Water Footprint Calculation, Effluent Characteristics and Pollution Impact Assessment of Leather Industry in Bangladesh
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Reviewer Comments
The study entitled “Water Footprint Calculation and Pollution Impact Assessment of the Leather Industry in Bangladesh” aims to calculate the water footprint (WF) and analyze the pollution load of the Bangladesh leather sector. Grey, blue, and green water footprints of leather are assessed further. The study indicates that significant environmental impacts are caused during leather processing. By assessing water footprint and pollution load data, this study can help to understand the water footprint and pollution scenario of the leather sector in Bangladesh and other countries working on leather processing. The article requires following Revisions before publication:
- Keywords can be more meaningful, in term of what you have done in this study? I think “wastewater” must be part of keywords or title. Similarly, few/key Physio chemical characteristics involved in this study can be part of the keywords. Title can be updated as well.
- Give/improve few sharp statements in abstract and conclusion sections, regarding objectives, research gap, and associated objectives of the study.
- Y axis of figure 2 and others should have been label instead of only unit, e.g. concentration etc. please revise all figures.
- For all figures, there is no need add title inside the figure. Please revise
- As the paper very lengthy, do you think if some part of the paper (less important) can be added in appendix or supplementary section? This will give more focus to readers on the relatively more important part of the paper.
- Please introduce the locations and rivers discussed in the third paragraph to connect with the rest of the text i.e. Buriganga, Dhaleshwarie, etc.
- 2.1.2: Name the four leather processing factories that are mentioned in the paragraph and it is better to add the pictures of the samples.
- Revise the formatting of the whole document and resize all the figures as well i.e. same font style, prominent headings, suitable figure size according to text, etc. For example, the heading of Appendix A and subheadings of 2.3.1 and 3.1.2.
- Revise Table 1 as the data is mixed and not easily understandable. It is better to use the lines to separate the data in rows. Same for Table 5.
- Revise figure 1 as some labels have been misplaced.
- All references should be formatted the same way. Some of them need to be revised. For example 2.3:(Line no. 12), 2.3.1: (line no. 28), etc.
- Please improve the text of the document as it contains some basic grammar mistakes i.e. the wrong use of capital letters.
- Equation 8: units are missing. Please check for other equation too.
Author Response
Reviewer#1:
1.Keywords can be more meaningful, in term of what you have done in this study? I think “wastewater” must be part of keywords or title. Similarly, few/key Physio chemical characteristics involved in this study can be part of the keywords. Title can be updated as well.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have updated the keywords.
2.Give/improve few sharp statements in abstract and conclusion sections, regarding objectives, research gap, and associated objectives of the study.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have revised and updated Abstract and Conclusion with key objectives, research gap, key results and practical implications.
3.Y axis of figure 2 and others should have been label instead of only unit, e.g. concentration etc. please revise all figures.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have updated the Y axis of all the figures.
4.For all figures, there is no need add title inside the figure. Please revise
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have removed the titles inside all the figures.
5.As the paper very lengthy, do you think if some part of the paper (less important) can be added in appendix or supplementary section? This will give more focus to readers on the relatively more important part of the paper.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. Section 2.3 made short taking “blue and green water footprint of feed crops” and “grey water footprint of feed crops” into Appendix A.
6.Please introduce the locations and rivers discussed in the third paragraph to connect with the rest of the text i.e. Buriganga, Dhaleshwarie, etc.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have included the locations in Page 4.
7.2.1.2: Name the four leather processing factories that are mentioned in the paragraph and it is better to add the pictures of the samples.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and thanks. We have collected samples from Apex tannery ltd, BS Muslim tannery ltd, Anwar tannery ltd, Samina tannery ltd. However, as a part of confidentiality agreement we haven’t mentioned names of the factories in the manuscript.
8.Revise the formatting of the whole document and resize all the figures as well i.e. same font style, prominent headings, suitable figure size according to text, etc. For example, the heading of Appendix A and subheadings of 2.3.1 and 3.1.2.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have revised them.
9.Revise Table 1 as the data is mixed and not easily understandable. It is better to use the lines to separate the data in rows. Same for Table 5.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have revised and updated them.
10.Revise figure 1 as some labels have been misplaced.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have improved the labelling of Figure 1.
11.All references should be formatted the same way. Some of them need to be revised. For example 2.3:(Line no. 12), 2.3.1: (line no. 28), etc.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. References are corrected and updated according to the water journal.
12.Please improve the text of the document as it contains some basic grammar mistakes i.e. the wrong use of capital letters.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have revised and improved the manuscript accordingly.
13.Equation 8: units are missing. Please check for other equation too.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and thanks. Equation 8 is for fraction. It does not have unit.
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer’s Comments
Overall comment
The theme of the manuscript addressing Water Footprint Calculation and Pollution Impact Assessment of leather Industry in Bangladesh. The authors have made a good effort to study Water Footprint Calculation and Pollution Impact Assessment. However, there is always room for improvement to raise the caliber of research, so nothing is ever final.
I would like to thank the authors of the article for its fluent text. Throughout the article, I noticed some points that, if corrected, could enhance the article
Other comments
Revise your abstract.
* What are the key results?
* What are the practical implications of your research (how can the results be utilized by e.g., readers, community, or companies)?
Key Words
Leather sector; is removed and pollution impact replace with Pollution Impact Assessment
I assume that minor changes in the introduction section is necessary, but one of the important tasks after publishing a study is to increase its chance to be seen by the most possible number of researchers. So, the more you cite similar publication, the more the chance that the search engine in the publisher website propose you paper to the researcher. Besides of that, it will also complete your introduction section. As another advantage, it rises new ideas to the researchers by combining various methods or resolving drawback of one seen paper by reading the similar one or extending the methodology to a fully automatic one.
1. Materials and methods
This section needs improvement, it is suggested to add some latest refences that support your methodology.
Figure 1. Overview of leather processing from feed crop cultivation to finished product.
On what basis you develop this figure, please explain it in proper way
Table 3. Fertilizer application rate in selected crop cultivation of Bangladesh.
What you conclude from this table
Discussion
It is suggested to cities some latest refences that support t your results.
Author Response
Reviewer 2:
Overall comment
The theme of the manuscript addressing Water Footprint Calculation and Pollution Impact Assessment of leather Industry in Bangladesh. The authors have made a good effort to study Water Footprint Calculation and Pollution Impact Assessment. However, there is always room for improvement to raise the caliber of research, so nothing is ever final.
I would like to thank the authors of the article for its fluent text. Throughout the article, I noticed some points that, if corrected, could enhance the article
>> Response to Reviewers: Noted and accepted. We thank the reviewer for his/her positive feedback and suggestions. We have addressed all the comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.
Other comments
Revise your abstract.
* What are the key results?
* What are the practical implications of your research (how can the results be utilized by e.g., readers, community, or companies)?
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have revised and updated Abstract with key objectives, research gap, key results and practical implications.
Key Words
Leather sector; is removed and pollution impact replace with Pollution Impact Assessment
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have updated keywords of the manuscript.
I assume that minor changes in the introduction section is necessary, but one of the important tasks after publishing a study is to increase its chance to be seen by the most possible number of researchers. So, the more you cite similar publication, the more the chance that the search engine in the publisher website propose you paper to the researcher. Besides of that, it will also complete your introduction section. As another advantage, it rises new ideas to the researchers by combining various methods or resolving drawback of one seen paper by reading the similar one or extending the methodology to a fully automatic one.
- Materials and methods
This section needs improvement, it is suggested to add some latest refences that support your methodology.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have included supporting references and updated the manuscript.
Figure 1. Overview of leather processing from feed crop cultivation to finished product.
On what basis you develop this figure, please explain it in proper way
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted. Figure 1 is system boundary for water footprint calculation. Explanation is given in paragraph 2.3-line no. 5 to 10.
Table 3. Fertilizer application rate in selected crop cultivation of Bangladesh.
What you conclude from this table
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted. Table 3 gives a parameter “appl” for equation 7. Explanation is given in paragraph “Grey Water Footprint for Feed Crops” Appendix A (page 62).
Discussion
It is suggested to cities some latest refences that support to your results.
>> Response to Reviewer: Noted and accepted. We have included latest references to support results and updated the manuscript.
