-->PONE-D-26-05438-->-->Modeling Wind Erosion Susceptibility of Eastern Iran Using Machine Learning-->-->PLOS One

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There are several areas which the reviewer highlighted could be supported by references.  The major issue to be expanded upon was whether the different predictor variables differed in their spatial resolution, how this was dealt with and whether the particular learning methods are better able to deal with these-->-->

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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

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

Reviewer #1: 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: No

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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

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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: This study examined and maps the wind erosion susceptibility in the eastern part of Iran using 10 machine learning models, with more emphasis on Random Forest, which outperforms the others, and an ensemble of models. Authors also identify the areas with highest susceptibility to wind erosion and propose some restoration techniques and projects, that is especially important for this region. This is an interesting, well-organized and written work, that contributes to several previous works over Iran and the Middle East dealing with this issue. However, despite the rich literature over the region (see my recommendations below), the NE part of Iran was remained nearly unexplored, so the current paper has its own importance, which however, should be better stated and highlighted by the authors at the end of the Introduction section. I propose major revisions on this manuscript in a way to improve the scientific importance, connection with previous works and clarification of some statements and results.

Authors may also see results from similar studies in wind erosion hazard over Iranian provinces and specific regions of high land degradation and vulnerability to dust events and compare with current findings.

Boroughani et al. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2024.102380

Gholami et al. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2021.03.005

Gholami et al. 2023.doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2023.1187658

Gholami et al. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2024.100924

Gholami et al. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-70125-y

Emamian et al. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107325

Yousefi et al. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124346.

Mohammadi et al. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aeolia.2025.100995

Lines 33-36. Authors may also search for and use more recent references for the dust impacts. Literature is rich in this field.

Lines 43-44. You should specify more about this statement. In which regions and periods? You should also support it with references.

Similarly, statements in lines 52-55 need more region-based citations.

Lines 80-81. I do not agree with this statement. There are numerous studies that assess the wind-erosion mapping in Iran. Some are cited in this study, for other authors may see the suggested literature.

Lines 96-100. Here, authors refer to previous works, their objectives and scientific gaps. However, they do not cite any of these previous works. In general, this paragraph, as well as the whole introduction section needs more comprehensive writing mostly on supporting the current writing and general statements with regional literature.

Line 129. This sentence is incomplete and needs revision.

Lines 131-133. It's not clear if you refer to annual temperatures here. Also, authors refer to the statistical period, without mentioning it.

Lines 135-146. Once again, these statements need to be supported by appropriate references in the region.

Section 2.3. All these parameters described here are potential factors for wind erosion according to regional and global literature. So, for supporting all these implementing factors, also may cite some studies systematically used them for mapping wind erosion hazard in Iran and globally.

Line 218. You should expand these abbreviations or include all variables in a nomenclature to be shown in the main text and not in supplementary material.

in Section 2.3, authors should also provide information about how do they overcome the issue of different spatial resolutions between the effective factors (variables) used in this analysis. What interpolation or extrapolation method did they use or any other technique for consistency of spatial resolution.

Section 2.4 is well-organized and structured; however, authors may support some statements or model groups with references, connecting their modelling approach with regional and global literature.

The beginning of the results section should be rather "smoothed", since the current writing does not refer to the study area, but generally, this confuses the reader to follow the following material. Authors may also refer to the objective of the study and the area of investigation.

Line 428. It's not clear what figure author refers to here. Definitely not to figure 3, it seems like something else, while till now they do not mention fig. 4. So, more detailed and comprehensive writing is needed here.

Line 547. Correct as "were consistent"

Lines 548-550. You may revise this sentence by including references, as well as other studies from the recommended literature into a parenthesis like... Previous studies in Iran (...) also mentioned that ...

Lines 580-592 constitute excellent interpretations and discussions about socio-economic impacts of land degradation in the east of Iran. Some of the sentences could be accompanied by relevant references to support them.

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Reviewer #1: No

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Modeling Wind Erosion Susceptibility of Eastern Iran Using Machine Learning

PONE-D-26-05438R1

Dear Dr. Shukla,

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,

Judi Hewitt, Hewitt

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

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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

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

Reviewer #1: 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

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-->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

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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)

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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

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