Application of Meteorological and Hydrological Drought Indices to Establish Drought Classification Maps of the Ba River Basin in Vietnam

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1. The manuscript is concerned with Evaluation of the drought impact on the Ba River 2 basin in Vietnam, which is interesting. It is relevant and within the scope of the journal.

2. However the manuscript, in its present form, contains several weaknesses. Appropriate revisions to the following points should be undertaken in order to justify recommendation for publication.

3. Figures and tables should be standardized and clear, such as Table 4, Figure 5, etc. needs to be modified.

4. In model calibration processing, the parameters and their values are important. The method of parameter optimization needs to be explained clearly.

5. For readers to quickly catch your contribution, it would be better to highlight major difficulties and challenges, and your original achievements to overcome them, in a clearer way in abstract and introduction.

6. The discussion section in the present form is relatively weak and should be strengthened with more details and justifications.

7. Moreover, the manuscript could be substantially improved by relying and citing more on recent literatures about new hydrological model and parameter optimization techniques such as the followings: Wang, Kaiwen; Liu, Xiaomang; Tian, Wei; Li, Yanzhong; Liang, Kang; Liu, Changming; Li, Yuqi; Yang, Xiaohua, Pan coefficient sensitivity to environment variables across China, Journal of Hydrology, 2019（572）:582-591；Chongli Di, Tiejun Wang, Xiaohua Yang, and Siliang Li, Technical note: An improved Grassberger–Procaccia algorithm for analysis of climate system complexity, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 2018, 22, 5069-5079.

Author Response

The authors would like to thank for your reviewer comments. The authors answered all comments with point by point in the Author Response Form. Thank you very much for your consideration and your kind help.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This study used several drought indicators to investigate historical droughts in the Ba River basin in Vietnam. The topic is interesting and the paper is well structured. Below are some comments that should be addressed before it can be considered for publication. 1. Calculation of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) seems wrong. At least, the mathematical formula is inconsistent with that in the literature. 2. The title "Evaluation of the drought impact...". but the "impact" of droughts on the environment or social-economics was not well addressed. 3. Authors need to expand literature review on drought index. Here are some useful references that should be added: Leng, G., Tang, Q., & Rayburg, S. (2015). Climate change impacts on meteorological, agricultural and hydrological droughts in China. Global and Planetary Change, 126, 23-34. Huang, S., Li, P., Huang, Q., Leng, G., Hou, B., & Ma, L. (2017). The propagation from meteorological to hydrological drought and its potential influence factors. Journal of hydrology, 547, 184-195.

Author Response

The authors would like to thank for your reviewer comments. The authors answered all comments with point by point in the Author Response Form. Thank you very much for your consideration and your kind help.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks for addressing my concerns. I noticed that the title was changed to "Application on Meteorological and Hydrological Drought Index to Establish Drought Classification Maps on the Ba River basin in Vietnam". I suggest authors revise it to "Application of Meteorological and Hydrological Drought Indices for Establishing Drought Classification Maps in the Ba River basin in Vietnam". With this minor correction, the paper can be accepted for publication.