PONE-D-23-38121Study on the Methodology of Emergency Decision-Making for Water Transfer Project Contingencies: A Case-Based Reasoning and Regret Theory ApproachPLOS ONE

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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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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

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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

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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: Comment 1: In the introduction part the objectives of importance of the study have to clearly stated

Comment 2: the overall significance of the study needs to clearly state.

Comment 3: the introduction part is very bulky. It needs to make it clear by modifying it. The research gap and objectives have to clearly provide in this part.

Comment 4: In introduction part on line 37 ‘According to statistics’ it needs to provide the reference for justification.

Comment 5: also in introduction part on line 39 ‘As a major water transfer project in China, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has 40 transferred over 40 billion cubic meters of water’ it needs justification

Comment 6: Are you sure you are following the guideline manuscript preparation of PLOS ONE? Why include Literature review? Let check it.

Comment 7: In methodology part, line 192 where is the source of equation? Before providing the equation you have to clearly discuss how the equation used.

Comment 8: On page 235, why you use future tense ‘solution to the above problem will be addressed’’

Comment 9: on line 573 you mentioned to use both TOPSIS and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation methods it needs to clearly describe the difference between both methods and which one is more preferable for your research?

Comment 10: some references are very old and out dated (i.e. Chen, S.-M.; Tan, J.-M. Handling multicriteria fuzzy decision-making problems based on vague set theory. Fuzzy Sets and Systems 1994, 67, 163-172,doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-0114(94)90084-1)

Reviewer #2: The study introduces a two-stage emergency decision-making framework tailored to the uncertain developmental trajectories of emergencies within cross-basin water transfer projects. The first stage encompasses the utilization of case-based reasoning technology to extract historical case information concerning the cross-basin water transfer project and its corresponding mitigation strategies. Employing structural similarity and local attribute similarity algorithms. Also, an overarching similarity model is constructed to identify historical cases exhibiting high degrees of resemblance. In the second stage, the work further discusses the adaptive nature of emergencies through the application of regret theory to adjust the emergency decision-making framework in response to the dynamic evolution characteristics of emergencies. Finally, the efficacy and feasibility of the proposed two-stage emergency response methodology are corroborated through empirical validation using real-world case scenarios. Thus, this manuscript is recommended for publication in this Journal. However, the following minor comments may improve the manuscript.

1. The abstract needs improvement to clarify the main topic of this paper.

2. Some keywords are missing.

3. Please revise the whole paper in terms of punctuation, especially for the equations. Some commas and full stops are missing.

4. The introduction needs to be improved and arranged properly with paragraphs to separate the previous knowledge, the research gaps, a clear input you have made and the current paper arrangement.

5. Please cite some recent relevant papers to improve the introduction part.

6. An improvement in the quality of the figures is needed.

7. Read the whole manuscript and try to remove the passive voice misuse and typo mistakes in some spots.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Siraj Abduro Abdulahi

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr. Abdulaziz Garba Ahmad

Federal University of Technology, Babura, Nigeria

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: Review Comments of manuscript PONE-D-23-38121.docx

Study on the Methodology of Emergency Decision-Making for Water Transfer Project Contingencies: A Case-Based Reasoning and Regret Theory Approach

PONE-D-23-38121R1

Dear Dr. Huang,

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.

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Kind regards,

Ahmed Mancy Mosa, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

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 #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: 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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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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 #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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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 #1: Yes: Siraj Abduro Abdulahi

Reviewer #2: Yes: Dr. Abdulaziz Garba Ahmad

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