Decreased virtual water outflows from the Yellow River basin are increasingly critical to China

Song, Shuang; Wang, Shuai; Wu, Xutong; Huang, Yongyuan; Fu, Bojie

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2035-2022

Articles | Volume 26, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2035-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2035-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 8

Research article

|

26 Apr 2022

Research article |

| 26 Apr 2022

Decreased virtual water outflows from the Yellow River basin are increasingly critical to China

Shuang Song, Shuai Wang, Xutong Wu, Yongyuan Huang, and Bojie Fu

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Final revised paper (published on 26 Apr 2022)
Preprint (discussion started on 21 Oct 2021)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on hess-2021-475', Anonymous Referee #1, 26 Nov 2021

Based on the concept of "complexity" in complex economics, this manuscript points out that the virtual water flow for trade in the Yellow River basin is decreasing, but its irreplaceability is increasing. There are significant flaws in literature citation and method description, so it is hard for me to recommend the current version of the manuscript to be published in the HESS. Following are some comments:

1.The methodological part of the manuscript is not clear and accurate. In the process of model construction, there are obvious errors in all corner labels of the author, such as . According to Sciarra et al. (2020), the author wrongly defined the meanings of and in the calculation in this formula, especially when using the same qualification conditions as in Sciarra et al. (2020). The same error occurs in Equation 3. In addition, the content of Formula 5 and 6 is the same, and the author does not give an effective description of its essential difference. Therefore, I doubt the rationality of the calculation method in this manuscript, and the results revealed are debatable.

2.There is little information on how the VWF are simulated.

3.Information on data sources is lacking!

4.In general, the boundaries of river basins are not equivalent to the administrative boundaries. Since this paper focuses on the Yellow River basin, the quantification results at the provincial level cannot accurately reflect the situation of the basin itself. Or it should be clearly described that how the part of each province within the basin was identified.

5.L21-29: For descriptions of the current status of water resources in the Yellow River basin, it is important to cite official statistics rather than secondary literature.

6.L33-34: As for the derivation of the concept of water footprint and virtual water, the literature cited here is not clear and unrepresentative.

7.L56-57: Reference citation format error.

8.In Figure 2 c, why choose to show 1979 instead of 1978?

9.L154: Spelling mistake: production.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-475-RC1
- AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Shuang Song, 06 Jan 2022
  
  Thanks for taking the time to comment on our manuscript. We are very sorry that the manuscript was confusing to you. We spent more effort sorting out the method section and hope you can understand our work. We attached a point-to-point response letter, a revised method section, and demo codes of the algorithm. I hope the answer will satisfy you.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-475-AC1
RC2:
'Comment on hess-2021-475', Anonymous Referee #2, 14 Dec 2021

see supplemented files.

Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-475-RC2
- AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Shuang Song, 06 Jan 2022
  
  We appreciate the acknowledgement of our study. However, we realized that our previous manuscript still had many issues, especially in the methods section. So directly, besides this Response, we provide a better description of the method with demo codes to demonstrate that our core approach (complexity measurement, GENEPY index) works as expected. Up to now, it is not easy to prolong our analysis and, as core findings can be revealed now, by existing (as far as we know) the most relevant data. Therefore, producing a coherent dataset for prolonging the analysis period or even predictions is not our primary goal. We attached a point-to-point response letter, a revised method section, and demo codes of the algorithm. I hope the answer will satisfy you.
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-475-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (18 Jan 2022) by Giuliano Di Baldassarre

AR by Shuang Song on behalf of the Authors (17 Feb 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

EF by Manal Becker (17 Feb 2022) Supplement

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (17 Feb 2022) by Giuliano Di Baldassarre

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (17 Mar 2022)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (18 Mar 2022) by Giuliano Di Baldassarre

AR by Shuang Song on behalf of the Authors (21 Mar 2022) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (29 Mar 2022) by Giuliano Di Baldassarre

AR by Shuang Song on behalf of the Authors (30 Mar 2022)

Short summary

A reasonable assessment of the contribution of the water resources in a river basin to domestic crops supplies will be the first step in balancing the water–food nexus. Our results showed that although the Yellow River basin had reduced its virtual water outflow, its importance to crop production in China had been increasing when water footprint networks were considered. Our complexity-based approach provides a new perspective for understanding changes in a basin with a severe water shortage.