Dear Dr. Wondim,

The manuscript requires a complete revision and reorganisation, of both the text and the figures. Until the figures are completely revised and made leggible, and the text carefully revised for clarity, the manuscript will not be accepted for for review. Futhermore, there are clear shortcomings in the Methods and a more clear description of how the approach taken can be used in similar studies outside of the study area. Additional and more recent references should also be used to support the approaches used in the study.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Steven Arthur Loiselle

Academic Editor

PLOS 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?

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Partly

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

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: N/A

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

The PLOS Data policy

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: The manuscript attempts to address an important challenge in delineating shoreline wetlands by integrating Sentinel-1 SAR data and multi-source indicators (topography, hydric soil, hydrophytic vegetation, and hydrology) to map Lake Tana’s wetlands. While the topic is relevant and the multi-indicator approach is logical, the manuscript suffers from methodological ambiguities and the current quality of the figures significantly detracts from the readability.

Some parts of the methodology are unclear and lack sound reasoning.

Lines 142-145. The choice of a 3 km buffer zone and a critical elevation of 1790 m requires detailed explanation.

Mapping Hydrophytic Vegetation Using SAR Data. In this section, the number and date of Sentinel-1 images used are unknown. The construction of training datasets is unclear. How to generate training site polygons from ground truth points? How to determine the classification categories? Since the discussion section mentioned that the random forest is considered the most effective machine-learning approach for wetland mapping, why is only SVM used here?

Wetland Hydrology Mapping Using SAR Data. Since the hydrophytic vegetation mapping section already includes the waterbody category, why do we need another map in this section to extract waterbodies? Again, it is unclear how to use Sentinel-1 images in this section.

Current wetland mapping methods are well-established. A dedicated section comparing this approach with prior methods would strengthen the case for novelty.

Although the manuscript is well-structured, the figures are terrible and affect readability. The key figure showing hydrophytic vegetation mapping (Figure 5) is even a combination of screenshots of the Geomatica Focus interface.

Figure 1. The color of the basemap is close to the color of the legend, which interferes with the reading of key information (Figs 1).

Figure 2. The demonstration of the proposed workflow should be improved. The arrows are inconsistent, and some text is obscured. Why is there a “Wetland InSAR” when the mapping method in this manuscript only uses SAR backscattering intensity?

Figure 3. The scale and extent of the subplots are inconsistent, making it difficult to compare their differences. In addition, it is hard to understand the overlap of the two layers (1786-90 Elevation meter and 0-2 meter Depth) in subplot e. Figure 7 has similar problems.

Tables 1 and 2 should not use screenshots.

Reviewer #2: Dear authors,

I have gone through the manuscript Mapping of Shore Area Wetlands in Lake Tana Biosphere Reserve, Ethiopia Using Sentinel-1A SAR and Multi-Source Data. The manuscript needs more attention of the author.

• The English language should be revised. There are many grammar errors and writing mistakes.

• It is recommended to fully spell out the in the first use of the term in a manuscript. Once the abbreviation has been introduced, it is appropriate to use it throughout the rest of the manuscript. So, readers will better understand the meaning of the abbreviation and its relevance to the topic at hand. Please revise all abbreviations

• Introduction section the introduction section should be supported by recent literature reviews that used remote sensing such as optical and radar data to detect water bodies: It is not the first study used this model in the research region. I think the authors could read them and cite these. please see

• Abou Samra RM, El-Barbary SM (2018) The use of remote sensing indices for detecting environmental changes: a case study of North Sinai, Egypt Spatial Information Research 26:679-689. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-018-0211-1

• Abou Samra R.M. (2022). Dynamics of human-induced lakes and their impact on land surface temperature in Toshka Depression, Western Desert, Egypt. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 29, 20892-20905.

• Abou Samra RM, Ali R, Halder B, & Yaseen ZM (2024) Assessing the Catastrophic Environmental Impacts on Dam Breach Using Remote Sensing and Google Earth Engine. Water Resources Management:1-17.

• You should add a section about characteristics of your study area including causes of selection, and the meteorological conditions.

• The methods section should be well written. Please add section of sources and characteristics of your datasets. Please clarify your processing steps and software used to process your datasets.

• Please add the implication of the findings for future research

• This write-up should address the current limitations in this field of study.

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what does this mean? ). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Dear Dr. Wondim,

These are specifically related to missing information regarding the selection of SAR images. Please see the comments from Review 1 below. 

Please submit your revised manuscript by Oct 02 2025 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.

• 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 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: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols . Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols .

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Steven Arthur Loiselle

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

1. If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise. 

2. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

The manuscript has been greatly improved and is nearly ready for publication. There are a couple methodological points that need to be clarified before publication.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

Reviewer #1:  The manuscript has greatly improved in terms of clarity and figures. Some minor comments are needed to be addressed before publication.

Mapping hydrophytic vegetation using SAR data. i. It is unclear how you use SAR images from two different periods (May and October). Do you composite them into a single image? If so, why do you select these two months? ii. How do you calculate vegetation indices, as you only mentioned SAR data?

Wetland hydrology mapping using SAR data. Are the same SAR images used as for HV mapping? If so, how are permanent and temporary inundation identified, and was done by comparing these two months?

Line 258. “water bodies” is duplicated.

Reviewer #2:  The authors addressed all the previous comments, and it is acceptable for publication from the scientific point of view.

**********

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

Mapping of Shore Area Wetlands in Lake Tana Biosphere Reserve, Northwest Ethiopia Using Sentinel-1A SAR and Multi-Source Data

PONE-D-24-59965R2

Dear Dr. Wondim,

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,

Steven Arthur Loiselle

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: