Digital Irrigated Agriculture: Towards a Framework for Comprehensive Analysis of Decision Processes under Uncertainty
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The following paragraphs from the paper is practically the same as in thesis F. Cavazza The digital irrigated agriculture: advances on decision modelling to accompany the sector in exploiting new opportunities, 2020 on page 30.
However, the thesis is not among references.
Paragraph from the paper:
Besides attitudes toward uncertainty, the perception of uncertainty over a phenomenon is
extremely important in affecting decisions for ICT adoption (Nesheim et al. 2017). Further, in case of
information provision, also the perceived uncertainty over a new piece of information describing the
same phenomenon is found to be limiting information uptake (An-Vo et al. 2019). One strategy
proposed to solve this uncertainty is in the estimation of the forecast reliability and in the
incorporation of this information in the message itself (Kusunose and Mahmood 2016). This is
commonly done with probabilistic climate forecasts, but still DMs could doubt on the probability
estimation in itself. This explains one of the reasons why DM’s beliefs are needed to be accounted for
in decision analyses (Hardaker and Lien 2010). Nevertheless, in literature important challenges
remain in understanding the role of perceptions and attitudes (Jeuland et al. 2018) and most of the
studies in applied economics make relevant behavioral assumptions to overcome the issue
(Bobojonov et al. 2016). This gap in applied economics motivated us to seek for theories in the broader
economic literature to build the theoretical basis needed to develop research and better understand
decision processes of ICT implementation under uncertainty.
From thesis:
Besides attitudes toward uncertainty, the perception of uncertainty in itself is extremely important in affecting decisions for ICT adoption (Nesheim et al. 2017) and perceived uncertainty over forecasts reliability is found to be limiting information uptake (An-Vo et al. 2019). One strategy proposed to solve this uncertainty is in the estimation of the forecast reliability and in the incorporation of this information in the message itself (Kusunose and Mahmood 2016). This is commonly done with probabilistic climate forecasts, but still DMs could doubt on the probability estimation in itself. This explains one of the reasons why DM’s beliefs are needed to be accounted for in decision analyses (Hardaker and Lien 2010). Nevertheless, in literature important challenges remain in understanding the role of perceptions and attitudes (Jeuland et al. 2018) and most of the studies in applied economics make relevant behavioral assumptions to overcome the issue (Bobojonov et al. 2016). This gap in applied economics motivated us to seek for theories in the broader economic literature to understand the problem.
Page 1: add space before S: Abstract:Several
Please make the objective more concise, avoid tautology:
The novelty of this research is in the application of economic literature’s theories to provide the
108 theoretical basis needed to model the uncertainty settings around ICT adoption for irrigation
109 management.
Please correct double dot:
123 application is still predominantly pioneering..
Please correct error:
124 published on the topic (Error! Reference source not found.) and by the interest raised in the applied
Could adoption of technology be correlated with the number of papers (body of articles)?
This is confirmed by the growing body of articles
124 published on the topic (Error! Reference source not found.) and by the interest raised in the applied
125 economic literature (Jeuland et al. 2018; Martin 2016; Giupponi 2014).
Edit the information on source:
128 Source: own elaboration from data obtained with the search in Scopus (dated 04/04/2019) having
129 the following parameters: TITLE-ABS-KEY ((ICT OR DSS OR "climate
130 services”) AND agriculture AND ( "water management" OR irrigation))
Correct error:
156 Such findings are confirmed by several quantitative studies, out of which a selection of empirical
157 application for ICT benefits estimations is reported in Error! Reference source not found.. The table
Axiom is not clear, what is “world” meaning:
216 uncertainty (Hardaker and Lien 2010). The theory is defined on the basis of the following four axioms:
217 ï‚· A1 – Completeness: every state of the world involved in a decision can be completely
218 ranked.
Are states system states or governmental states in Axiom 2? ->
A2 – Transitivity: the property of transitivity holds for preferences 219 for alternative
220 states.
Please announce the following section in the text at the conclusions:
474 (1) ICT-development policies are needed to overcome issues of information usability
475 and boost ICT-potentials. The simple information provision is not sufficient to allow
476 its implementation because of local specificities in the end-user’s information
Author Response
Page 1: add space before S: Abstract:Several
--> done
Please make the objective more concise, avoid tautology:
--> I tried to be more concise by avoiding the tautology. But the objectives are still a bit long and complex due to the needs of the topic
Please correct double dot:
--> done
Please correct error:
124 published on the topic (Error! Reference source not found.) and by the interest raised in the applied
--> done
Could adoption of technology be correlated with the number of papers (body of articles)? This is confirmed by the growing body of articles
--> It can be, I corrected specifying and using conditional
124 published on the topic (Error! Reference source not found.) and by the interest raised in the applied
--> done
125 economic literature (Jeuland et al. 2018; Martin 2016; Giupponi 2014).
--> done
Edit the information on source:
--> done and corrected the description (there was an error in the day)
Correct error:
156 Such findings are confirmed by several quantitative studies, out of which a selection of empirical
157 application for ICT benefits estimations is reported in Error! Reference source not found.. The table
--> done
Axiom is not clear, what is “world” meaning:
--> it is a state of the world commonly used in literature to describe settings or physical states. I used italic to clarify
Are states system states or governmental states in Axiom 2? ->
--> see the answer before
Please announce the following section in the text at the conclusions:
--> done
Reviewer 2 Report
The summary includes the most important aspects of the study and provides enough information to start reading.
Keywords are adequate.
Objective: The research problem and the study objective are well defined.
the literature review is clearly presented. Despite this, this evaluator considers that the reason for the organization of the results in these sections specifically and not others should be explained to the reader.
The discussion of the data is correct and dynamic.
The conclusions are presented clearly.
Author Response
Thank you