Sand Spit Morphology at an Inlet on Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled “Spit morphology at an inlet in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam”, by D.V. Duy, T.V. Ty, T.N. Thanh, H.V.T. Minh, C.V. De, V.H.T. Duong, T.C. Dan, N.T. Viet and H. Tanaka, presents an interesting work.

In general, the manuscript should be acceptable for publication but some serious problems must be repaired prior to publication. It needs some significant improvement. Some suggestions are as follows:

1. It would be useful to be described the aim of this paper. Ι think that it is not a reason for a paper to the grow the literature on sand spit morphological changes
2. The abstract should state briefly the purpose of the research, the principal results and major conclusions. An abstract is often presented separately from the article, so it must be able to stand alone.
3. It is suggested to the authors to take the assistance of someone with English as mother tongue.
4. You could enrich the scientific literature.
5. Please justify convincingly why this manuscript (method, thematology etc) connected with Water’s content and scope. Perhaps the using of proper literature from this journal would be helpful. Eg: Skilodimou, H.D.; Antoniou, V.; Bathrellos, G.D.; Tsami, E. Mapping of Coastline Changes in Athens Riviera over the Past 76 Year’s Measurements. Water 2021, 13, 2135. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13152135. AND Falkenrich, P.; Wilson, J.; Nistor, I.; Goseberg, N.; Cornett, A.; Mohammadian, A. Nature-Based Coastal Protection by Large Woody Debris as Compared to Seawalls: A Physical Model Study of Beach Morphology and Wave Reflection. Water 2021, 13, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13152020.
6. Please use coordinates in all maps.
7. Correct references in the text and the reference list according to the journal’s format. Please format the references’ list by using the correct journal abbreviations. See the following link: https://images.webofknowledge.com/images/help/WOS/A_abrvjt.html

It is better the English language be checked by a fluent English speaker.

Author Response

We are grateful for your insightful comments on the paper. We have been able to incorporate changes to reflect all of your suggestions. Attached are point-by-point responses to your comments and concerns.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

GENERAL COMMENT

I suggest do not use acronyms as a keyword.

Acronyms or initialisms are better to be defined in the paper text (e.g., LSTR is defined only in the abstract).

Please accurately check throughout the text, all the variables are correctly defined.

SPECIFIC COMMENT

INTRODUCTION

In the introduction the A. mention the importance of sand spit, and their effects on the longshore. For a sack of completeness, I suggest to mention river sediment transport, and especially bedload transport process, which is one of the relevant drivers of sand spit and bar at the river mouth even in small coastal rivers (Cilli, S., Billi, P., Schippa, L., Grottoli, E., and Ciavola, P. Bedload transport and dune bedforms characteristics in sand-bed rivers supplying a retreating beach of the northern adriatic sea (italy). Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, 2021. 37, doi:10.1016/j.ejrh.2021.100894).

L106

The § 2.1.1 refers to Sentinel-2 and Google Earth imagery. Please change the title of the paragraph to make it consistent with the contents of the paragraph.

L111

The table caption should mention all the data source

L119-120

Please explain how you measure the spit width and length and which are the precision of the measures (relative error).

L124

Is the figure a sketch of Song Tranh inlet? If it is, please specify in figure 3 caption.

Remove measuring unit from the figure.

In figure 3 is reported point A (xa; yA) and point O (geographic coordinate) without any mentions. Please explain (legend or figure caption) what they for do are.

L146

The A. stat Eq. 2 is used to calculate the depth of closure. In L147 the extreme wave condition is mentioned. What about the considered extreme condition?

L150

What does the mean wave height refer to?

L156

The A. mention the CERC formula. For a sack of comprehension I suggest to add explicitly the formula in the text.

L158

D50 is not defined.

L155

I suggest describing sediment sampling procedure and method, and any additional information about sediment samples (e.g., sizes, grading).

L173

Figure 7.: Add a legend reporting all the variables included in the figure.

Please check if all the variables involved in the process is reported in the figure (e.g., sand spit length L; sand spit elongation DX or DL).

L195-196

Check mistyping.

L198

Define rms ; Hrms

L200-201

Is Hs in eq. (12) the same of eq. (3) ?

Which waves (Hn, N) has been considered?

L218

Do not use abbreviation (i.e., Jan.)

L210-228

Spit elongation during year 2022 is represented in figure 8 for the months: 1,3,4,5,6,7,12. In figure 9 it is reported for month 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8 ,9 10, 11, 12.  Please make it clear why do some months are missed in figure 8.

L255

What does “standard line” represents in Figure 11 ?. Please specify in figure caption or insert a legend.

L249

The A. state “As can be seen in 249 Table 2, there is a relationship of increasing K with decreasing sediment size”. Accounting for eq. (9)  It is meaningless. I suggest to cancel.

L261-265

It sounds confusing. Please rephrase.

Author Response

We are grateful for your insightful comments on the paper. We have been able to incorporate changes to reflect all of your suggestions. Attached are point-by-point responses to your comments and concerns.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This manuscript presents an improved work.

The manuscript should be acceptable for publication as it is.

Minor editing of English language required