Climate Change and Its Possible Impact in Groundwater Resource of the Kankai River Basin, East Nepal Himalaya
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I think the topic is interesting and the results are potentially valuable to water resource management for local areas especially in East Nepal Himalaya, but for publishing it needs further discussion. Specific comments are provided below for authors to improve the paper.
- I would suggest an integrated literature review that is essential especially in the Introduction section, which also highlights the importance of this study to examine local scale hydro-meteorological events and climate projection. The authors need to re-organize the manuscript for further review.
- Relating to the structure, this should explain the context and the motivation of the research, the main objectives and the structure of the paper. Another section could be introduced with the background of rainfall variation and its density pointing out the gaps of previous literature. Main contributions of the paper need to be highlighted with more detail.
- This study aims to evaluate the hydro climatic variability and its possible impacts in groundwater in the KRB, Eastern Nepal. However, I can't find the term of the evaluation for groundwater in the manuscript. Please be careful when choosing hydrological terms. I suggest modifying the word groundwater to surface water or streamflow even in the Title.
- The study used the Second Generation Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2) for the projection of future precipitation scenarios. There are many GCMs models that have been involved in the CMIP5 project. Specifically, for the selection of the GCM model, the authors do not well explain and justify why this model choose the approach and made the calculation for climate projection in the specific region.
- This study includes temperature observation information. However, there is no analysis of the impact of temperature change in the future climate forecast results. Temperature is not thought to be a direct factor for surface water. However, since temperature can affect the snow melting phenomenon in alpine regions, it can be used to analyze the effect of increased river runoff during the snow melting period. In this paper, it is necessary to organize the main text by focusing on precipitation projection and its local impacts.
- The figures in the manuscript are well prepared. However, it is hard to follow the structure of paper and understand the process of how the analysis was conducted. Rather than expressing simple time series data, it is necessary to process and express this once more for more understanding to readers.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewing the Manuscript ID: climate-970177, entitled : "Climate change and its possible impact in groundwater resource of the Kankai River Basin, East Nepal Himalaya" by Silwal et al, I raised the following comments:
1) General comments :
The manuscript provides a helpful analysis of the spatial and temporal variations of hydro-meteorological data of the Kankai River Basin in East Nepal.
In this paper authors present only meteorological data (T and P) and river discharge data to describe the climate change in the studied area and its possible impact on groundwater resources without providing any monitoring of groundwater data (e.g. piezometric level, springs discharge...). The title and discussion do not reflect the content. Authors should be use some groundwater data to show the the possible climate change influence on groundwater.
I suggest to use the standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) to show if there is any trend to drought.
Land use and land cover analysis can provide an idea about water demand (irrigation and urban uses). If it possible I suggest to elaborate some diachronic maps which show the evolution of land use and land cover using NDVI for example!
2) Specific comments :
Comments on Abstract:
This section need to be improved. Authors should be some numbers (statistics) to show the impact of climate change and to grab the reader's attention.
Comments on Introduction
Introduction is well presented.
Study area:
Figure 2 is not discussed nowhere in the text. Authors should be merge figure 2 with figure 1. (i.e. put figure 2 into figure 1, beside elevation model map).
Groundwater potentiality and use, and aquifers should be described by authors in this section.
Materials and Methods:
Groundwater data needed.
Line 147, equation 2 should be equation 1.
Results
Comments "Precipitation and Discharge trend analysis" section:
In figure 5, reader cannot distinguish between different blue curves (1408, 1415, 1416 and 1421). Authors should be use different colors!; what does the dashed line represent?
Looking at figure 5, I noticed that there is a lot of extreme precipitation values what will influence the precipitation trends for each stations and also for the average. Here the average of annual precipitation of several stations make no sense because of geographical localization of each station. What I can suggest for authors is the use of moving average (5 or 7 years) of each station and then elaborate the trend of each station. Not the trend of the average!
What about the snow cover in this region?
Discussion
Line 281: replace "will" by ""with".
Line 309: Replace dot by comma (However. The...)
Line 318-322: These conclusions are based on what?
Comments on References:
- Type of references 8, 9, 36 and 42 is not defined in the references list
- Double-check of references list is needed.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comparing the first round, suggested my comments are significantly reflected in the manuscript and some paragraphs are rewritten and modified. This study aims to evaluate the hydro climatic variability and its possible impacts in groundwater in the KRB, Eastern Nepal. However, the revised version has not contained the groundwater projections for the upcoming future. In order to understand the groundwater change due to climate change presented in the title, the analysis content for this part should be included in the manuscript.
Author Response
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the reviewers for providing constructive suggestions that have greatly helped to improve the quality of works. We have carefully and sincerely considered your critical comment and suggestion and have incorporated in the revised version (of second round review) of the manuscript.
Reviewer 1: Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Comparing the first round, suggested my comments are significantly reflected in the manuscript and some paragraphs are rewritten and modified. This study aims to evaluate the hydro climatic variability and its possible impacts in groundwater in the KRB, Eastern Nepal. However, the revised version has not contained the groundwater projections for the upcoming future. In order to understand the groundwater change due to climate change presented in the title, the analysis content for this part should be included in the manuscript.
Response from authors:
Thank you very much for your kind suggestion and deep insight in the manuscript. The analysis of the future projection of water level has been incorporated with special consideration. The part that has been modified has been and supplemented is listed below:
Line 86
Line 181-183
Line 357-358
Line 360-371 (including Figure 11)
Line 416-417
Line 438-439
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have successfully processed all my remarks and suggestions.
Now the link between title, abstract and manuscript content is clear.
Moderate English changes still needed.
Author Response
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the reviewers for providing constructive suggestions that have greatly helped to improve the quality of works. We have carefully and sincerely considered your comment and suggestion and have incorporated in the revised version (of second round review) of the manuscript.
Reviewer 2: Comments and Suggestions for Authors
- The authors have successfully processed all my remarks and suggestions.
- Now the link between title, abstract, and manuscript content is clear.
- Moderate English changes still needed
Response from authors:
Thank you very much for your kind words and constructive suggestion. We have gone through the manuscript and English language have been improved at the required places.
Line 31 Insertion Groundwater
Line 49 hence replaced by and
Line 52 N-S replaced by North-South, This by These
Line 77 -79 Insertion of ()
Line 99 Insertion ,
Line 100 to replaced by in
Line 101 Ilam
Line 102 tributary
Line 104-105 Insertion (in the northern hills)
Line 109-110 Line modified
Line 115 basin modified as Basin
Line 139 , and has been modified as which has been
Line 150 addition of General Circulation Model and ()
Line 181-183 Line added
Line 193 Deletion minimum and
Line 194 Insertion of and minimum
Line 195 Deletion of for the maximum and minimum temperature
Line 198 Deletion space
Table 2 modified as 1421 Tmmax to 1421 Tmax (First column, fourth row)
Line 231 Removal of ][
Line 269-270 Caption modified
Line 316 space modified
Line 355-357
Line 373 Shrub land
Line 416 modified
Line 437-438 modified
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
