Spatio-Temporal Analysis and Driving Factors of Soil Water Erosion in the Three-River Headwaters Region, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors aimed to analyze the spatial and temporal variations of soil water erosion and its driving forces in the Three-River Headwaters Region. Some revisions as follows：

1. According to the manuscript, Keywords: Soil erosion was suggested to change into “Soil water erosion”;

2. Figure 2(a) the abbreviation DEM has not been explained; besides, the legends in (a) and (b) were small which need to be modified;

3. In the Conclusion, it is suggested to supplement the deficiencies of this paper and the prospect of future research.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Point 1: According to the manuscript, Keywords: Soil erosion was suggested to change into “Soil water erosion”.

Response 1: Thanks very much for the comment. We have changed the “Soil erosion” into “Soil water erosion”.

Point 2: Figure 2(a) the abbreviation DEM has not been explained; besides, the legends in (a) and (b) were small which need to be modified.

Response 2: Thanks very much for the comment. We have changed the abbreviation DEM to “elevation” corresponded to the figure title and modified the Figure 2 (a) and (b).

Point 3: In the Conclusion, it is suggested to supplement the deficiencies of this paper and the prospect of future research.

Response 3: Thanks very much for the comment. We have added the “Limitations and future work” of this paper in the Discussion part.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The research work of the team is well described in this article. The research used standard, long-established methodological procedures. The result is the four main combinations, and types of territories in which erosion factors act in different ways. In section 3.4. Suggestions for sustainable land use management, some measures suitable for these areas are very briefly described. This section needs to be expanded and addressed in more detail. It would be appropriate, for example, to select several model locations from these areas that would be representative and propose solutions at the local or regional level. Otherwise, I am satisfied with the article and I have not identified any flaws.

Author Response

Point 1: In section 3.4. Suggestions for sustainable land use management, some measures suitable for these areas are very briefly described. This section needs to be expanded and addressed in more detail. It would be appropriate, for example, to select several model locations from these areas that would be representative and propose solutions at the local or regional level. 

Response 1: Thanks very much for the comment. We described some managements based on the spatially heterogeneous characteristics of the overlapping analysis. Solutions at the local or regional level would be considered in the future.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Many thanks for giving me the opportunity to review the manuscript of Du et al. titled Spatial-temporal Analysis and Driving Factors of Soil Water Erosion in the Three-River Headwaters Region, China. This study quantitatively analyzes the spatiotemporal patterns and dominant factors controlling soil erosion in the last 20 years. The proposed method is appropriate, and the text is well organized. However, the manuscript needs substantial retooling and amendment before it can be accepted for publication. I believe the manuscript is suitable for publication with some revisions as follows.

(1)   The controlling factors of soil water erosion also include the following factors (e.g., Topographic fluctuation, Elevation, Slop, Population density). Have you considered these factors?

(2)   The diagrams for data analysis process are needed. How do you get the conclusion that rainfall and vegetation were two sensitive and direct factors? The details of analyzing results are needed. Also please give the description of driving factor partition of geographic detector.

Author Response

Point 1: The controlling factors of soil water erosion also include the following factors (e.g., Topographic fluctuation, Elevation, Slop, Population density). Have you considered these factors?

Response 1: Thanks very much for the comment. In the Introduction part, we have described that “According to the RUSLE model, spatiotemporal variations in soil water erosion are related to soil, precipitation, topography, vegetation, and conservation measures. Among these factors, topography and soil are relatively stable and change little over short time periods. Thus, vegetation and rainfall are two sensitive and direct factors that affect soil water erosion.” Thus, we maily dicussed the main driving factors of rainfall erodibility and vegetation coverage in this paper.

In the Dicussion part, we mentioned that “Besides climatic factor and vegetation factor discussed in this paper, topography, soil property and planting practice also had influences on soil water erosion. Thus, how to determinize the contributions of each factor responding to soil water erosion need to be considered in the future.”

Point 2: The diagrams for data analysis process are needed. How do you get the conclusion that rainfall and vegetation were two sensitive and direct factors? The details of analyzing results are needed. Also please give the description of driving factor partition of geographic detector.

