Modern Use of Traditional Rainwater Harvesting Practices: An Assessment of Cisterns’ Water Supply Potential in West Mani, Greece
, Panayiotis Dimitriadis 1,†, Aimilia Siganou 2,†, David Markantonis 2,†, Konstantina Moraiti 2,†, Maria Nikolinakou 2,†, Ilias Taygetos Meletopoulos 3,†, Nikos Mamassis 1,†, Demetris Koutsoyiannis 1,† and G.-Fivos Sargentis 1,†
Sophia Germanidou
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article is original in concept and sound in argumentation, focusing on trending academic themes. However, it lacks at some points to clarity, related to geographical, historical and archaeological documentation. Briefly:
1. In the title it must be somehow be stated that the study is of (hydro-)geological insight. Also, it must be clear that this is not an assessment of cisterns as structures but their potential re-function.
2. Western Mani is a vague determination. Judging from the geological description the authors provide, they mean Outer or messinian Mani since there are springs there. But the rest SW Inner or laconian Mani shows different hydrogeology (total arid and dry, no springs but for exceptions) than the one argued in the article. In any case, that must be clear.
3. There is a lack of local cisterns' date range, setting, structure and types' description. Authors should definitely include a brief account of them (see below for bibliography). Also they must be clear on which kind of cisterns do they discuss of -i.e. domestic ones? Of 19th century? The samples must be declared -if they are talking specifically.
4. The wonderful idea supported by the study does not take into account the most important factor of its realization -the costs. An estimation of how owners or local municipality administration could re-use the cisterns, restoring them, through not only functional but also for educational and ethnographical purposes would be of significant benefit.
5. Bibliography needs upgrade. Also, the authors must be much more careful when they make serious historic statements such as in lines 212-215 not solidified by acknowledged scholar literature. In this case, I recommend this piece of information to be deleted unless supported by further evidence. Moreover, most of bibliography is centered to Inner or laconian Mani. As stated above, it must be clear of which Mani part authors focus on.
Below there are some indispensable works and information that authors need to incorporate to their study and get the documentation they need to so as to revise their article.
-articles of D. Kiskyras about geology of Taygetos mountain, old, plain but necessary.
-Any study of Mani not mentioning the fundamental work of Y. Saitas is missing the topographical and historical background.
-On maniot cisterns there is a European project running www.hydromedie.com. Some information of the project is found in the website but also in the article Medieval Hydrotechnology. An interdisciplinary case study project ...by Sophia Germanidou. Also by the same author there is an article that includes maniot cisterns Mapping agro-pastoral infrastructure...case-study of Agios Nikon and an other one Preliminary report on rock-cut and underground cisterns...(all open access at academia.edu).
-See also the volume Settlements of Mani, Athens 2004.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
I enjoyed reading the exciting paper ‘Modern use of traditional rainwater harvesting practices: an assessment of cisterns in Western Mani, Greece’. Rainwater harvesting is an important topic, and there are different ways and traditions about it across the world in the past and the present.
I have some questions (I referred to the line numbers) and would like you to comment. I believe your paper will be even in good shape if you consider it.
- 63-64 Since the small-scale infrastructure was the fundamental water source for the 72 local societies until the last century, it will be helpful if you add some more examples of abandoned cisterns in the region. You can add more photos to your example in figure 1c or add a new example.
- 144-149 You can also refer to some research about water management in Mesopotamia, such as :
Rost, S. (2017). Water management in Mesopotamia from the sixth till the first millennium BC. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 4(5), e1230.
Altaweel, M. (2018). Water management across time: Dealing with too much or too little water in ancient Mesopotamia. Water societies and technologies from the past and present. UCL Press, London, 180-199.
Wilkinson, T. J., Rayne, L., & Jotheri, J. (2015). Hydraulic landscapes in Mesopotamia: The role of human niche construction. Water History, 7(4), 397-418.
Yannopoulos, S. I., Lyberatos, G., Theodossiou, N., Li, W., Valipour, M., Tamburrino, A., & Angelakis, A. N. (2015). Evolution of water lifting devices (pumps) over the centuries worldwide. Water, 7(9), 5031-5060.
Yannopoulos, S. I., Lyberatos, G., Theodossiou, N., Li, W., Valipour, M., Tamburrino, A., & Angelakis, A. N. (2015). Evolution of water lifting devices (pumps) over the centuries worldwide. Water, 7(9), 5031-5060.
- 202-216 You can mention any evidence or references about using the rainwater in the region for agriculture and farming.
- 235-241 Do you think rainwater management impacts the landscape archaeology of the region? Are there any canalizations, dams, barrage, or water diversions?
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Authors have taken well into account the comments and delivered a revised proof . Very nice outcome now, I believe their work will have an academic impact. Congratulations and look forward to reading further results of their work.
