Annual, Seasonal, and Monthly Rainfall Trend Analysis through Non-Parametric Tests in the Sebou River Basin (SRB), Northern Morocco

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled " Annual, seasonal and monthly rainfall trend analysis through non-parametric tests in the Sebou River Basin (SRB), Northern Morocco" was reviewed. The manuscript is well written. Although the methodology of this research and using Mann Kendall test and Sen’s slope approach is commonly used in time series trend analyses studies, but the manuscript provides important insight and information regarding the spatial and temporal rainfall trend in the study area. Therefore, based on the above, I think accepting the manuscript for publication after applying the minor revisions is advisable.

 Specific comments

 Line 58 Page 2: please add more details using literature review on analyzing trends in hydro meteorological time series.

 Line 86 Page 2: Provide more information regarding checking and quality control by Climatol package.  

 Line 94 Page 3: Add the name of the country to the overview map.

Line 95 Page 3: Add unit for “lat” ,“lon”, and “Altitude” variables in the Table1.

Line 191 Page 7: In figure 4.1 the color pattern needs to be changed so that warm colors represent a decrease in the seasonal rainfall and the increase in the rainfall is depicted using cool colors such as blue.

 Line 258 Page 11: Authors are advised to point out the limitations and assumptions of the research.

Author Response

Specific comments

 Line 58 Page 2: please add more details using literature review on analyzing trends in hydro meteorological time series.

We added some references and we discussed the other techniques for trend detection, we added also conclusion of some studies about the rainfall trend in Morocco

 Line 86 Page 2: Provide more information regarding checking and quality control by Climatol package.  

We understand your demand, but we think that this is another big topic, we cited our paper published with Climate about this operation which provides enough information and data about the homogenization process and quality control, the nature and structure of data

Line 94 Page 3: Add the name of the country to the overview map.

We changed it accordingly

Line 95 Page 3: Add unit for “lat” ,“lon”, and “Altitude” variables in the Table1.

We changed it accordingly

Line 191 Page 7: In figure 4.1 the color pattern needs to be changed so that warm colors represent a decrease in the seasonal rainfall and the increase in the rainfall is depicted using cool colors such as blue.

We changed it accordingly

 Line 258 Page 11: Authors are advised to point out the limitations and assumptions of the research.

The main limitations of this paper remain in the number of stations used in this work. But we are sure that it represents quietly the whole of the basin except the western coasts. But the main mountain area where rainfall is important are covered by our stations. In terms of assumptions we have the same results as many other studies about the Moroccan rainfall and the trend in the whole north Africa and even in the southern Spain. We added a paragraph to this effect in the Discussion.

Reviewer 2 Report

1. Expand the introduction section

2. Methodology flow chart is missing

3. In the methodology section, for trend analysis there are recently developed methods available in the literature kindly look at them and implement on that e.g. modified MK test, seasonal MK test, etc.

4. Also discuss data quality check in results&discussion section.

5. If possible make the results in graphical form instead of a tabular one.

6. Have you checked the other significance level (e.g. 90% CI) apart from 95% and 99% CI.

7. In case comparing the present study with respect to literature, kindly make clearly understandable forms (use a graphical or tabular form of presentations).

8.  Clearly mentioned the number of literatures were used for comparing the present study.

9. While comparing with literatures, how much accuracy of your results.

10. I didnt understand why authors written conclusion in numbering forms.

11. Kindly follow and cite the below mentioned papers:

Segmental variability of precipitation in the Mahanadi River basin from 1901 to 2017

Some non-uniformity patterns spread over the lower Mahanadi River Basin, India

Author Response

1. Expand the introduction section

We added a paragraph about rainfall trend analysis with recent references and we also discussed different trend tests and their respective advantages 

2. Methodology flow chart is missing

The methodology used in this paper is very simple doesn’t need any complex chart or graphical. However, we now created a simple chart showing step by step the methodology used.

3. In the methodology section, for trend analysis there are recently developed methods available in the literature kindly look at them and implement on that e.g. modified MK test, seasonal MK test, etc.

Thanks for this suggestion, we now discuss in the introduction about the modified MK test, ITA and TFPW MK for precipitation trend detection and quantification.

4. Also discuss data quality check in results & discussion section.

We understand your demand, but we think that this is another big topic. We cited our paper published with Climate which provides detailed information and data about the homogenization process and quality control for the Moroccan precipitation data.

5. If possible, make the results in graphical form instead of a tabular one.

Thanks for this suggestion, but we believe that 15 stations are too small to use graphics and we already have 5 figures (maps) against only 2 tables in the Results section, so keeping this as a table seems appropriate.

6. Have you checked the other significance level (e.g. 90% CI) apart from 95% and 99% CI.

Thanks a lot for this suggestion, we now added the 90%CL accordingly (one station on annual scale was added, 3 station in winter and one on Spring where found statistically significant at 90% CL)

7. In case comparing the present study with respect to literature, kindly make clearly understandable forms (use a graphical or tabular form of presentations).

We changed it accordingly by adding a table in the Discussion section.

8. Clearly mentioned the number of literatures were used for comparing the present study.

The table added in the Discussion describes the number the methods and the main finding of the cited papers.

9. While comparing with literatures, how much accuracy of your results.

While, given the known variability of the process over space and time, we expect the precipitation trend numbers to be somewhat different for each region and study period, our results are similar to that obtained for Moroccan rainfall and north Africa and even in southern Spain where the trend is downward for annual and during wet season (winter and spring)

10. I didn’t understand why authors written conclusion in numbering forms.

This is just to highlight which are the main findings of our paper