Response 2: Thanks very much for the comment. This paper was mainly analysed the spatiotemporal patterns of soil water erosion in the TRHR from 2000 to 2020, and discussed the main driving factors of rainfall erodibility and vegetation coverage. As soil property and topography are more stable than other factors, soil erosion is more related to climatic factor (rainfall erodibility) and vegetation factor (vegetation coverage). The partition of each driving factor would be considered in the future, which was described in the Dicussion part.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

The manuscript is good, the authors evaluate the ‘’  Spatial-temporal Analysis and Driving Factors of Soil Water Erosion in the Three-River Headwaters Region, China. It is an interesting and great contribution to the scientific community; however, the material method, discussion and references of the paper should be improved. Still there are many issues present in the manuscript which should be explained properly. The manuscript needs some major revisions as given below:

·         Write the title as ‘’ Spatio-temporal Analysis and Driving Factors of Soil Water Erosion in the Three-River Headwaters Region, China’’

·         Write the one or two sentence about methodology.

·         The text of this paper in general needs a thorough review, as there are multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Many sentences do not mean any sense. Moreover, there are several sloppy errors that should be fixed.

·         Figure 2, difficult to read, improve this resolution.

·         2.3. Data sources must be moved to after 2.1 study area

·         More research background and motivation should be added to the Introduction section. Although, I propose some new papers must be added in the reference list and text which will also help you to make it more intriguing such

https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13101609, doi:10.3390/w13182550, doi:10.3390/w14071132

 ·         Resolution of all figures should be improved.

·         In all figure title ‘’between 2000 and 2020’’ must be write as ‘’between 2000 to 2020’’.

·         Figure 6, are you make this fig. using NDVI ? if yes then please also write about NDVI.

·         Please write results and discussion in 2 sections.

·         In discussion section; Discussion: As per the instruction given by the journal “The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and the limitations of the work highlighted”.

·         Write main results and future recommendation in conclusion.

Overall, the study conducted is interesting but a major revision of the entire manuscript is essentially required for publication in this journal. Hence, I recommend reconsideration after a major revision of the manuscript.  

 Author Response

Point 1: Write the title as “Spatio-temporal Analysis and Driving Factors of Soil Water Erosion in the Three-River Headwaters Region, China”.

Response 1: Thanks very much for the comment. We have changed the title into “Spatio-temporal Analysis and Driving Factors of Soil Water Erosion in the Three-River Headwaters Region, China”.

Point 2: Write the one or two sentence about methodology.

Response 2: Thanks very much for the comment. We have wrote sentence about methodology in the Abstract part.

Point 3: Figure 2, difficult to read, improve this resolution.

Response 3: Thanks very much for the comment. We have modified the Figure 2.

Point 4: 2.3. Data sources must be moved to after 2.1 study area.

Response 4: Thanks very much for the comment. We have moved the “Data sources” to 2.2.

Point 5: More research background and motivation should be added to the Introduction section. Although, I propose some new papers must be added in the reference list and text which will also help you to make it more intriguing such https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13101609, doi:10.3390/w13182550, doi:10.3390/w14071132.

Response 5: Thanks very much for the comment. We have added more background and motivation in the Introduction part. Also, we added some new papers according to the suggestion.

Point 6: Resolution of all figures should be improved.

Response 6: Thanks very much for the comment. We have modified all the figures in this paper.

Point 7: In all figure title “between 2000 and 2020“ must be write as “between 2000 to 2020”.

Response 7: Thanks very much for the comment. We have changed the figure title “between 2000 and 2020“ to “from 2000 to 2020”.

Point 8: Figure 6, are you make this fig. using NDVI? if yes then please also write about NDVI.

Response 8: Thanks very much for the comment. We made this figure using vegetation coverage, which was calculated from NDVI (Equation 12). Here, we mainly discussed the vegetation coverage responded to soil erosion.

Point 9: Please write results and discussion in 2 sections. In discussion section; Discussion: As per the instruction given by the journal “The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and the limitations of the work highlighted”.

Response 9: Thanks very much for the comment. We have separated the results and discussion in 2 sections.

Point 10: Write main results and future recommendation in conclusion.

Response 10: Thanks very much for the comment. We have modified the Conclusion part.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 4 Report

All comments are completed. Now it is ready to publish.