GIS-based DRASTIC and composite DRASTIC indices for assessing groundwater vulnerability in the Baghin aquifer, Kerman, Iran

Malakootian, Mohammad; Nozari, Majid

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2351-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2351-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2351-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 8

Research article

|

26 Aug 2020

Research article |

| 26 Aug 2020

GIS-based DRASTIC and composite DRASTIC indices for assessing groundwater vulnerability in the Baghin aquifer, Kerman, Iran

Mohammad Malakootian and Majid Nozari

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Final revised paper (published on 26 Aug 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 08 Jul 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'submission of referee comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 24 Jul 2019
- AC1: 'Response to Referee comments', Majid Nozari, 07 Aug 2019
RC2: 'Review comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Nov 2019
- AC1: 'Response to Referee comments', Majid Nozari, 07 Aug 2019
- AC2: 'Response to (2) referee comments', Majid Nozari, 02 Dec 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (05 Dec 2019) by Mario Parise

AR by Majid Nozari on behalf of the Authors (05 Dec 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Dec 2019) by Mario Parise

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (12 May 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review for NHESS-2019-181

Major comments:
1. What is the novelty of this manuscript? The authors adopted a rather old and standard methodology and applied a sensitivity analysis of a few factors deemed to be important in the study area. The authors arrived at a few spatial maps of vulnerability for the Kerman-Baghin aquifer in Iran. I think this is the only contribution if their maps are correct and they might be useful for stakeholders or researchers interested in this region. However, the authors claim that they can not share the data. Thus, what is the point to publish this paper? If the authors have other objective, they should highlight their contribution. In the current version, this is certainly not the case.

2. The manuscript is difficult to follow in general with many small grammatic errors. I could not recommend publishing the work as it really requires extra efforts from the readers to guess what is saying. In many places, the authors repeat themselves many times with various statements having a similar meaning. In general, the information content/intensity is low.

3. The authors have calculated two vulnerability indices. However, the did not point out why they did so. Are these two parameters telling different information? What is the difference between them? The authors should do the work of analyses rather than throw them to the reader.

Minor comments:
I list a few grammatic errors while I read through the manuscript. These are not exhaustive. The authors should proof-read the manuscript more carefully.

LINE 1, for “assessing” groundwater vulnerability

LINE 13, 23, indexes -> indices.

LINE 16, how can you rank, weight and integrate sensitive parameters based on a GIS? Isn’t the ranking based on the DRASTIC indices.

LINE 21, reveals.

LINE 25-26, how is this conclusion made? How do you know vulnerability maps is useful in controling actual human activities just based on a sensitivity analysis?
LINE 26, protection and sustainable usage of groundwater?

LINE 27, sensitivity analysis

LINE 54, firstly -> first
LINE 60, lastly -> last

LINE 66 and 67, remove these blank lines.

LINE 105, why the water level drop could increase contamination potential?

LINE 110, “The Kerman province”

LINE 155, this is not an equation.

LINE 341, sensitivities?

Referee Report: PDF

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (12 May 2020) by Mario Parise

AR by Majid Nozari on behalf of the Authors (18 May 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (03 Jun 2020) by Mario Parise

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (17 Jul 2020)

ED: Publish as is (17 Jul 2020) by Mario Parise

Short summary

The present study estimated the Kerman–Baghin aquifer vulnerability using DRASTIC and ‎composite DRASTIC (CDRASTIC) indices with the aid of geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The aquifer vulnerability maps indicated very similar results, ‎identifying the north-west parts of the aquifer as areas with high to very high vulnerability. According to the results, parts of the studied aquifer have a high vulnerability and ‎require protective measures.