Assessing the Sustainability Impacts of the Xiaolangdi Dam: Land Use and Socioeconomic Change in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yellow River Basin
, Jiarui Xi 2, Liu Sun 1,4, Bo Liu 5, Yawei Hu 4,6, Zhen Han 3,* and David Benson 2Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In the manuscript, the sustainability impacts of the Xiaolangdi Dam from land use and socioeconomic change in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin was assessed. It is important to know the landuse change. However,it needs some reversion before acceptation.
1.the landuse change driving force are from both nature factors and human being factor. For example, the precipitation change.
2.the Xiaolangdi dam just impact the runoff in the Yellow river, and it can not impact the ecological system in the basin(outside of reach of the Yellow River) .
3.there are some relationships between land use change and socio-economic indicators. But it has nothing to do with the Xiaolangdi dam. The dam cannot impact the socio-economic indicator.
4.the title should be revised: the land use and socioeconomic change in the downstream of Xiaolangdi Dam in the Yellow River Basin
no
Author Response
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Reviewer 2 Report
In this work，the sustainability impacts in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in China after the Xiaolangdi Dam was opened has been assessed. Based on data interpretation of remote sensing images of land use in 5 yearly periods from 2000 to 2020，this research revealed the degree of land use type change in the study area and analyzed the relationship between land use and social economy. In general, the structure of this paper are well designed and conducted. Results and statistical analysis are convincing. It is suggested that this article be considered for publication after revision. The comments are as follows:
1. Table 1 has a formatting problem. The alignment in the table needs to be consistent.
2. In the section of 2.3 Analysis of land use change rate, the formulas need to be numbered and referenced in the paper for differentiation.
3. In the section of 2.5 Correlation analysis between land use change and socio-economic indicators, please check the font format, such as "|r|∈[0.8, 1]".
4. In the section of 5. Conclusions, research prospects or suggestions can be added based on the results of this study.
Author Response
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Reviewer 3 Report
The authors described the changes in land use, population and GDP during 2000 to 2020 in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River Basin. The Xiaolangdi Dam was built at the middle reach of the Yellow River and was completed in 2000. The authors claimed to assess the impacts of the Xiaolangdi Dam to the land use change. However, the authors only analyzed the changes after the completion of the dam. To assess the impact of the dam, the authors need to add analysis of the data before the completion of the dam, for example, back to 1980s. It would be better for the authors to add comparisons of the changes for the surrounding regions rather than only focusing on the narrow regions next to the Yellow River.
Line 15: “opened” should be modified to “constructed”
Line 15-16: “Based on data interpretation of remote sensing images of land use in 5 yearly periods from 2000 to 2020” can be modified to “Based on the land use data interpreted from the Landsat remote sensing images covering the time period of 2000 to 2020 with 5 years interval”.
Author Response
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Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
It would be better for the authors to analyze more data covering longer time period to provide more insights of how the man-made structures influence the land use around the Yellow River.
Author Response
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