Geospatial Tools and Remote Sensing Strategies for Timely Humanitarian Response: A Case Study on Drought Monitoring in Eswatini

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article presents an interesting study that is highly applicable to Eswatini area and crisis management during drought periods. Authors present drought analysis using remote sensing and geospatial aim management during time of emergency. I especially value the use of QGIS solution that is free to use and can be easy accessible for low-income countries, compared to other high-cost solutions.

Material and Methods section is well written and structured, however some questions appear during lecture. Current biggest issue is lack of clear goal presented in introduction section. The reader have to guess what are the aims of the work. Please extend introduction and state clearly your research hypothesis and aims. 

Besides above, please fix also the below, specific comments:

p.1. last sentence: "Analyzing the proportion" - who did this analysis, please provide reference here

p.2. first line "Eswatini, Leshotho, and Zimbabwe stand out" - how exactly? please elaborate and provide reference

p.2. Introduction last paragraph - logic flow - please provide better introduction for RS methods, aims and hypothesis of the study

Table 1. - please separate thousands in "total affected" by comma f.e. 272,900 or space 272 900 (according to journal style)

Table 2. - I propose to clearly state that the values are "mean" - or other if apply

p.4. 2.2.1. first sentence - the sentence here brings multiple questions: which Landsat: 1, 8, 9?, what equation etc. These answers are provided later in the text, but it would be good to provide reference here, f.e. VHI (see x.x.x section for details).

p.5. 2.2.2 - provide more details including where located (maybe map?), what resolution, time-frame, what source (reference).

p.6. 2.3.1. 2nd paragraph - what was the cloud cover threshold and processing algorithm?

p.9. 2nd paragraph: "warehouses identified in Fig. 5" - not visible clearly, please improve fig 5 layout, marking and labeling

Fig. 7. improve readability and quality of figure

Discussion is low on actual discussion with the current literature, try to improve or mark that no previous studies to compare if it's the case.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for you comments. I have taken each and every one of them into consideration. I hope i have answered them with great satisfaction. 

Best Regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper “Geospatial Tools and Remote Sensing Strategies for Timely Humanitarian Response: A Case Study on Drought Monitoring in Eswatini” discusses the impact of natural disasters, specifically droughts, on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Eswatini. Droughts have affected approximately 63 million people in SADC countries, leading to challenges in agriculture, livestock losses, and severe food and water shortages. The inadequacy and unreliability of rainfall have resulted in a drastic reduction in food production, with maize experiencing a 70% decline. To address this growing threat, a comprehensive approach is necessary, involving coordinated plans and the development of swift humanitarian relief strategies. Remote sensing technologies were used to monitor drought and assess its impact on agricultural production, and geospatial tools were employed to optimize humanitarian supply chain logistics. Through this integrated approach, decision-makers can engage in targeted interventions to address vulnerable farming areas and populations requiring a coordinated humanitarian response amidst climate variability, but those flaws should be fixed before a proper review. My comments are as follows.

                                                      

The structure of introduction can review more recent (2023) papers about remote sensing technologies to monitor drought and assess its repercussions. For example, remote sensing journal provided a lot of relevant researches. A short description of each section should be included.

 

Figure 1: The legend is inappropriate. More information should be added to describe each legend.

 

The structure of Section 2 can be improved. A flow of the research framework can be added to illustrate the study.

 

Figure 4 can be improved with more information added into the figure or caption. Such as adding the label of each grey dot.

 

Figure 5 can be improved to include the connections between each plot.

 

Table 5: The time for data should be added.

 

Figure 7. If recommended Rootes, shortest routes and fastest routes overlapped in some segmentations? If yes, highlighting it with different line types can be a good presentation.

 

In my opinion, more information should be added in the discussion to illustrate the main findings or implications in this study. The comparison of the results and other related literatures in this paper is not sufficient.

 

Conclusions should be shortened to highlight the main findings.

 

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Minor editing of English language required.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer, 

Thank you very much for your comments. We have taken each one of them into account. We hope that our answers meet your satisfaction. 

 

Best Regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf