Analysis of Social Networks of Water-Use-Related Information in the Rio Mayo Irrigation District (038) in Northern Mexico: Ethnicity, Land Tenure and Land Use

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper that treats aspects concerning the analysis of social networks of water use-related information in the Rio Mayo Irrigation District in Northern Mexico under ethnicity, land tenancy and use aspect, approaches in a scientific manner the concerned issue.

2. Political Ecology of Water and Social Networks Analysis of Water Use-Related Information

The introduction is very well documented and updates the approached issue, but similar approaches reported in other regions of the world may be treated in a critical manner. We suggest the authors to emphasize in a phrase the lacks and added value of these approaches.

The aim of the study is presented clear, but the problem of the ”Chlorophyll Content, Hill Activity and Sugar Content” presented in Results and Discussions section is not mentioned. We recommend authors to introduce this aspect in formulation of the aim of the research or to correlate in ”Results” section the approach of this aspect with one of the formulated ones.

2.Materials and Methods

The section is very well conceived and is complete.

5.Results

The section is very well conceived.

Line 409. Please exemplify using citations the ”Few social network analysis studies have addressed information links regarding water use”

6.Discussion

Discussions are complex, and references to another research in the field are made. But because you formulated as objectives, please detail how ”social networks of information exchange regarding water management are structured according to the ethnicity of the users of the Rio Mayo Irrigation District 038 and how these networks are associated with type of land tenancy and land use”.

2.Conclusion

It is not clear how the objectives of the present study (”social networks of information exchange regarding water management are structured according to the ethnicity of the users of the Rio Mayo Irrigation District 038 and how these networks are associated with type of land tenancy and land use”) are accomplished. Please clarify.

We recommend authors to mention the novelty brought by your research compared to the present level of knowledge in the field and underline the originality of their work.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Under the increasing of conflicts over water, this study explored how water use-related information networks are structured and how these networks are influenced in the Rio Mayo Irrigation District in Mexico. It provided evidence for the regulation of water in the irrigation district.

However, the following issues should be considered:

1. How to understand the number of 038 in introducing the Rio Mayo Irrigation District. Please give more explanations.

2. What are the criteria to identify social actors influencing water management in section 4.1?

3. The conclusion can be extended and discuss about the limitations of method.

L126-128: Please check this sentence. It is confusing.

L152: Does the XX century represent the 20th century? Please give the standard English expression.

L315: More details are needed to clarify how to get the visualization of the water use-related information network.

Table 2: Please explain what the numbers before and after the symbol “+” represent.

L364: Can authors point out the specific social actors influencing water management influenced both networks?

Figures 4 and 5:  The sharpness of the pictures needs to be improved.

It is fine to me.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

I found this to be a much less convincing read than other papers by this team, notably 'The struggle of indigenous people of the lower Rio Mayo, northwestern Mexico for water resources'.  The latter engages with the indigenous population whereas this aims to set up a more social scientific framework in which the indigenous population is contrasted with a heterogenous grouping of 'others'. The discussion here of networks feels remote, as there seems little to say about a group that is aged , little educated in a formal sense and whose livelihood is literally evaporating before their eyes.  The reader is left with little other than a sense of sadness at the demise of another traditional way of life.

I have found the group's other papers more engaged in an ethnographic sense, and this does not really convince as a social scientific project.  This reviewer wonders if this has much to say to readers of this journal as it is currently presented: perhaps some discussion of how the indigenous population could be bolstered in terms of a network that is more effective in clinging on to existing water rights, or forming new alliances. would be a way to add new information to the manuscript.   

Author Response

Requested file attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

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Author Response

Thanks.
kind regards