Assessment of the Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water Yield in the Ebinur Lake Basin

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Journal: Land (ISSN 2073-445X)

Review Manuscript ID: land-3136455

Title:  Assessment of the Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water Yield in the Ebinur Lake Basin

 

Dear authors:

It's my honor to review your manuscript. The manuscript “Assessment of the Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water Yield in the Ebinur Lake Basin” addresses an interesting topic, which adhere to Land journal policies. I think the study presents interesting findings suitable for this journal.

Water resources and their use for different purposes (agricultural, economic, irrigation) represent one of the most important and pressing problems faced by modern society. This is an interesting interdisciplinary study that aims to link established approaches for modelling changes in LULC and cilmate changes with water yield. In this context, the results of this study are significant and can be applied to solve various problems for both rural and urban environments in the mentioned study area. It can be applied in spatial planning and construction, river management, and land use policies.

I suggest that the manuscript be published after minor revision.

Abstract: I suggest a small correction of the abstract. First, state the area of ​​research, then the methods and results. The applicability of the research is given at the end of the abstract.

Keywords: I suggest changing the order of key words:  water yield, climate changes, land use changes, In VEST model, Ebinur Lake Basin. You can add more keywords. Try not to use only words from the title of the manuscript.

 Introduction: The introduction clearly shows the problem of water resources research, as well as the influence of various factors on changes in water yield. The literature you cite in accordance with the problem of the manuscript. I have a suggestion regarding research objectives. Please to describe the objectives of the research in more detail and concisely.

 

Materials and Methods:This chapter is explained in detail. I suggest you make a clearer map of the Study area. For example, in chapter Temporal and spatial dynamics of water yield in the Ebinur Lake Basin you list cities that are not shown on the map. Please show the geographical location of the cities and districts on the map.

Results: The research results are clear and concise, and the graphic appendices are very good and representative. I have two suggestions within this chapter:

1. In chapter Analysis of land use change characteristics during 2000-2020 I noticed that the percentage share of land use in the text and in Figure 5 does not correspond to the year 2000. Am I right? Please check.

2. It would be useful to do a statistical analysis of trends (MK test) of the most pronounced changes in land use. To determine if there is statistical significance.

Discussion: The findings of the study are interesting and have large social, economic and environmental implications, which are currently are underdeveloped in the discussion. I would therefore suggest to further discuss the implications of these findings for water quality, agricultural policy, food production, etc. The interaction between climate, change LULC and socioeconomic factors and demographic change in this region should be discussed further.

Conclusion. The conclusion is very good, concise and clear.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your advice, my response to your question has been summarized in the PDF.
please refer to the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript “Assessment of the Impacts of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water Yield in the Ebinur Lake Basin”:

The research is relevant in the current context of science. However, it needs to undergo pertinent corrections and transform the research into a broader (global) context, not just a regional one, as it is now.

Authors need to review scores and write the text, and some paragraphs need to be rewritten to improve understanding of the results and discussion.

Specific comments

Line 33: Keywords – the keywords are repeated, the same as the terms found in the paper's title. If the authors want the research to have a greater chance of being found in the database, I suggest replacing them with keywords that complement the research to increase the search field.

Line 105: - The legend identifying “Xinjiang” on the smaller maps should have the same color as the shapefile layer for standardization. In addition, the identification of the first map (top left corner) should be improved.

Line 105: – Format the coordinate grid on the main map (larger size); if the authors prefer, they can present the elements of a map only on the main map; otherwise, it is recommended that all the elements be present on all the maps presented; identify the source of the data for the creation of the map; and; improve the identification of “Ebinur Lake” because it is confusing, the color blue on a map is only used to represent “water” so I suggest checking this on the map.

Line 106: Complete the figure's title by including the region's name, “Situated in the northwest of China's Xinjiang”.

Lines 123-124: check the sentence “The general calculation formula is above.”

- Include the callout of equations 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Line 150: 2.3. Scenario analysis – the authors should explore the InVEST model more and describe the model’s capabilities, advantages and disadvantages in the text. - What are the data processing steps with this model? - Does this model need warm-up? Calibration and validation...! Explain the methodological steps and input parameters of the model in more detail. - Is there specific software to apply the InVEST model? Detail this information and anything relevant in the text and a flowchart.

Line 194: Table 2 – what does Kc mean? Identify in the table footer and the text above the table.

Line 195: Table 3 – There would be no data with greater spatial resolution because the closer to the surface, the more accurate the measurements are.

Lines 198-202: ***What was the database division criterion? This information should be presented in the text, as it is important to know how the database consistency analysis for each variable was performed and the separation into the periods evaluated for the different scenarios.

Lines 203-205: Were other statistical indicators tested? For example: MBE, t-test.....

Lines 216-220: Explain in more detail the adjustments made to the data measured and estimated by the InVEST model. – Wouldn't Figure 2 be the result??? It could be presented at the beginning of the results topic...

Lines 222-223: How were the data prepared to assess the statistical performance of the estimated data about the measured data? I noticed that the number of data for each adjustment is different. Why is that? Is it necessary to describe this figure in more detail, that is, what does each figure represent (a, b, c, d, e, f)?

Lines 226-229: The writing is difficult to understand; it could be clearer. The authors should rewrite this part.

Line 243: “According to the standard deviation” should be better identified on the map and in the text.

Lines 258-259: Figure 4. What is the unit of measurement for the values ​​in the map legend? Identify it.

Line 297: Table 4 – include the gains and losses in the table (row and column) and identify in bold or with color on the diagonal the values ​​that represent the relationship of the same land use.

Line 298: Figure 5 – improve the sharpness and font size of the pie charts. Also, the font size of the legend should be decreased. Insert the title “legend” and the map elements.

Lines 304-316: It is important to highlight that the proportion of forest area is much smaller than that of pasture. However, what would water production be if the forest area is equal to the pasture area? Does it increase or stabilize? It is important to discuss this point in the “discussion” topic. In the results, the authors should compare water production considering km², not just the total  ​​land cover and use area.

Lines 331-334: This text can be discussed in the “discussion” topic with citations of studies that evaluated, for example, soil types, physical and water characteristics of the soil, soil penetration, types of vegetative cover and other factors.

Lines 339-340: Figure 8 – I believe it would be better to present these results in a table (total area, total production, percentage, water production per km2)...and, in the discussion, argue about the factors that influence this evaluation.

Line 341: 3.4. Effects of climatic and land-use modifications on water yield – I felt that the presentation of the results of this topic was lacking, as there was a lack of information on which climate change scenarios would be applied to assess the dynamics of water production in the Ebinur Lake River basin. Were rainfall, evapotranspiration or other meteorological variables altered?

Lines 389-391: Improve the writing of the essay.

Line 394: Discussion – the discussion of the work is deficient and could be better explored based on the results obtained and citing more works carried out in different climatic regions of the world precisely to argue and support the results of this study. Discuss the InVEST model and its advantages and main limitations in more detail. Discuss the dynamics of natural and anthropogenic processes and other factors that can influence the water production of a river basin and better explain the factors already mentioned. In the discussion, the authors should be careful when comparing results with other works, as there are different hydrological and climatological models with different precision. Therefore, the work should be cited, and it should be clear which methodology or model was used.

Lines 475-501: Conclusion – the authors need to be more objective in presenting the conclusion of the work, that is, avoid discussions on this topic since the dialogue is already exposed in the discussion topic.

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

Thank you very much for your advice, my response to your question has been summarized in the PDF.
please refer to the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear authors,

Overall, the manuscript has improved considerably. However, authors should check the journal's formatting and standards for submitting research and other notes.

I also highlight the importance of authors looking for work on other continents, such as South, Central or North America, verifying whether the same model was applied and what results these other studies obtained.

When Inserting the vector data source into the map, figure title or text, it should be labeled as 'Geospatial Data Cloud'. This clear labeling will help readers understand the source of the data.

Line 158: indicate equations 3 to 6 in the text. "The general calculation formulas are as follows (Eqs. 3, 4, 5 and 6)".

*** Change the numbering of equations 9, 10 and 11 (lines 212, 214 and 216) to 7, 8 and 9, and cite them in the text between lines 209 and 211. An explanation and a citation must accompany these statistical indicators.

***Change the numbering of equations 7 and (lines: 279 and 281) to 10 and 11.

It's important to correct the 'north' orientation in Figure 4. This correction will ensure the accuracy of the map and prevent any confusion among the readers.

Author Response

Thank you for your work for our manuscripts. Your comments are of great significance to the improvement of the quality of manuscripts. I have integrated the specific revisions in PDF, please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf