohydraulic approach>> you may review other additional relevant references as well.
• What is the novelty of this work?.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comments. 

For the first comment, we added the research objectives of this article in the introduction.

For the second comment, we further enriched the research background and cited the relevant literature provided by the reviewer.

For the third comment, the novelty of this work is that we proposed a harmony-based approach that contains a systematic process of the harmony assessment, indicator identification, harmony balance constraints, and harmony regulation for assessing and regulating the discordant human–water relationship.

 

Revision: 

(Page 2, Line 5) However, because of the explosive increase in population, widespread economic growth, the rapid progress of urbanization and industrialization, low efficiency of water consumption, improper water management, the imbalance between human needs and ecosystems and insufficient water storage infrastructure, the relationship between natural resources protection, especially water resources protection (such as ecological flow in ecosystem protection), and human socio-economic development in many regions of the world is facing and will continue to face a severe disharmony status [3–8].

(Page 21, Line 12) 7. Kuriqi, A., Pinheiro, A.N., Sordo-Ward, A., et al., Flow regime aspects in determining environmental flows and maximising energy production at run-of-river hydropower plants, Applied Energy, 2019, 256: p. 113980.

8. Kuriqi, A., Pinheiro, A.N. Sordo-Ward, A., et al. Water-energy-ecosystem nexus: Balancing competing interests at a run-of-river hydropower plant coupling a hydrologic–ecohydraulic approach. Energy Conversion and Management, 2020, 223: p.113267.

(Page 3, Line 19) The research objectives of this paper: 1) to propose a method that can quantify the harmonious relationship between human and water from the perspective of harmony; 2) to construct a quantitative regulation model of a harmonious balance between human and water based on the theory of harmony; 3) take Henan Province as an example to carry out human-water harmony evaluation and regulation application.

 

 

Comment 2: Methods:

• Methodology limitations should be mentioned.
• All variables should be explained.
• Please justify why your model-approach is feasible?
• What was the data resolution used in the computations?.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comments.

For the first comment, we mentioned the limitations of the method proposed in this article at the end of the conclusion.

For the second comment, we have supplementary explanations for all the variables.

For the third comment, there are two reasons to prove that our model-approach is feasible. On the one hand, the research framework for assessing and regulating the harmonious relationship of human–water system proposed in this paper is based on harmony theory. Harmony theory is regarded as a theoretical method tool for researching and solving disharmony problems, has been widely applied in many research fields, including river ecosystem health (Luo et al, 2018), coordinated development of river basin (Luo and Zuo, 2019), water quality evaluation (Zuo et al, 2018), etc. This method has undergone practical application and testing and is relatively mature. On the other hand, the application results of the human-water harmony evaluation and regulation in Henan province in this paper are in good agreement with the actual situation (See results and discussion section), which also reflects the effectiveness of this method from the side.

For the fourth comment, the data resolution used in the computations is city. We use the city as a unit for the analysis is because cities are the basic unit of Henan Province. This article takes Henan Province as an example to study in order to evaluate and improve the harmonious HWR between cities, taking the city as a unit is sufficient and meets the requirements. In addition, due to the limitation of the data scale, most indicators are only accurate to the city scale. In order to ensure the consistency and continuity of the data, it is more reasonable to conduct research with the city as the smallest unit. Of course, if the data accuracy allows, it is also feasible to carry out research with mesh or other methods.

 

Revision: 

(Page 20, Line 34) The method proposed in this article can quantitatively evaluate and regulate the harmonious relationship between human and water, but there are still some problems that need to be further deepened. First, the construction of the evaluation index system for human-water harmony may vary from person to person. How to build a unified and perfect index system is a further effort. Second, in the single-index quantitative calculation, the selection of each index node value is considered subjective. How to avoid this problem needs to be further studied.

 

Comment 3: Results:

• This section well is written
• Figure 4, the north arrow, and the scale bar are missing.
• Figure 5, north arrow and scale bar is missing.
• Figure 6, almost unreadable, please present the result using another type of presentation.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s suggestions. In Figure 4, we added the north arrow and the scale bar. We have redrawn figures 5. Figure 6 we converted to a table to represent, see Figure 2 in the revised draft.

 

Revision: 

(Page 13, Line 1)

 

Figure 4. Spatial variation of human–water harmony degrees in Henan Province from 2006 to 2018.

 

 

Comment 4: Discussion:

This section is missing. The discussion should provide a summary of the main finding(s) of the manuscript in the context of the broader scientific literature, as well as addressing any limitations of the study or results that conflict with other published work.

 

Response: We are thankful for the reviewer’s comment. We added some discussion in this part. Please see the revised draft for detailed modification.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have considered the reviewer comments and improved their manuscript substantially. It can now be considered for publication.

Reviewer 4 Report

Well done!