Multivariate Analysis Applied to Aquifer Hydrogeochemical Evaluation: A Case Study in the Coastal Significant Subterranean Water Body between “Cecina River and San Vincenzo”, Tuscany (Italy)
, Alessio Barbagli 2,3,4, Stefano Bernardinetti 2,3, Andrea Zirulia 2,3, Mariantonietta Brancale 2,3 and Tommaso Colonna 2,3Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The role and importance of studies of the regime and balance of groundwaters are constantly increasing, and they are the main sources of hydrogeological information necessary for solving various economic problems. The manuscript of Alessia Bastianoni and co-authors is devoted to the study of the hydrogeochemical characteristics in the coastal significant subterranean water body between “Cecina River and San Vincenzo”, Tuscany (Italy). The style of the material presentation is clear and consistent, which indicates the competence of the authors in the studied discourse. The literature corresponds to the stated topic.
However, there are the following comments on the manuscript:
- Some references are missing in the manuscript or incorrect references to publications are given. For example, there is no reference to Piper (1944) (Piper, A. A graphic procedure in the geochemical interpretation of water-analyses. Transactions, American Geophysical Union. 1944, 25, 914–928. doi:10.1029/TR025i006p00914), and the reference to Durov (1948) [4] is incorrect, it must be Durov; S.A. Natural waters and graphic representation of their composition. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 1948, 59, 87–90.
- References are not designed in accordance with the MDPI bibliographic style.
- The legend panel is missing in Figure 1.
- It is necessary to improve the quality of figures 5 and 6.
- Figure 10 is completely identical to the right diagram in Figure 9. It may be possible to remove this right diagram from Figure 9, and increase the left one in size.
- In Figure 11, the legend panel is completely unreadable.
Some comments are made in the text of the manuscript.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The aim of the paper entitled Multivariate analysis applied to aquifer hydrogeochemical evaluation: a case study in the coastal significant subterranean water body between “Cecina River and San Vincenzo”, Tuscany (Italy) is to present the results of the SOM clustering and PCA methods in relation to The hydrogeochemical characteristics of the Significant Subterranean Water Body in Italy. Overall paper sounds good but contains typical methods to evaluate groundwater quality.
Please add the following information:
Please add hydrogeological conditions to the study area description with parameters of the aquifer. It is also needed the hydrogeological map of the study area.
Please describe PCA method in a wider way.
Please indicate why only major ions were used in this study.
Figures 9, 10 should have a better resolution.
Please give some numerical results of the SOM clustering in the abstract.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
