Drones for Area-Wide Larval Source Management of Malaria Mosquitoes
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
The manuscript with the title “Drones for area-wide larval source management of malaria mosquitoes” aimed to assess how efficiently aerial application of AMF using drones can suppress the development of malaria mosquitoes in rice paddies and measure how long this suppression would last. It is a hot topic in the field of human health and UAVs.
This manuscript is well organized. However, there are a few comments and suggestions about this article that should be addressed:
Abstract:
- Line 22: I would suggest changing “Here” to “In this study, We….”
- Line 30: I would suggest changing “Drones” to “Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)”.
Introduction:
- Line 76: I would suggest changing “Here” to “In this study, We….”
- The introduction is supposed to terminate with a “schema” of the rest of the paper. I recommend the authors add the following sections about the content.
Materials and methods:
- I would suggest adding the capacity of the Agras spray tank. This information could be important to the readers.
- Line 114: I would suggest adding manufacturer information (example: DJI, Shenzhen, China).
Results:
- Lines between 166 and 168: I would suggest a nice table with the total number of larvae/insects in each experimental rice paddies.
Discussion:
- Line 244: I would suggest changing “Here” to “In this research, we….”
- Line 272: : I would suggest adding manufacturer information (example: DJI, Shenzhen, China) and the capacity of the Agras T30 spray tank.
- I would suggest improving this section. The discussion is where you interpret and explain the significance of your results. I would recommend comparing your results reported in papers on the same topic. The authors should try the results in perspective with other reports.
- Do these treatments affect the surrounding area? Or not?
- How long would it take to do this without a drone? Probably it is impossible to perform by hand. Therefore, I recommend writing a few lines about this threshold.
Conclusions:
- Line 309: I would suggest changing “Here” to “In this experimental study, we….”.
- The authors should add a short sentence for future research.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper proposes an original use of drones in integrated malaria vector control strategies. Typically, similar use of drones exists in agriculture. However, the authors suggest its use in urban and outside urban environments.
The paper has a good presentation. The abstract reflects the paper’s context. The problem of the fight against malaria is considered in more detail than the problem of the drone application, specifics of the drone application, possible difficulties, and problems that should be decided from point of view of the drone. But this journal subject is drones. Therefore I’d like to propose increasing the introduction and including an analysis of the applications of drones. For example, I’d like to recommend consider the next publications:
Shakhatreh, H.; Sawalmeh, A.H.; et al. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs): A survey on civil applications and key research challenges. IEEE Access 2019, 7, 48572–48634.
Mukhamediev, R.I.; Symagulov, A.; et al. Review of Some Applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Technology in the Resource-Rich Country. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 10171.
Noor, N.M.; Abdullah, A.; Hashim, M. Remote sensing UAV/drones and its applications for urban areas: A review. In Proceedings of the IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 24–25 April 2018; p. 012003
I suppose that will be well to mention the problem of coverage path and its optimization for the drone. I’d like to recommend in this context to consider the publication:
E. V. Vazquez-Carmona , J. I. Vasquez-Gomez et al, Coverage path planning for spraying drones, Computers & Industrial Engineering, 168, 2022, 108125
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
