Temporal and Spatial Variation Characteristics of Actual Evapotranspiration in the Yiluo River Basin Based on the Priestley–Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory Model

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled Temporal and spatial variation characteristics of actual evapotranspiration in the Yiluo River Basin based on the PT-JPL model may be accepted

in the Journal Sustainability after Major Revision. 

 

In my opinion, the subject of this work is relevant for the Applied Science MDPI after Major revision and some corrections.  

The topic of the paper is very interesting and important, especially because it is very rare and not enough investigated. The evapotranspiration of rivers across the world presents one important topic. In a world without enough water, every investigation is essential.

 

 

The Applied Science MDPI journal readers want interesting and quality papers.

 

First, before the paper has the next section and sub-section (i.e. Abstract, Introduction, Data and Methods, Study area, Data source and preprocessing, Remote sensing data acquisition and preprocessing Meteorological data acquisition and preprocessing, Methods, PT-JPL model, Water surface evaporation estimation, Trend analysis and test methods, Water balance equation, Results and Discussion, Model results validation, Evapotranspiration variation characteristics, Interannual variability, Changes during the year, Influencing factors of evapotranspiration change, Conclusion, etc.).

 

The Title

 

It is not usual to write in the title abbreviation in this case PT-JPL model. First, the authors must write words without abbreviations and after that, in the text, they can explain abbreviations and put them in the end of the text, for example in the section called Abbreviations.

 

The section Abstract

In this section,, the authors must add of two sentences explaining the main results of this investigation and why and how they used NDVI (Normal Difference Vegetation Index) to connect it with evapotranspiration.

 

The section Introduction

 

In this section, the authors must add more sentences at the beginng of the Introduction about canopy evapotranspiration. This type of evapotranspiration is one of the more important especially close to the river bad. 

 

Line 42 adds more sentences and explanations about the Yiluo River.

 

Lines between 48 and 59, more sentences about river topography investigated in this research.

 

In this part of the paper, I recommend two valuable references that include evapotranspiration elements and processes:

 

- Valjarević, A, Filipović, D, Valjarević, D, Milanović, M., Milošević, S., Živić, N, Lukić, T.

GIS and remote sensing techniques for the estimation of dew volume in the Republic of Serbia. Meteorol Appl. 2020; 27:e1930. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.1930.

 

- Chen, M., Parton, W. J., Hartman, M. D., Del Grosso, S. J., Smith, W. K., Knapp, A. K., Lutz, S., Derner, J. D., Tucker, C. J., Ojima, D. S., Volesky, J. D., Stephenson, M. B., Schacht, W. H., and Gao, W.. 2019. Assessing precipitation, evapotranspiration, and NDVI as controls of U.S. Great Plains plant production. Ecosphere 10( 10):e02889. 10.1002/ecs2.2889.

 

Generally, the section Introduction is overall short and must be extended with more sentences about evapotranspiration estimations and calculations and NDVI index practices.

 

The section on Data and Methods

 

Between lines 131 and 139, the authors stated that they used MODIS satellite recordings with a resolution of 500 m. The authors that stated that the resolution of resampled satellite recordings is 250 m. Can the authors better explain how they approved that?

 

In lines 140 and 141, please state which kind of albedo, the albedo of clouds or albedo of land.

 

The sub-section Meteorological data acquisition and preprocessing

 

The authors used data from m the China National 146 Meteorological Science Data Sharing Service. Authors must explain how these data (precise methods) were included in GIS software ArcGIS.

 

Table 1. Very important and well explained Table.  This Table is only missing to put evapotranspiration from artificial objects. In the rivers networks, and systems there are a lot of artificial objects near the rivers.

 

Estimating the precise amount of evapotranspiration is difficult. There are many methods and procedures to do that. Evaporation requires energy, the primary source being solar radiation. Bowen (1926) developed what is now known as the Bowen ratio (BR).

 

Can the authors add a little more text about the Bowen ratio (BR)?

 

The sub-section Trend analysis and test methods

 

The authors used this section to analyze the Mann-Kendall test.

But it is not clearly explained, how the author analyzed H0 and HA hypotheses. 

These hypotheses are essential to conclude which percent of the trend exists.

Write more about this.

 

The section Results and Discussion

 

Line 233.

The authors stated that the actual 233 evapotranspiration from 2001 to 2016 in the basin was estimated based on the water balance equation using natural runoff data and precipitation data from the Heishiguan hydrological station of the Third National Water Resources Survey. It is not clear that the authors these data compared with MODIS satellite data from the same period. Please explain in more detail.

 

The sub-section Changes during the year

 

In this section, the authors must better explain how they measured evapotranspiration during the year, especially in the winter season. We know that in the winter season is very difficult to measure the amount of evapotranspiration because of the process of sublimation.

 

In my opinion, the sections Results and Discussion must be separate sections.  

 

 

In section discussion and especially in section Results the authors must add more connections between NDVI satellite recordings and evapotranspiration processes. In the section Discussion, it is necessary to analyze and describe L'vovich's (1979) Water Balance Equation.

 

This paper has the strong potential to be published. The authors did a lot of things within this manuscript. The article is very interesting and scientifically correct

 

Good luck to the authors

The Reviewer#3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response

We have studied your comments carefully and have made revision which marked in red in the paper. We have tried our best to revise our manuscript according to the comments. Attached please find the revised version, which we would like to submit for your kind consideration.

 The "respond to reviewer1" is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper is very interesting and certainly very fascinating to have found a method of satellite analysis of evapotranspiration that can be as reliable as what is calculated from weather station data.

1.       In the introduction, the study area is continually mentioned, I would suggest extending the section on the general evaluation of the scientific literature on the subject, although you want to evaluate the Yluo river basin, however you need to make the reader understand the current state of the literature and the innovativeness in the international arena of this research. I advise you to talk in more detail about the methods of calculating reference evapotranspiration. Furthermore, it would be important to mention previous research on the topic of estimating evapotranspiration through remote sensing. For example:

Zhang, K., Kimball, J. S., & Running, S. W. (2016). A review of remote sensing based actual evapotranspiration estimation. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 3(6), 834-853.

Weerasinghe, I., Bastiaanssen, W., Mul, M., Jia, L., & Van Griensven, A. (2020). Can we trust remote sensing evapotranspiration products over Africa?. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(3), 1565-1586.

Jiang, L., & Islam, S. (1999). A methodology for estimation of surface evapotranspiration over large areas using remote sensing observations. Geophysical research letters, 26(17), 2773-2776.

2.       2.2.2. You need to better specify the kriging interpolation used to spatialise weather station data, there are various types of kriging that can be used in ArcGis, empirical Bayesian kriging, ordinary kriging, simple kriging, etc. In addition, one should also provide the results of cross-validation with the statistical indices that summarise them by describing them accurately, including the equations that define them. here are some notable examples that you can quote in the text:                                  Bostan, P. A., Heuvelink, G. B., & Akyurek, S. Z. (2012). Comparison of regression and kriging techniques for mapping the average annual precipitation of Turkey. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 19, 115-126.                                                                             Gentilucci, M., Barbieri, M., Materazzi, M., & Pambianchi, G. (2021). Effects of Climate Change on Vegetation in the Province of Macerata (Central Italy). In Advanced Studies in Efficient Environmental Design and City Planning (pp. 463-474). Springer, Cham.                                               Wu, T., & Li, Y. (2013). Spatial interpolation of temperature in the United States using residual kriging. Applied Geography, 44, 112-120.

3.       2.3.2. Water surface evaporation estimation Explain why you used the Penman-Monteith equation and why only for water bodies

4.       Completely missing is the discussion where the results obtained are evaluated in the light of the most up-to-date scientific literature on the subject, in order to highlight similarities and differences.

Author Response

Thanks for your positive and constructive comments and suggestions on our manuscrpt entitled”Temporal and spatial variation characteristics of actual evapotranspiration in the Yiluo River Basin based on the Priestly Taylor Jet Propulsion Laboratory Model“. (ID:applsci-1891888).

We have studied your comments carefully and have made revision which marked in red in the paper. We have tried our best to revise our manuscript according to the comments. Attached please find the revised version, which we would like to submit for your kind consideration.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled Temporal and spatial variation characteristics of actual evapotranspiration in the Yiluo River Basin based on the PT-JPL model may be accepted

in the Journal Sustainability after Major Revision. 

 

In my opinion, the subject of this work is relevant for the Applied Science MDPI after Major revision and some corrections.  

The topic of the paper is very interesting and important, especially because it is very rare and not enough investigated. The evapotranspiration of the rivers across the world present one important topic. In the world without enough water, every investigation is essential.

 

 

The Applied Science MDPI journal readers wants interesting and quality papers.

 

First, before all the paper has the next section and sub-section (i.e. Abstract, Introduction, Data and Methods, Study area, Data source and preprocessing, Remote sensing data acquisition and preprocessing, Meteorological data acquisition and preprocessing, Methods, PT-JPL model, Water surface evaporation estimation, Trend analysis and test methods, Water balance equation, Results and Discussion, Model results validation, Evapotranspiration variation characteristics, Interannual variability, Changes during the year, Influencing factors of evapotranspiration change, Conclusion, etc.).

 

The section of Introduction

 

In this section the authors did not made any changes that I proposed. The authors must add many references which described evapotranspiration and similar process. 

 

Also in this section they must prove better the connection between evapotranspiration and NDVI.

 

 

 

In this part of the paper I recommend two valuable references that include evapotranspiration processes:

 

- Valjarević, A, Filipović, D, Valjarević, D, Milanović, M., Milošević, S., Živić, N, Lukić, T.

GIS and remote sensing techniques for the estimation of dew volume in the Republic of Serbia. Meteorol Appl. 2020; 27:e1930. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.1930.

 

- Chen, M., Parton, W. J., Hartman, M. D., Del Grosso, S. J., Smith, W. K., Knapp, A. K., Lutz, S., Derner, J. D., Tucker, C. J., Ojima, D. S., Volesky, J. D., Stephenson, M. B., Schacht, W. H., and Gao, W.. 2019. Assessing precipitation, evapotranspiration, and NDVI as controls of U.S. Great Plains plant production. Ecosphere 10( 10):e02889. 10.1002/ecs2.2889.

 

Even after reviewing the section Introduction is still short. The NDVI indexes not proven yet and authors didn’t find any visible connection between evapotranspiration and NDVI.

 

 

 

 

This paper has the potential to be published. The authors did a lot of things within this manuscript after reviewing it. But this paper still has some disabilities. Because of that, the authors must again re-written the section Introduction.

 

 

In the end, I recommend Major Revision again.

Good luck to the authors 

The Reviewer#2

Author Response

We have studied your comments carefully and have made revision which marked in red in the paper. We have tried our best to revise our manuscript according to the comments. Attached please find the revised version, which we would like to submit for your kind consideration.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx