Evaluating Water Resource Assets Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model: A Case Study of Wuhan City, China
, Zhaofei Yang 1,2 and Luping Jiang 1,2Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is interesting. It however requires major revision to be publishable.
At first, English language needs major revisions. The paper should be read by an English native speaker.
Also, the authors present only the situation in China. The water resources cost estimations should be revised base on international literature. For example, in the European Union, the Water Framework Directive sets the principle of full water cost (consisting of direct cost, environmental cost and natural resource cost) and the full water cost recovery. Indicative references are:
- "Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: A survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application." Science of the total environment365.1-3 (2006): 105-122.
- "Hydro-economic modeling in river basin management: implications and applications for the European water framework directive." Water resources management 21.7 (2007): 1103-1125.
- "Developing a methodology towards full water cost recovery in urban water pipe networks, based on the “user-pays” principle." Procedia Engineering 70 (2014): 907-916.
- "Integrating the carbon and water footprints’ costs in the water framework directive 2000/60/EC full water cost recovery concept: Basic principles towards their reliable calculation and socially just allocation." Water 4.1 (2012): 45-62.
- "River basin management plans developed in Greece, based on the WFD 2000/60/EC guidelines." Desalination and Water Treatment 56.5 (2015): 1231-1239.
Additional comments:
Please give the indices in a table including their units
What is the "ten thousand yuan GDP water consumption"? Please explain
How do the authors perform the water balance of the total water resource of the area? The approach usually used is at the river basin level or per water resource, etc.
Please explain how the weights are determined. How the experts provided their scores?
Please use USD or EUR as monetary units to be understandable
Author Response
Response to reviewer 1’s comments
Comment 1: The paper is interesting. It however requires major revision to be publishable.
Response: Thanks for your appreciation of our article, we have rechecked the whole manuscript and rewritten some parts. We feel that the manuscript has been greatly improved, and we gain greatly from the process of revising. Thanks for your suggestion, your support and encouragement will inspire us to move on our research subject.
Comment 2: At first, English language needs major revisions. The paper should be read by an English native speaker.
Response: Thanks for your kind suggestion. According to your comments, we have rechecked our entire manuscript and “the Instructions for Authors” of MDPI helped us to improve the English language usage, grammar, spelling and punctuations to make sure our article meets the Sustainability’s required standard. The Service Certification is shown below. And a native English-speaking professor in our study field was invited to polish the entire manuscript. Thank you.
Fig.1 MDPI English Editing Service Certification
Comment 3: Also, the authors present only the situation in China. The water resources cost estimations should be revised base on international literature. For example, in the European Union, the Water Framework Directive sets the principle of full water cost (consisting of direct cost, environmental cost and natural resource cost) and the full water cost recovery. Indicative references are:
- "Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: A survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application." Science of the total environment365.1-3 (2006): 105-122.
- "Hydro-economic modeling in river basin management: implications and applications for the European water framework directive." Water resources management 21.7 (2007): 1103-1125.
- "Developing a methodology towards full water cost recovery in urban water pipe networks, based on the “user-pays” principle." Procedia Engineering 70 (2014): 907-916.
- "Integrating the carbon and water footprints’ costs in the water framework directive 2000/60/EC full water cost recovery concept: Basic principles towards their reliable calculation and socially just allocation." Water 4.1 (2012): 45-62.
- "River basin management plans developed in Greece, based on the WFD 2000/60/EC guidelines." Desalination and Water Treatment 56.5 (2015): 1231-1239.
Response: Thanks for your key suggestion. According to your comments, we have improved the manuscript by adding international literature, especially some researches regarding Water Framework Directive. We found the references you recommended were really help for this manuscript. We have added these researches and some related reports in the introduction and literature review. Details are shown in Introduction. Page 2, line 54-66.
Improved Introduction: “…On the other hand, some works have focused on water resource management, for example, the sustainable utilization of water resources, the evaluation of water resource carrying capacity, and the assessment of water resource health risks [1-6]. Moreover, the use of economic valuation techniques is a brand-new perspective to inform water resource management [7]. Early in 2000, the water framework directive 2000/60/EC proposed by the European Union aimed to achieve the good qualitative and quantitative status of all water bodies [7,8]. It set forth the principle of full water cost, including direct cost (DC), environmental cost (EC), and natural resource cost (RC), and full water cost recovery [9,10], which was to be mainly applied in river basin management [11]. However, water resources accounting system are complex, which are affected not only by natural (including ecological and chemical) factors, but also by social and economic factors. Therefore, we endeavored to develop a comprehensive water resource asset evaluation system considering the following three aspects: the environment, society, and efficiency.”
References:
Chaoyang Liu, Jingdong Zhang, Fei Li, et al. Trace elements spatial distribution characteristics, risk assessment and potential source identification in surface water from Honghu Lake, China. Journal of Central South University. 2018, 25(7): 1598-1611. Cai, Y.; Yue, W.; Xu, L.; Yang, Z.; Rong, Q., Sustainable urban water resources management considering life-cycle environmental impacts of water utilization under uncertainty. Resources Conservation & Recycling 2016, 108, 21-40. Ding, L.; Chen, K. L.; Cheng, S. G.; Wang, X., Water ecological carrying capacity of urban lakes in the context of rapid urbanization: A case study of East Lake in Wuhan. Physics & Chemistry of the Earth Parts A/b/c 2015, 89-90, 104-113. Ren, W.; Chen, X.; Ying, C.; Li, X., Sustainable utilization evaluation of regional water resources based on rough set theory and catastrophe progression method. Science of Soil & Water Conservation 2014, 12, (5), 77-83. Wang, T.; Xu, S., Dynamic successive assessment method of water environment carrying capacity and its application. Ecological Indicators 2015, 52, 134-146. Xiao, J.; Wang, L.; Deng, L.; Jin, Z, Characteristics, sources, water quality and health risk assessment of trace elements in river water and well water in the Chinese loess plateau. Science of The Total Environment 2019,650, 2004-2012. Birol, E.; Karousakis, K.; Koundouri, P., Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: A survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application. Sci Total Environ 2006, 365, (1-3), 105-122. Heinz, I.; Pulido-Velazquez, M.; Lund, J. R.; Andreu, J., Hydro-economic modeling in river basin management: Implications and applications for the European Water Framework Directive. Water Resour Manag 2007, 21, (7), 1103-1125. Kanakoudis, V.; Tsitsifli, S.; Papadopoulou, A., Integrating the Carbon and Water Footprints' Costs in the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC Full Water Cost Recovery Concept: Basic Principles Towards Their Reliable Calculation and Socially Just Allocation. Water-Sui 2012, 4, (1), 45-62. Kanakoudis, V.; Gonelasa, K.; Developing a methodology towards full water cost recovery in urban water pipe networks, based on the “user-pays” principle." Procedia Engineering70 (2014): 907-916. Kanakoudis, V.; Tsitsifli, S., River basin management plans developed in Greece,based on the WFD 2000/60/EC guidelines. Desalin Water Treat 2015, 56, (5), 1231-1239.
Comment 4: Please give the indices in a table including their units.
Response: Thanks for your kind suggestion. According to your comments, we have put all indices in this paper into a table named as Table S1 and S2 and attached their units in the table. Thank you. (see the Table S1 and S2 in the Supplementary Material)
Supplementary Material:
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Table S1 Indexes of water resources evaluation system and units |
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Per capita water resources |
m3/people |
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Water resources per unit area |
10,000 m3/km2 |
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The amount of water supply |
108 m3 |
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Population density |
people/hm2 |
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Per capita water consumption |
m3/person |
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Per capita gross domestic product |
GDP; 10,000 yuan/people |
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GDP water consumption |
m3/10,000 yuan |
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Water resource development and utilization rate |
% |
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Industrial added value of water consumption |
m3/10,000 yuan |
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Industrial water reuse rate |
% |
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Agricultural irrigation water utilization factor |
/ |
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Ammonia nitrogen |
mg/L |
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Chemical oxygen demand |
COD; mg/L |
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Sewage treatment rate |
% |
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Water functional area compliance rate |
% |
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Table S2. The stock value of Water Resource in Wuhan City from 2013 to 2017 and units |
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Per capita disposable income |
USD |
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The yearly household water consumption |
m3 |
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Tolerance of water fee |
% |
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Water supply cost and the norm profit |
USD |
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Price of water resources |
USD/m3 |
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Stock of water resources |
100million m3 |
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Stock value of water resources |
billion USD |
Comment 5: What is the "ten thousand yuan GDP water consumption"? Please explain
Response: Thanks for your nice suggestion. Firstly, ‘ten thousand yuan GDP’ refers to the water consumption to obtain every ten thousand yuan GDP within a region, industry, enterprise or unit in a certain period of time, which was documented in the ‘Standard for Urban Water Conservation evaluation’(GB/T 51083-2015) implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban and Rural Development, peoples’ Republic of China on December first, 2015. Secondly, from the literature, we found that this index was also used by scholars to carry out other studies including water resource utilization efficiency, municipal wastewater estimation, the coupling relationship between economic system and water environmental system as well as the evaluation of water resources value [1-4]. In this study, we used the index to evaluate the value of water resource in Wuhan. According to your suggestion, to avoid reader’s misunderstanding, the sentence has been improved into ‘water consumption per ten thousand yuan GDP’. Details have been shown in page 6, line 177 and page 12, line 330,331. Thank you for pointing out it.
References:
Chen, M.; Chen, H. Q., Study on the coupling relationship between economic system and water environmental system in Beijing based on structural equation model. Appl Ecol Env Res 2019, 17, (1), 617-632. Sun, C. Z.; Zhao, L. S.; Zou, W.; Zheng, D. F., Water resource utilization efficiency and spatial spillover effects in China. J Geogr Sci 2014, 24, (5), 771-788. Zhang, Y.; Zhao, T. S.; Zhou, A. J.; Zhang, Z. Z.; Liu, W., Scenario Based Municipal Wastewater Estimation: Development and Application of a Dynamic Simulation Model. Mod Simul Eng 2016, 13. Yang, Y. H.; Liu, Y.; Cao, S. L.; Cheng, Y. F., A Method of Evaluating WaterResource Assets and Liabilities: A Case Study of Jinan City, Shandong Province.
Water 2017, 9, (8), 16.
Comment 5: How do the authors perform the water balance of the total water resource of the area? The approach usually used is at the river basin level or per water resource, etc.
Response: Thanks for your suggestion. Water balance refers to two main parts of water resources: consumption and recharge of water resources [1,2]. Based on this, a water balance sheet or stock account of water resources needs to be established to account for the stocks of water resources and their changes in order to comprehensively record the possession, use, consumption, restoration, and increase of water resources caused by natural and economic entities in the current period (from the beginning to the end of the period) [3]. So, we should use clear definitions of stocks and flows to perform the water balance of total water resources within an area [4,5]. From this perspective, it is necessary to establish a water resource physical account consisting of stocks and flows of water resources. Considering some previous studies [6,7], we finally established the stock account of the water resources of Wuhan city from 2013 to 2017 in order to conduct the water balance of the total water resources of the area. As shown in the Table 2 of the article, we accounted the stocks and flows of water resource in Wuhan City. Details are shown in page 10, line 268-278. Thank you.
After we consulted literature, we totally agree with you that this approach usually used is at the river basin level or per water resource. For example, the studies carried out at the river basin level were the Analysis of Water Use based on SEEA for water in the Guadalquivir River Basin, the calculation of ecological compensation in Guanting Reservoir Basin and River basin management plans developed in Greece so on [8-10]. There are a lot of similar studies as well.
However, with the strong promotion of natural resources capitalization by the Chinese government, many scholars have also used this approach for urban water resources value accounting [7,11]. Wuhan is rich in fresh water resources. In this situation, we applied this approach to evaluate the value of water resource in Wuhan. Thank you.
References:
Feng, Z.M.; Yang, Y.Z.; Li, P., From Natural Resources Accounting to Balance-sheet of Natural Resources Asset Compilation. Journal of Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2014, 29, (04), 449-456. (In Chinese)2 Feng, Z.M.; Yang, Y.Z.; Jiang, D.; Yuan, G.H. The compilation of natural resources balance sheets (NRBS) and the evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC). Acta Ecol. Sin. 2016, 36, 7140–7145. (In Chinese)
Fadlillah, L. N.; Widyastuti, M., Water balance and irrigation water pumping of Lake Merdada for potato farming in Dieng Highland, Indonesia. Environ Monit Assess 2016, 188, (8). Hoekstra, A. Y., Green-blue water accounting in a soil water balance. Advances in Water Resources 2019, 129, 112-117. Zubelzu, S.; Rodriguez-Sinobas, L.; Andres-Domenech, I.; Castillo-Rodriguez, J. T.; Perales-Momparler, S., Design of water reuse storage facilities in Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems from a volumetric water balance perspective. Sci Total Environ 2019, 663, 133-143.6 Jian, F.H.; Song, X.Y.; Yu, W.B. Establishment and Analysis of Water Assets Accounts for Water Balance Sheet Compilation: A case study of Zhangye City in Heihe River Basin. J. Desert Res. 2016, 36, 851–856. (In Chinese)
Yang, Y.; Liu, Y.; Cao, S.; Cheng, Y., A Method of Evaluating Water Resource Assets and Liabilities: A Case Study of Jinan City, Shandong Province. Water-Sui 2017, 9, (8). Gutierrez-Martin, C.; Borrego-Marin, M. M.; Berbel, J., The Economic Analysis of Water Use in the Water Framework Directive Based on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water: A Case Study of the Guadalquivir River Basin. Water-Sui 2017, 9, (3). Kang, J.; Zi, X.; Wang, S.; He, L. Y., Evaluation and Optimization of Agricultural Water Resources Carrying Capacity in Haihe River Basin, China. Water-Sui 2019, 11, (5), 19. Kanakoudis, V.; Tsitsifli, S., River basin management plans developed in Greece, based on the WFD 2000/60/EC guidelines. Desalin Water Treat 2015, 56, (5), 1231-1239. Jia, Y.; Shen, J.; Wang, H., Calculation of Water Resource Value in Nanjing Based on a Fuzzy Mathematical Model. Water-Sui 2018, 10, (7).
Comment 7: Please explain how the weights are determined. How the experts provided their scores?
Response: As for weights determination, weights are divided into two parts in this paper: subjective weights and objective weights. First of all, subjective weights were obtained by AHP (Analytic hierarchy process), which was widely used in determining indexes weights and have high reliability and accuracy. Secondly, as for objective weights, we have used entropy method to calculate it. The detail description has been shown in page 6, line 181-189, line 190-194, and 196-210, page 7 line 211. Finally, the subjective and objective weights are linear weighted to determine the comprehensive weight of each evaluation index in order to avoid the deviation caused by subjective weight method and the absolutization of objective weight method.
After we constructed the index system of water resources value evaluation in Wuhan city. Based on AHP (Analytic hierarchy process), we established the questionnaire (see in the Supplementary Material). The experts rated the relative importance between the two indicators and gave them scores respectively based on their knowledge and experience. In this way, we get the judgment matrix between the indexes, the subjective weights were obtained eventually. In order for you to better understand how we get the weights, we have added the details of how the expert provided scores into the revised manuscript. Details are shown in the page 6, line 189-192.
Supplementary Material:
专家打分调查表
尊敬的各位专家和学者：
您们好！感谢您在百忙之中抽出时间填写我们的问卷。本中心正在进行题为“基于模糊综合评价的武汉市水资源价值评估”研究，需要用建立的评价指标体系对水资源价值进行模糊综合评价，评价指标体系包括3个一级指标，15个二级指标。评价过程中采用了层次分析法（AHP）来确定各指标因素对武汉市水资源价值评估的影响程度及其次序，特制以下调查问卷。本调查表将采用保密原则，只作为本人的学术研究，您可放心填写。请专家根据自己的知识和经验对各层次指标因素之间的的相对重要程度进行评分，评分采用9分制。评分依据如“评分标度及其含义表”所示。您的意见十分重要，是确定考核指标分数的重要依据。
感谢您的合作！
中南财经政法大学
环境与健康研究中心
2017年11月12日
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评分标度及其含义表 |
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评分标度 |
含义 |
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1 |
指标i与指标j同等重要 |
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3 |
指标i比指标j稍微重要一些 |
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5 |
指标i比指标j明显重要 |
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7 |
指标i比指标j强烈重要 |
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9 |
指标i比指标j极端重要 |
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2、4、6、8 |
指标i与指标j的比较介于上述各等级程度之间 |
例如，同一层级下的两个指标A和B，分数表示指标A和指标B相对于上一层级指标的相对重要性，假设指标A明显比指标B重要。那么我们就可以将A和B的判断矩阵写成如下的形式。请各位专家根据以上标度，在各两两指标因素之间的相对重要程度进行详细评分的填写。打分表格如下所示：
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A |
B |
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A |
1 |
5 |
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B |
1/5 |
1 |
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武汉市水资源价值评估的一级影响指标 |
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指标 |
资源 |
社会 |
环境 |
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资源 |
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社会 |
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环境 |
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资源指标层级下的二级影响指标 |
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资源层 |
人均水资源量 |
单位面积水资源量 |
供水总量 |
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人均水资源量 |
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单位面积水资源量 |
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供水总量 |
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社会层级指标下二级影响指标
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Comment 8: Please use USD or EUR as monetary units to be understandable
Response: Thanks for your kind suggestion. According to your comment, we have used USD as monetary units to replace RMB. We use the average exchange rate of RMB against USD from 2013 to 2017, which are acquired on the website of National Bureau of statistics of China. Details are shown in the page1 line26, 27, page 3, line 99, page 13, line 377, 379,381, page 14, line 396 and Table 4, page 15, line 442, 444-445.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Review of the Manuscripts ID sustainability-553167
„Evaluating Water Resource Assets Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model: A Case Study of Wuhan City, China” for the Journal Sustainability.
The paper „„Evaluating Water Resource Assets Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model: A Case Study of Wuhan City, China”” intends to fill in a lack of information the demands for water resources of the China's economy.
The paper consists of five sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.
The abstract must contains the main purpose of the paper, the research method used in the research and the main contributions.
It would be very useful to add in the "Introduction" section the purpose, objectives and hypothesis of the research. We consider that the introduction should specify the novelty of the paper compared to other papers published in this area. We consider the introduction part must be separate from the literature review, and at the end of the introduction, the parts of this paper should be specified.
The paper contains the second section titled Materials and Methods the authors present how Data acquisition, Data acquisition , Comprehensive evaluation model of water resources value. We recommend authors to mention the software used in data processing.
In the third part „Results”, the authors explain results of the databased of research such as the Social value of Water Resources, the Water Resources Quality, the Price Calculation Model of Water Resource and the Stock Value of Water Resources in Wuhan.
In the part of Discussions the authors concluded that the real life price of water resources in Wuhan City is on the low side and still owning a great room for rise.
In “Conclusion” part of the paper, the authors explain their findings regarding the water resources in China based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, 15 indicators from three aspects: water resources, society and environment are chosen to construct the evaluation index system of water resources value in Wuhan City.
Author Response
Response to reviewer 2’s comments
Comment 1: „Evaluating Water Resource Assets Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model: A Case Study of Wuhan City, China” for the Journal Sustainability.
The paper „„Evaluating Water Resource Assets Based on Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Model: A Case Study of Wuhan City, China”” intends to fill in a lack of information the demands for water resources of the China's economy.
The paper consists of five sections: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.
Response: Thank you for your appreciation of the work we have done. Your support and encouragement will inspire us to move on our research subject. Just as what you said, we divided the chapters of the articles according to the format required by the journal of Sustainability, and divided the main body of this article into the following five parts: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions.
Comment 2: The abstract must contains the main purpose of the paper, the research method used in the research and the main contributions.
Response: Thanks for your detailed suggestion. According to your comment, we have rechecked the abstract of this article. We have added the main purpose of the paper into the abstract part, and made sure that the research method used in the research and the main contributions has already existed in this part. Details are shown in page 1, line 19-21, 27-29. Thank you.
Comment 3: It would be very useful to add in the "Introduction" section the purpose, objectives and hypothesis of the research. We consider that the introduction should specify the novelty of the paper compared to other papers published in this area. We consider the introduction part must be separate from the literature review, and at the end of the introduction, the parts of this paper should be specified.
Response: Thanks for your key suggestion.
Firstly, according to your comments, we have improved the Introduction by adding the purpose, objectives and hypothesis of this research. The purpose we added are mainly shown in the section of Introduction, Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 4 as following “Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the water resource assets accounting as the first step.” And “In order to determine the value of water resources in Wuhan from 2013 to 2017, we conducted our research considering the following four aspects: (1) establish the water resource stock and flow accounts in Wuhan from 2013 to 2017; (2) establish the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation system of water resources in Wuhan; (3) evaluate Wuhan water resources according to the evaluation index system and calculate the unit water resource price of Wuhan city from 2013 to 2017; (4) calculate the total value of Wuhan water resources according to their stock and flow in Wuhan city from 2013 to 2017.” Details are shown on Page 2, line 47-48, Page 3, line 88-94. And the objective we added is “Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei Province and the core city of the central region in China. Wuhan is rich in fresh water resources and possesses the largest water area among large cities in China. As of 2017, Wuhan, with its 166 lakes, is known as the ‘city of a hundred lakes’ and has a surface area of 803.17 km2 at normal water levels, which ranks first among Chinese cities [1]”. According to your suggestion, we have rewritten many sentences to improve the manuscript, details are shown on page 2, line 83-85, page 3 line 86. As for hypothesis, we added as following: “The hypothesis of developing the balance sheet of water resources, including their physical quantity and integrated value, provided a support on the innovative management of water resources [2]. The implement of the approach could be used to determine the properties of water resources assets, promote the construction of ecological civilization, and then ultimately achieve sustainable development of water resources [3].”. Details are shown on Page 2, line 43-47.
Secondly, we have specified the novelty of the paper compared to other papers published in this area. One the one hand, the use of economic valuation techniques is a brand-new perspective to inform water resource management [4]. Early in 2000, the water framework directive 2000/60/EC proposed by the European Union aimed to achieve the good qualitative and quantitative status of all water bodies [4,5]. However, water resource accounting systems are complex, which are affected not only by natural (including ecological and chemical) factors but also social and economic factors. Therefore, we endeavored to develop a comprehensive water resource asset evaluation system considering the following three aspects: the environment, society, and efficiency. On the other hand, from the perspective of research method, based on the complexity and fuzziness of water resource systems, we applied a fuzzy mathematical model of water resource value. The fuzzy mathematical model was used to solve the problem of water resource valuation to some extent, and the defects in the abovementioned methods were solved to a certain extent. According to the comprehensive consideration of various factors, it is more reasonable to calculate the value of water resources by the fuzzy mathematical model. Therefore, according to your suggestion, we have improved the introduction by specifying the novelty of the paper as well as these parts of this paper, and rewritten many sentences. Details are shown in the introduction part, paragraph 2 and paragraph 3. As shown on Page 2, line 56-66, 75-81.
Thirdly, according to your suggestion, we separate the introduction part from the literature review. Paragraph 1 is mainly about the backgrounds, hypothesis and the purpose of the research. Paragraph 2 and 3 are the literature review. Paragraph 4 is about the specific object and elaboration the purposes of this study.
Finally, according to your comment, at the end of the introduction, we have also improved the last paragraph and rewritten many to make this paper specified. Two native English-speaking professors in our study field were invited to help polishing the entire manuscript. Details are shown on page 2-3, line 82-94. Hope to get your understanding, Thank you.
References:
Asghar, M. A.; Zhu, Q.; Sun, S.; Peng, Y.; Shuai, Q., Suspect screening and target quantification of human pharmaceutical residues in the surface water of Wuhan, China, using UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS. Science of the Total Environment 2018, 635, 828-837.
Feng, Z.M.; Yang, Y.Z.; Li, P., From Natural Resources Accounting to Balance-sheet of Natural Resources Asset Compilation. Journal of Chinese Academy of Sciences. 2014, 29, (04), 449-456. (In Chinese) Yang, Y.; Liu, Y.; Cao, S.; Cheng, Y., A Method of Evaluating Water Resource Assets and Liabilities: A Case Study of Jinan City, Shandong Province. Water-Sui 2017, 9, (8). Birol, E.; Karousakis, K.; Koundouri, P., Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: A survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application. Sci Total Environ 2006, 365, (1-3), 105-122. Heinz, I.; Pulido-Velazquez, M.; Lund, J. R.; Andreu, J., Hydro-economic modeling in river basin management: Implications and applications for the European Water Framework Directive. Water Resour Manag 2007, 21, (7), 1103-1125.
Comment 4: The paper contains the second section titled Materials and Methods the authors present how Data acquisition, Data acquisition , Comprehensive evaluation model of water resources value. We recommend authors to mention the software used in data processing.
Response: Thanks for your detailed suggestion. Just as what you said, in the second part titled Materials and Methods, we accomplished the data acquisition, weights determination, data analysis and show you how to evaluate water resources value comprehensively. However, in order to make the article more comprehensive and easier to understand, according to your comment, we added the software used for data processing into the revised manuscript. Microsoft Excel 2016 is powerful and can be used for data analysis, model simulation, matrix operation, and so on [1-3]. In this study, the dataset consisted of time panel data from 2013 to 2017, including 15 indicators, for a total of 75 actual values. Using Excel to import and analyze the data was very simple and easy to operate. Here, Microsoft Excel 2016 was used for data processing, including the calculation of subjective and objective weights, table drawing, the calculation of water resource price and value, and matrix operations. Details are shown in the page 4 line 121-127. Thank you.
References:
Awad, J.; Fisk, C. A.; Cox, J. W.; Anderson, S. J.; van Leeuwen, J., Modelling of THM formation potential and DOM removal based on drinking water catchment characteristics. Sci Total Environ 2018, 635, 761-768. Yousefi, Z.; Kazemi, F.; Mohammadpour, R. A., Assessment of scale formation and corrosion of drinking water supplies in Ilam city (Iran). Env Health Eng Manag 2016, 3, (2), 75-80. Phipps, A. G.; Li, D. D., Calibration and evaluation of Quigley's hybrid housing price model in Microsoft Excel. PLoS One 2019, 14, (4), 18.
Comment 5: In the third part “Results”, the authors explain results of the databased of research such as the Social value of Water Resources, the Water Resources Quality, the Price Calculation Model of Water Resource and the Stock Value of Water Resources in Wuhan.
Response: Thanks for your suggestion. Just as what you said in the comment, in the part of Results, first of all, we accounted the stock and flow of water resources in Wuhan and established the account of water resources in Wuhan. Secondly, we evaluated the abundance, quality and social value of water resources in Wuhan and calculated the unit price of water resources in Wuhan. Finally, the unit price and stock of water resources were used to obtain the value of water resources in Wuhan from 2013 to 2017. On this basis, in order to make the expression easier to understand, we also polished the article and MDPI helped us to improve the English language usage, grammar, spelling and punctuations to make sure our article meets the Sustainability’s required standard. The Service Certification is shown below. Thank you.
Fig.1 MDPI English Editing Service Certification
Comment 6: In the part of Discussions the authors concluded that the real life price of water resources in Wuhan City is on the low side and still owning a great room for rise. In “Conclusion” part of the paper, the authors explain their findings regarding the water resources in China based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, 15 indicators from three aspects: water resources, society and environment are chosen to construct the evaluation index system of water resources value in Wuhan City.
Response: Thanks for your suggestion. According to the method of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, the water resources price of Wuhan City from 2013 to 2017 was 0.709 USD/m3, 1.275 USD/m3, 1.604 USD/m3, 1.420 USD/m3, 1.838 USD/m3, respectively. However, in reality, the price of water resources in Wuhan from 2013 to 2017 was 0.396 USD/m3, 0.526 USD/m3, 0.543 USD/m3, 0.474 USD/m3, 0.467 USD/ m3, respectively. We could find that the real water price fluctuated only slightly and remained basically flat over time. However, the water price calculated has basically maintained an upward trend, and there is a big gap between the two. Thus, we discussed that the reality price of water resources in Wuhan City is on the low side and still owning a great room for rising irrespective of the macro-control of Chinese government. We also polished the manuscript carefully to make sure the presentation is more accurate. As shown on page 15, line 431-432.
As for conclusion, firstly, compared with the previous research, this paper established a more comprehensive evaluation index system, which takes water resources, society, and the environment into account, and the results are more accurate and credible. Secondly, from the perspective of research method, based on the complexity and fuzziness of water resources system, this paper applied the fuzzy mathematic model to solve the assessment of water resources value to some extent. According to the comprehensive consideration of varies factors, it’s more reasonable to calculate the valuation of water resource by that model. Finally, Wuhan city, which is the capital city of Hubei Province and the core city of the central region in China, is rich in fresh water resources, and the selection of Wuhan City as the research area will take a good example to the application of the water resource asset of other cities in China. Moreover, in order to clearly express our views, we polished the article carefully and two native English-speaking professors in our study field were invited to improve the language of the entire manuscript. Hope to get your understanding. Thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have taken into account the recommendations made and the article can be published in the prestigious journal Sustainability.
