Socio-hydrological perspectives of the co-evolution of humans and groundwater in Cangzhou, North China Plain

Han, Songjun; Tian, Fuqiang; Liu, Ye; Duan, Xianhui

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3619-2017

Articles | Volume 21, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3619-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-3619-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 7

Research article

|

18 Jul 2017

Research article |

| 18 Jul 2017

Socio-hydrological perspectives of the co-evolution of humans and groundwater in Cangzhou, North China Plain

Songjun Han, Fuqiang Tian, Ye Liu, and Xianhui Duan

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Final revised paper (published on 18 Jul 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 31 Aug 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review Comments', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Sep 2016
- AC1: 'Response to Referee #1', Songjun Han, 04 Dec 2016
RC2: 'Review Comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 11 Oct 2016
- AC2: 'Response to Referee #2', Songjun Han, 04 Dec 2016

Peer-review completion

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

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (10 Dec 2016) by Thomas Kjeldsen

AR by Songjun Han on behalf of the Authors (29 Dec 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (10 Jan 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (10 Jan 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (19 Jan 2017)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The primary issue with the paper in its current state is lack of specificity of the methodology. The paper has both a compelling aim (understanding the co-evolution of groundwater and irrigation systems) and an innovative approach (pairing a pendulum swing narrative of the case and statistical analysis of hydrological variables). However, the paper as is does not describe the methodology in sufficient detail for other researchers to replicate or build upon this work. Additionally, the data used to infer changes in community sensitivity is not clear. Changes in community sensitivity are central to the interpretation of observations and case events. Therefore, pointing readers to supporting data is critical. Specifically, I ask the authors to address the following points made in the first round on comments:

• The fact that actions are taken in response to changing community sensitivity is a central point in the paper. Please describe the sources of data, either quantitative or qualitative, used to estimate changes in community sensitivity and explain how it was used to assess change.
• In the methods section:
o Explain the criteria used to select the factors related to community sensitivity included Table 3.
o Explain how the pendulum swing narrative (era descriptions) was developed. What criteria were used to judge where one error begins and ends? What criteria were used to decide which events were relevant to include in the era descriptions?
o Explain how the Taiji-Tire model is used to interpret the case events and interactions. The authors explain the theory behind the model sufficiently but need to describe the logic or criteria used to map the observations to the model components.

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (03 Feb 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

AR by Songjun Han on behalf of the Authors (10 Mar 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by Editor and Referees) (24 Mar 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

AR by Songjun Han on behalf of the Authors (28 Apr 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (28 Apr 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (24 May 2017)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (further review by Editor) (31 May 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

AR by Songjun Han on behalf of the Authors (05 Jun 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (06 Jun 2017) by Thomas Kjeldsen

AR by Songjun Han on behalf of the Authors (07 Jun 2017)

Short summary

The history of the co-evolution of the coupled human–groundwater system in Cangzhou (a region with the most serious depression cone in the North China Plain) is analyzed with a particular focus on how the groundwater crisis unfolded and how people attempted to settle the crisis. The evolution of the system was substantially impacted by two droughts. Further restoration of groundwater environment could be anticipated, but the occurrence of drought still remains an undetermined external forcing.