PONE-D-23-30564Assessing the Environmental Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Ayni Falaj SystemPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Alkindi,

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Kind regards,

Abdulkader Murad, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Reviewer 1

RE: Assessing the Environmental Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Ayni Falaj System

This manuscript is well prepared and of high quality. In this article, the order of presenting the content is well respected and innovative. Therefore, I consider this manuscript suitable for acceptance for publication in the journal. However, before acceptance, minor revisions are required as follows:

1- It is better to separate the section related to the study area in the materials and methods section and put it before the materials and methods section.

2- It is better to edit the text accurately by an English speaker.

Reviewer 2

The article Assessing the Environmental Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Ayni Falaj

System has been read in its entirety by this reviewer and highlighted areas indicate the

locations of my following comments. It is important to note that my specialty is in multivariate

GIS as it pertains to ecology, however I am very familiar with the software and process

described in this paper as I use them on a regular basis. I have found its use of GIS processes

appropriate, innovative, and enlightening. Please see the following comments as suggestions to

improve the article's readability and specificity.

Comments:

Lines 38 - 40: These two sentences appear redundant and could be shortened to a single

sentence.

Line 49: The situation described does not have to be specific to a country and "within the

country" could be dropped.

Line 53(1): "lives" could be replaced with "way of life"

Line 53(2): "urbanization and" falls under the category of changes to land use and could be

dropped from the sentence.

Line 56: "this" may be dropped from the sentence.

Line 58: "confronts" feels inappropriate may be replaced with "faces".

Line 189: This sentence implies the AFS is impacting the environmental variables, not the other

way around which is what I think you meant.

Line 382: "Evaporation" looks to be accidently bolded.

Line 407: "compared" may be replaced with "in relation"

Line 451: The word "successfully" appears out of place as it is making a suggestion to the

reader's interpretation and could be dropped from the sentence.

In summary I found this article to be a novel and powerful use of multivariate GIS

analysis. I believe the findings are strong and honest. Figures including the maps are

appropriate and readable. Thank you for considering my comments.

[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: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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: No

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: RE: Assessing the Environmental Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Ayni Falaj System

This manuscript is well prepared and of high quality. In this article, the order of presenting the content is well respected and innovative. Therefore, I consider this manuscript suitable for acceptance for publication in the journal. However, before acceptance, minor revisions are required as follows:

1- It is better to separate the section related to the study area in the materials and methods section and put it before the materials and methods section.

2- It is better to edit the text accurately by an English speaker.

Reviewer #2: The article Assessing the Environmental Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Ayni Falaj

System has been read in its entirety by this reviewer and highlighted areas indicate the

locations of my following comments. It is important to note that my specialty is in multivariate

GIS as it pertains to ecology, however I am very familiar with the software and process

described in this paper as I use them on a regular basis. I have found its use of GIS processes

appropriate, innovative, and enlightening. Please see the following comments as suggestions to

improve the article's readability and specificity.

Comments:

Lines 38 - 40: These two sentences appear redundant and could be shortened to a single

sentence.

Line 49: The situation described does not have to be specific to a country and "within the

country" could be dropped.

Line 53(1): "lives" could be replaced with "way of life"

Line 53(2): "urbanization and" falls under the category of changes to land use and could be

dropped from the sentence.

Line 56: "this" may be dropped from the sentence.

Line 58: "confronts" feels inappropriate may be replaced with "faces".

Line 189: This sentence implies the AFS is impacting the environmental variables, not the other

way around which is what I think you meant.

Line 382: "Evaporation" looks to be accidently bolded.

Line 407: "compared" may be replaced with "in relation"

Line 451: The word "successfully" appears out of place as it is making a suggestion to the

reader's interpretation and could be dropped from the sentence.

In summary I found this article to be a novel and powerful use of multivariate GIS

analysis. I believe the findings are strong and honest. Figures including the maps are

appropriate and readable. Thank you for considering my comments.

**********

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Kevin Maxwell Lester

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-23-30564_reviewerLESTER.pdf

Assessing the Environmental Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Ayni Falaj System

PONE-D-23-30564R1

Dear Dr. Alkindi,

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.

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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,

Abdulkader Murad, Ph.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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 #3: 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 #3: (No Response)

**********

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

Reviewer #3: 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 #3: 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 #3: 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 #3: Dear author,

I have some optional suggestions to improve your final version of the manuscript:

Please check the caption of Figure 4, because you did not mention to map b.

The content in Figure 5 appears to be similar. Make sure to check it before sending the final edition.

You also used dried and deceased words in the text. Verify which one is correct.

I believe that the paper can be improved in terms of English writing and grammar.

Thank you

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