A Water Footprint Based Hydro-Economic Model for Minimizing the Blue Water to Green Water Ratio in the Zarrinehrud River-Basin in Iran

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript titled “Water Footprint Based Hydro-Economic Model for Minimizing Blue Water 
to Green Water Ratio in Zarrinehrud River-Basin” is an interesting study and has a potential to be published in the current journal after considering some minor issues.

1) It is recommended that the authors add the limitation of their work at the end of the discussion. For example, limitation of their simulation, effects of the people’s prediction on the upcoming years in viewpoints of dry, wet and normal years.

2)  The authors should clearly add their novelty in their work compared to the literature at the end of the introduction 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

It is with excitement that I submit to you a revised version of manuscript agriengineering-392683, Water Footprint Based Hydro-Economic Model for Minimizing Blue Water to Green Water Ratio in Zarrinehrud River-Basin for the Journal of AgriEngineering. I appreciate the time and detail provided by you and have incorporated the suggested changes into the manuscript to the best of my ability. The manuscript has certainly benefited from these insightful revision suggestions. I look forward to working with you to move this manuscript closer to publication in the Journal of AgriEngineering.

I have responded specifically to each suggestion in the attached file and highlighted the changes in the revised manuscript.

Abbas Afshar

Professor

Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources,

University of California, Davis,

CA, USA.

[email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

·     line 24: the reference system should be followed and the reference (Malin Falkenmark and Rockström 2006) should be change to a number

·     Fig 1/ Schematic representation of the proposed modelling scheme. the author/s didn’t mention the software used to create this scheme 

·     annual agricultural gross profit has been calculated using the Azerbaijan province, Ministry of Agriculture at 2014. which might be invalid for other regions, the Author/s should explain the reason S/he used this example within the text between lines 152-155.

·     the Author/s didn’t clarify well why they use the OptQuest Engine for optimization?! this is a backbone for the paper and this need to explain in depth the reason why using this system and the algorithms characteristics, there are plenty software for optimization using sophisticated algorithms that can be used in this case 

·     The reference of OptQuest Engine should be mentioned.

·     Fig.2 is lack of many basic information such as : key legend (rivers, main roads, closest city ..etc.) and the Author/s claimed the dryness for the southern part for the lake but the 3 images showing almost nothing about this claim ! specially within lack of key legends 

·     line 115: the Author/s mentioned namely Kurdistan (Cheraghveis and Sonate) where is this located? please give more details.

·     Table 1 also with the comparison mentioned Kurdistan where is it located please need more details

·     Table 2. Results of the model validation, the 9 scenarios showing 0 ? what does this mean? is it mean illegible for cultivation? please clarify the table . if it is all 0 why the Author/s using table? they can mention within the text that all 9 scenarios have 0 results and explain the reason!

·     The table 3 results should be explained under the 4.2 WF and Agricultural Benefits for the existing Condition 


·     Table 3 : why the Zarrinehrud is the most consumable ? the results show no explanation? 


·     Fig 3: no explanation details for the 3 scenarios, hence each scenario from the 3 need to be explain in details please under the 4.3.1. Dry Year Scenario 

·     the figures 4 and 7 both showing no significant differences as dry and normal year , two questions here: 1) why does it mean by normal year? since the Author/s followed this by special section for wet year then i do highly recommend to replace the term of normal to moderate and then they should add small table explain how they specify the (Dry, moderate and wet) based on which criteria    2) the statistics of WF and Economic measure based on which crops ? because there is no details showing how this statistics based. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

It is with excitement that I submit to you a revised version of manuscript agriengineering-392683, Water Footprint Based Hydro-Economic Model for Minimizing Blue Water to Green Water Ratio in Zarrinehrud River-Basin for the Journal of AgriEngineering. I appreciate the time and detail provided by you and have incorporated the suggested changes into the manuscript to the best of my ability. The manuscript has certainly benefited from these insightful revision suggestions. I look forward to working with you to move this manuscript closer to publication in the Journal of AgriEngineering.

I have responded specifically to each suggestion below and highlighted the changes the revised manuscript

Abbas Afshar

Professor

Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources,

University og California, Davis, CA, USA

[email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The Author/s did the revision needed and there is no comments anymore from my side.

Author Response

Dear Editor,

I appreciate the time and comments provided by you and have incorporated the suggested changes into the manuscript to the best of my ability. I look forward to working with you to move this manuscript closer to publication in the Journal of AgriEngineering.

I have responded specifically to each suggestion and highlighted the changes with Blue color in the revised manuscript.

Point 1. The article deals with simulation on GW, BW and water footprint in a river basin in Iran I suggest the author to include the area of the study (Iran) in the title (.....river-basin in Iran)

Response 1: The title of revised is improved as recommended: “Water Footprint Based Hydro-Economic Model for Minimizing Blue Water to Green Water Ratio in Zarrinehrud River-Basin in Iran”.

Point 2. In the introduction the authors introduce GW and BW without any description of the two terms. It is partially done later in the manuscript for GW (L59-60). This is unconfortable for reades not familira with the topic.

Response 2: The following paragraph is added at the first of introduction (L24-26) to address your comment:

“The Green water is the soil moisture from precipitation, used by plants via transpiration. It is part of the evapotranspiration flux in the hydrologic cycle. Blue water refers to freshwater flow including surface and groundwater”.

Point 3. In different position GW or BW when used at the same time only one of the two are abbreviated

Response 3: It is improved in the revised version as recommended. They are shown as blue highlighted in the revised version.

Point 4. Some where AnyLogic is written as Anylogic. Adopt the same writing style.

Response 4: It is corrected in the revised version.

Point 5. Include refernce for the AnyLogic software (The AnyLogic Company, Oakbrook Terrace, IL, USA)

Response 5: It is referenced based on your comment. Reference 19 is added to address your concern.

Point 6. There are some English grammar/typing mistakes

L113 The SPI indicato can BE used ....

L232 begin sentences with numbers in letter (Seventeen...)

Fig 2 Miderate (Moderate?) depth

Fig4 Correct "Fisrt" in First

Response 6: They are improved based on your comments in the revised version.

Point 7. L275-276 numbers in brakets (1370, 1969) are local currency or $?

Response 7: numbers are based on local currency (Iranian Tooman). It mentioned in the revised version to address your concern. 

Abbas Afshar

Professor

Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources,

University og California, Davis, CA, USA

[email protected]

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf