Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activities on Streamflow of Upper Yongding River Basin, North China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article reflects the challenges faced by people and nature related to water scarcity due to climate change and the overuse of water resources. The authors investigated the causes mainly responsible for the streamflow decrease in the selected river basins in North China. The outcomes of this paper provide valuable information for water resources planners and managers, environmental protection specialists and others.
Grammar of the paper: in many places the articles are missing; the accomplished research should be described in the past tense; the structure of many sentences should be improved; other problems with grammar and spelling. Many corrections were made and can be found in the corrected manuscript which is added in the review form.
ABSTRACT
It briefly and clearly describes the performed investigation.
1. INTRODUCTION
A sufficiently large amount of publications related to the problem has been reviewed. The objectives of the paper are clearly formulated.
Lines 86 – 90. The sentence is long and complicated. The corrections are necessary for this sentence.
2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Lines 147 – 150. Sentences are not clear.
Line 149. What is meant by ‘the mutation time’?
Line 179. It is not “ΔQhuman” in formula (10).
Formula (10). In what way is calculated “Δ?human”?
Lines 210 – 212. The sentence is not clear.
Fig. 1 has to be improved, especially, the maps in (b) and (c) parts.
The quality of Fig. 2 has to be improved.
3. RESULTS
Some sentences (e.g. in Lines 247-248, 255, 280-281, 284-288, 289-291) should be moved to the DISCUSSION chapter.
The quality of Figures 3-5 has to be improved.
4. DISCUSSION
The first paragraph is more suitable for the RESULTS chapter.
The title ‘4.2. Human activities on streamflow in the UYRB’ has to be changed to ‘4.2. Impact of human activities on streamflow in the UYRB’
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript entitled “Impacts of climate change and human activities on streamflow of Upper Yongding River Basin, North China” (water-1882001-peer-review-v1) says about the impact of climate change and human activities on streamflow of Upper Yongding River Basin in China using the trend statistic. This manuscript could be interesting to readers because it deals with the important issue of climate change. However, the manuscript has disadvantages, which should be corrected in order to become a scientific paper. It will be mentioned here only the most important disadvantage. This disadvantage refers to incorrectly presented and/or obtained research results.
For example, lines 15 and 16 (Abstract) show the following results:
"... temperature shows a significant increase by 0.09–0.52℃ per decade; E0 shows a significant decrease from -0.18 mm/yr to -2.04 mm/yr (in 18 stations); the estimated rates of streamflow change are –0.74, -0.80mm/yr for SRB and YRB."
In all the results, it is stated that the calculation error is in the second decimal place, and it is known that the temperature observation errors are 0.1 ℃ (a tenth of a unit), while E0, streamflow, and precipitation all have errors of 1 mm. The calculation error cannot be smaller than the measurement error, which is one of the basic postulates of physics!
Now, the previous quote should formally be written as follows:"... temperature shows a significant increase by 0.1-0.5 ℃ per decade; E0 shows a significant decrease from –0 mm/yr to –2 mm/yr (in 18 stations); the estimated rates of streamflow change are –0 mm/yr and –0 mm/yr for SRB and YRB, respectively."
- The authors can find more details about what the errors are and how they are used in the mentioned hydro-meteorological quantities in the Technical Regulation of the World Meteorological Organization.
- How the original results of temperature trend research are correctly presented in practice, according to the observation error of 0.1 ℃, can be seen, for example, in the following reference:
Gavrilov, M. B., Tošić, I., Marković, S. B., Unkašević, M., Petrović, P., 2016: The analysis of annual and seasonal temperature trends using the Mann-Kendall test in Vojvodina, Serbia. Idöjárás (Quarterly Journal of the Hungarian Meteorological Service), 120-2, 183-198.
Cases of wrong results exist in other places, but I will not be mentioned here.
If the manuscript is corrected in accordance with here remarks, the problem of a new formulation of the conclusions remains, which can radically change the meaning of the paper. That's why I'm returning the paper for major revision, so if the authors come up with a new version, it has to be reviewed again.
Other disadvantages will be pointed out if this one is corrected, for the rational use of reviewer resources.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript (water-1882001-peer-review-v2) entitled “Impacts of climate change and human activities on streamflow of Upper Yongding River Basin, North China” has been significantly improved over the previous version and it is recommended for publication.
