Analyzing Temperature, Precipitation, and River Discharge Trends in Afghanistan’s Main River Basins Using Innovative Trend Analysis, Mann–Kendall, and Sen’s Slope Methods
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe research titled “Temperature, Precipitation, and River Discharge Trends in 2 Afghanistan Main River Basins: A Comparison of Innovative Trend Analysis, Mann-Kendall, and Sen’s Slope Methods” aims to compare the MK and ITA trend prediction methods for river basins in Afghanistan. Overall, research design is valid and acceptable but need to be improved in several aspects. My detailed comments are:
1- Introduction section is poor and only explains about the hydrometeorological conditions of Afghanistan without global perspective of climate change, significance, research gap etc. I recommend revising it thoroughly. The last paragraph looks more like a method part. Clearly state the research objectives
2- “Afghanistan's physical geography” change to “Afghanistan's physiography”.
3- Data Source: Temperature data is acquired from “CRU” and Precipitation from “TerraClim” why not same data source? Moreover, the selected stations are not plotted. Provide a little detail about selected stations and show on Figure 2. Table 1 is not cited in text.
4- “Afghanistan's Köppen-Geiger climate classification map was adapted from version 160 V2 of the global Köppen-Geiger climate classification ...................foundational geographic data and aid in the spatial visualization of climate, eleva-169 tion, and hydrological features” is not very relevant part. Data sources of maps can be mentioned in figure captains.
5- Table 1 presents the data source from 1980 to 2023 and in line 273 states from 1980 to 2022. Please verify.
6- The extraction of point data for selected stations is not clear. Stations in table 1 are not matched with stations presented in figure 3. What is the purpose of figure 3.
7- Results displays the ITA and regression trends of selected variables with description of statistical results. I would recommend to enhance the figures quality.
8- Research objective stated to compare the trend methods, while there is comparative discussion of results with reference to literature. Whole discussion need to be revised.
9- Conclusion need to be short and summarized.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Scientific writing needs to be improved.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript entitled ”Temperature, Precipitation, and River Discharge Trends in Afghanistan Main River Basins: A Comparison of Innovative Trend Analysis, Mann-Kendall, and Sen's Slope Methods discusses trends in air temperature, precipitation, and flow in five rivers in Afghanistan under climate change. Mann-Kendall, and Sen's Slope Methods” discusses trends in temperature, precipitation, and streamflow of five rivers in Afghanistan under climate change. This study is interesting because little is known about the conditions of the rivers originating in the Afghanistan region, and because of the particular geographic location, this study has the potential to provide valuable information.
In order to make the manuscript more complete and convincing, I have outlined below some of the work that I think needs to be done.
1. In the first part (introduction) of the manuscript, the author describes the geographical location of Afghanistan, the distribution of rivers and their sources, etc., and I kindly suggest to add the relevant literature and research results that have been available on the changes in temperature, precipitation and river water volume in these five regions. What are the innovations and new findings in comparison to the existing research results and findings in this manuscript?
2. In 2.1 Physical Geography and Climate (lines 64-86) of the manuscript, Hindu Kush Mountain divides Afghanistan into two climatic zones, southern and northern, and I would suggest to add the climatic types of this zone (briefly described with reference to existing research).
3. 3. In line 87 of the manuscript, I suggest adjusting the text size of the legend in Figure 1 to achieve a uniform size for clearer reading.
4. In Figures 1, 2, and 3, I suggest adjusting the font size of the figure's size legend to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing reading sensation. In addition, Table 1 lists 9 flow gauging stations, while Figure 3 labels 10 flow gauging stations, I suggest adding the serial number, river and flow gauging station to Table 1 to make it a little clearer.
5. On lines 216, 220 and 228, I would suggest re-editing the formulas, some of the fonts are inconsistent.
6. In Figure 6 on lines 314, 315, and 316 in the Temperature Trends section of 3.1, I suggest rechecking the graph for temperature change, which is a graph for precipitation change.
7. In Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4, rows 327, 369 and 415, the value of p-Value, I suggest keeping 3 significant digits, which also clearly shows the significance of the trend of change.
8. In Figures 6 to 11, I suggest that the size range of the subplots be adjusted to be uniform.
9. In the discussion section on line 425, I suggest adding this manuscript's comparison of changes in temperature, precipitation, and runoff with changes in existing research findings, what are those innovations or new findings from those changes, and what are the implications for future Environmental Degradation, Socio-Economic Implications, Water Scarcity and Transboundary Water Conflicts and Policy and Adaptation?
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear Authors,
The manuscript “Temperature, Precipitation, and River Discharge Trends in Afghanistan Main River Basins: A Comparison of Innovative Trend Analysis, Mann-Kendall, and Sen’s Slope Methods”. First, I would like to congratulate the author for his work. Second, I would like to suggest improvements to the solidity of scientific research.
Abstract: The abstract holds great potential for further exploration. It could be enriched with more detailed information about the results in this topic, inspiring a more comprehensive overview of the research.
Introduction:
Lines 51-62: The objective of the study could be more direct and clear. The period, origin and/or extraction of data are part of the methodology, as are the software, type of test and statistics applied. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the objective be rewritten and well-answered in the conclusion.
I suggest that the information presented between lines 51-62 be inserted in the material and methods topic.
Materials and methods:
Line 68: delete “see”.
Line 132: correct citation.
Line 163-164: correct citation.
Line 173: correct citation.
Lines 275-276: correct fig. to figure.
Figure 4: To improve the presentation of the figure, I suggest softening the fill colors of Afghanistan and its surroundings. This will make the figure more visually appealing and easier to interpret. In addition, by nomenclature the color blue should be used only for water, so hydrography should be represented by the color blue, while the other information is in other colors or shades of gray.
Present table 2 before figures 6 and 7.
Lines 296-299: can be used as a conclusion of the study.
Discussion:
It would be interesting for the authors to discuss further the degree of approximation of satellite-estimated data about surface-measured data since, depending on the type of variable analyzed, spatial data do not present a high correlation or trend in the behavior of the variable, sometimes making it necessary to perform a correction of the estimated data to obtain a more accurate numerical model that better estimates the real (measured) data and, consequently, better represents current and future trends and projections.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsI have now reevaluated the article "Temperature, Precipitation, and River Discharge Trends in 2 Afghanistan Main River Basins: A Comparison of Innovative 3 Trend Analysis, Mann-Kendall, and Sen’s Slope Methods". Although authors have improved the paper according to comments. But I feel title of the article should be modified. I am not in agreement of "comparing" the different trend tests, because, authors have applied and elaborate each test independently without any discussion on comparison. I suggest to modify it and remove this word.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsNice work! I have just a few minor comments on this version.
Line 86: I would say "dominated" instead of "predominated".
Line 88 - 89 ("This elevation difference generates significant atmospheric and surface energy, influencing the..."): I would consider rewording this part of the sentence, since it is not clear how elevation differences can generate energy. Are the diverse climate conditions, soil types, and vegetation species rather a result of the interactions of the atmospheric flow with the complex terrain?
Line 90 ("... soil types, and vegetation, these variations in elevation..."): This appears to be a run-on sentence. I suggest either splitting these two clauses into two separate sentences ("... soil types, and vegetation. These variations in elevation...") or changing the comma to a semicolon ("... soil types, and vegetation; these variations in elevation...").
Figure 3 colorbar: I suggest making the temperature colorbar horizontal instead of vertical. I would also adjust the limits of the colors plotted in the image to match the minimum and maximum range of the colorbar. For example, the maximum value in the colorbar is 40 oC, but I do not see any temperature values that high in the region plotted.
Figure 3 caption: I would add more text to the figure caption to clarify that the data plotted in the figure are the average temperature based on the 1980 - 2022 climatology.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe manuscript has been revised and is much improved, but there are some minor details that need to be revised and improved again.
1. In lines 224 and 251 of the manuscript, please check the initial case and paragraph indentation of the word ’Where’, which is the variable description part of the formula. Generally, this should be an unindented first line and the first letter of the word should be lowercase.
2. In tables 2 and 3 of the manuscript, please check that the data in the tables have the same number of decimal places, and that ‘p-value’ appears in table 2 and ‘p-Value’ in table 3. Trend detection for temperature and precipitation in the manuscript should be done in the same way and the results should be consistent.
3. In Figure 11 of the manuscript, please verify that the subfigures are aligned and arranged; I feel that subfigures C and H are not horizontally aligned.
4. In the ‘6. Conclusions’ section of the manuscript, the tone of the last sentence could be better worded as a suggestion for change.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you for your thorough review, insightful comments, and valuable suggestions. I have carefully considered each of your points and revised the paper accordingly.
Attached, you will find my detailed responses to your comments. All revisions made in the text are highlighted in red; please note that changes to figures and tables are not highlighted. The updated file has been resubmitted with all revisions incorporated.
Thank you once again for your assistance.
Best regards,
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
