Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal

Bierkens, Marc F. P.; Sutanudjaja, Edwin H.; Wanders, Niko

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5859-2021

Articles | Volume 25, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5859-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-5859-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 11

Research article

|

11 Nov 2021

Research article |

| 11 Nov 2021

Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal

Marc F. P. Bierkens, Edwin H. Sutanudjaja, and Niko Wanders

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Nov 2021)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 17 Dec 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of “Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal”', Anonymous Referee #1, 01 Feb 2021
- AC1: 'Reply to comments by anonymous reviewer #1', Marc Bierkens, 12 Feb 2021
RC2: 'Review of "Interactive comment on “Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal” by Marc F. P. Bierkens et al.', GRANT FERGUSON, 02 Feb 2021
- AC2: 'Reply to comments by reviewer Grant Ferguson', Marc Bierkens, 12 Feb 2021
RC3: 'Review of "Large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal"', Anonymous Referee #3, 07 Feb 2021
- AC3: 'Reply to comments by anonymous reviewer #3', Marc Bierkens, 12 Feb 2021

Peer-review completion

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

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (16 Mar 2021) by Elham R. Freund

AR by Marc Bierkens on behalf of the Authors (30 May 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (14 Jun 2021) by Elham R. Freund

RR by Anonymous Referee #4 (06 Jul 2021)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

I am not a groundwater modeler. I have read the discussion of the paper (comments of the reviewers and the response of the authors) and the revised manuscript. This is an interesting discussion, and the authors have addressed many of the comments of the reviewers. Hopefully one or more of the previous reviewers will be satisfied with these revisions. I have taken a higher level view of the paper, and feel that a simple twist to the presentation of the paper will make the paper much more acceptable and appealing, and will could provide avenues for further extension of the work. This change will require some moderate revision of the paper.

My own view is that the simple model they present here is so simple and is such a caricature of groundwater theory that it cannot form the building block for a bottom-up distributed groundwater model. In fact, the application of the simple model in this paper draws its power from observations or detailed predictions by a more detailed and sophisticated model. In other words, the simple model can at best be a good screening tool to elaborate on controls on large-scale sensitivities of groundwater and surface water to groundwater withdrawal. In other words, the simple model is not a standalone model, but is a top-down model that is used in combination with a more detailed, physically based model such as PRC-GLOBWEB2 in this case.

When I first read the paper, I got the wrong impression that this is about development and validation of a simple groundwater model. The discussion and the response of the reviewers have clarified to me that this is wrong interpretation of the paper. However, a reframing of the paper along the lines I suggested above would give a more correct interpretation of the paper, and will bring out more the novelty and usefulness of the simple model as a screening tool to assess groundwater sustainability at regional scales. In this new reframing the pairing of the simple model and the more complex model (PRC-GLOBWEB) presents a analysis framework for assessment of groundwater sustainability, and there is every opportunity to refine and improve both kinds of models as more data and observations become available.

In any case, I hope the authors and the previous reviewers agree with or appreciate this interpretation and this can contribute to a further moderate revision of the paper, which will make it much more appealing to reviewers and readers alike.

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RR by Anonymous Referee #5 (27 Aug 2021)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (06 Sep 2021) by Elham R. Freund

AR by Marc Bierkens on behalf of the Authors (13 Sep 2021) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (04 Oct 2021) by Elham R. Freund

AR by Marc Bierkens on behalf of the Authors (07 Oct 2021) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

We introduce a simple analytical framework that allows us to estimate to what extent large-scale groundwater withdrawal affects groundwater levels and streamflow. It also calculates which part of the groundwater withdrawal comes out of groundwater storage and which part from a reduction in streamflow. Global depletion rates obtained with the framework are compared with estimates from satellites, from global- and continental-scale groundwater models, and from in situ datasets.