PONE-D-20-27580

Feasibility of using an energy balance to measure evapotranspiration in green stormwater infrastructure

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Krasowski,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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I suggest to consider the comments about the robustness of the experimental methodology, you have to provide a proper discussion on this subject in order to convince the reviewers about the validity of the experiment. Your paper got a "rejection" and a "major revision". You are almost in the middle, so you have to provide adequate explanations about the experimental methodology. Next review does guarantee the acceptance of your paper. 

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 08 2020 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
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If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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2. Thank you for stating the following in the Financial Disclosure section:

'This work was funded by a grant applied for by and awarded to Dr. Bridget Wadzuk (BW). This internal grant from the Villanova University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (https://www1.villanova.edu/university/engineering/academic-programs/departments/civil-environmental.html) was awarded to fund tuition and provide a stipend for one Master's student (DTK) to carry out the research and to provide compensation to undergraduate research assistants (BJ). '

We note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company: SPF Water Engineering, LLC

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Additional Editor Comments:

I suggest to consider the comments about the robustness of the experimental methodology, you have to provide a proper discussion on

this subject in order to convince the reviewers about the validity of the experiment. Your paper got a "rejection" and a "major revision".

You are almost in the middle, so you have to provide adequate explanations about the experimental methodology. Next review does guarantee

the acceptance of your paper.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The manuscript is enough well-written, but the language can be improved. Although the bibliography has a range of time, there are points in the manuscript that are not well justified such as lines 71-74 that are missing of references. Furthermore, I have an objection with the duration of the experiment and the number. Maybe another one for more accuracy is needed.

It is mentioned in the text that there are three equations that are being used for the ET. Are there? It is not clear enough. The authors chose to use MATLAB. What is the reason for? Why not something else?

Do the authors take into consideration that the camera is in a stable position and that may cause a shading and gives other results than the expected ones?

In line 363 it is not clear how the soybean and the switchgrass are having the same view factors. Generally it is not well written and clear how the authors have chosen the view factors.

Moreover, are the conditions the same in order to have each lysimeter in a test position?

In line 377, the statement needs a better justification.

In line 385, it is said that there is no need of calibration. I have an objection and it is expendient to be done a better search in the scientific bibliography.

In line 428-429, the sentence causes a lot of questions about the experiment and the results.

In conclusion, the manuscript needs an overall overview by the authors in order to explain in a better way many aspects in the text, especially the whole experiment, the lysimeters , the average height of the plant.

Reviewer #2: Feasibility of using an energy balance to measure evapotranspiration in green stormwater infrastructure

This manuscript examines the feasibility of using energy balance models including thermal images for the calculation of ET in GSIs. The precise calculation of ET in GSIs is quite important in treatment measure determination for the decrease of floods possibility in urban areas. The general investigation has clear construction but I do have some severe concerns mainly in adequacy of data set and experimental procedure.

i) Line 76: “arewidely” space is missing.

ii) Lines 81, 395-396: You could make “Green stormwater infrastructure” to be “GSI” as you do in other cases. I suggest to define the abbreviation GSI in the first mention (line 33) and then you can call it as GSI.

iii) Lines 84-85: “Energy balance methods have not been investigated to calculate ET for GSI.” You should probably re-examine or rephrase that, from a little search I did, I found a paper in which the Eddy-covariance method is investigated in green infrastructure. Here is the link of the paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969716323567?via%3Dihub

iv) Figure 1: I see that the heights of the plants in lysimeters are quite different. It is on purpose? If it was on purpose, what is the point? I think this requires more explanation. Having in mind the consideration of ASCE for tall reference crop, do you think this difference of the height between the three plants (if it’s real) influences the results? In lines 286-288 is referred “The average height of the Switchgrass plants in T1, T2, and T3 from August 29, 2019 to October 4, 2019 (0.60m)”, the average of three plants for the entire period (August 29, 2019 to October 4)?

v) Table 1: In the 3 columns of “Reference ET” units are missing.

vi) Lines 330-331: “Over the course of 12 data collection events, the average ET estimated by the EB was within 1 mm (or 32%) of the MB measured ET and there was no calibration done to any parameters in the EB.” I do not exactly understand what is the meaning here.

vii) Concerning the data set, do you think is large enough for the calibration of Fa and Fg coefficients requirements? Additionally, what about the validation of the energy balance model?

viii) Line 394: “An energy balance like the one described here may be the only practical way to measure ET in green stormwater infrastructure, and thus, the only way to fully resolve the water balance in these systems.” I am not sure about the meaning and the correctness of this.

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6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PONE-D-20-27580R1

Feasibility of using an energy balance to measure evapotranspiration in green stormwater infrastructure

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Krasowski,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 11 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #4: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: N/A

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: I read the original and the revision submission and I found that many corrections have been done and the responses to the reviewer were satisfactory. I have only one objection.

Lines 441 – 442: “may be the only practical 441 way to measure ET GSI, and thus, the only way to fully resolve the water balance in these systems.” I think you could use some milder words (“only way”).

Reviewer #3: The manuscript developed a new procedure for estimating ET in bioretention system. It is well structured, and the objectives are clear. Therefore, I suggested that it could be accepted for publication.

Reviewer #4: I reviewed the initial version and the version of the revision of this manuscript. I think there are significant improvements in this manuscript after doing the revisions according to reviewers suggestions. However, in my opinion there is still some questions. I have listed my suggestions below.

1. In Line 129, although the authors have pointed out that “Three lysimeters contained Switchgrass (labeled T1 through T3)”, I still do not understand what T1, T2, T3 mean. I think the authors should describe them clearly.

2. In Line 347-348, “the average ET estimated by the EB was within 1 mm (or 32%) of the MB measured ET without any calibration being done to parameters in the EB. This small difference.…..”. In fact, I think “32%” is not a small difference.

3. In Line 394: “An energy balance like the one described here may be the only practical way to measure ET in green stormwater infrastructure, and thus, the only way to fully resolve the water balance in these systems.” I am not sure about the meaning and the correctness of this.

4. In Line 411-413: “Energy balance methods, like the one described here, may be the only practical way to measure ET in GSI, and thus, the only way to fully resolve the water balance in these systems.” As suggested by the former reviewer, I am also not sure about the meaning and the correctness of this. I think the method should not be the only way in GSI. Please consider and correct it.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PONE-D-20-27580R2

Feasibility of using an energy balance to measure evapotranspiration in green stormwater infrastructure

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Krasowski,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 27 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #4: (No Response)

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #4: Although the authors tried to improve the manuscript and explain the Reviewer’s comment. However, I think the authors have not made some substantial changes according to the reviewers' comments. For example:

1.I still do not understand what T1, T2, T3 mean. Is there a difference among these three treatments? If yes, what is the difference? I think the authors still did not describe them clearly.

2.In line 347-351, whether the difference is small should be evaluated quantitatively by using statistical methods, rather than qualitative judgments.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #4: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Feasibility of using an energy balance to measure evapotranspiration in green stormwater infrastructure

PONE-D-20-27580R3

Dear Dr. Krasowski,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Vassilis G. Aschonitis

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: