SUMMARY OF CHANGES

First, we would like to say thank you to the reviewers for the useful comments to improve the paper.
We have addressed all the comments as explained below.

Editor and Reviewer comments:

EIC: Thank you for your submission to Groundwater for Sustainable Development (GSD). The
manuscript has now been reviewed by two independent reviewers. The submission needs
substantial improvement before it could be reconsidered for publication in Groundwater for
Sustainable Development. Please note that GSD is currently looking forward to receive high quality
submissions where the submissions should clearly reflect the state of the art and novelty in the field
of research on groundwater for sustainable development. Please revise the manuscript with clearly
defined aims and objectives, better illustrations and improved graphics and following the comments
below and also a general improvement of the writing. All the revision MUST be done on a track
change mode explain how the revision satisfies the comments and remarks of the reviewers. Please
submit also a clean sanitized version of the manuscript.

Response:

Thank you very much for considering our manuscript. The substantial improvements have been
added to achieve high quality submissions on GSD journal.

Reviewer #1:
General comments:

The Authors developed the vulnerability index for adaptive drought management in Savu Rai Jua
Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province (NTT), Indonesia. The topic of study is original and creative.
The results of the study will benefit many people either engineers or researchers, not only for
application in Indonesia, but also world wide. The structure of the paper is logic and reasonable. The
Authors are required to improve the writing with respect to English grammar. In addition, it is
important to revise the abstract and conclusions of the paper. The abstract should reflect the brief
summary of the entire study. The conclusions should emphasize on the results of the study to
address the objective of the paper. The manuscript can be accepted for publication upon revising the
manuscript.

Response:

Thank you very much for your comments. The authors revised the abstract and conclusions of the
paper following the suggestions. The conclusions have been revised to emphasize on the results of
the study to address the objective of the paper.

The authors also asked Professional English Grammar Checking to improve the writing with respect
to English grammar.

Special comments:
 1. The study only focus on case in Indonesia. It is better to indicate in the abstract that the case
study was performed in Indonesia. The reader will understand that the proposed method is
only applicable for similar region as Indonesia.

Response:

The authors added the information in the abstract that the case study was performed in Indonesia.

Line 21-25:

Therefore, the main purpose and concerned issue in this paper is to develop and implement an
appropriate Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) to describe water vulnerability status for outermost
small island in Indonesia. To accomplish the analysis, this study used Geographical Information
System (GIS) and interpretations from digital images from Savu Rai Jua Regency, East Nusa Tenggara
Province (Indonesia) as study area.

2. The citation style needs revision. Normally, Harvard style is used to prepare the citation and
references.

Response:

The authors revised the citation style.

3. Many studies have been done with respect to GIS for water distribution in similar region. It
will be good to provide citation from similar country as Indonesia. Please add the following
reference in Line 68:

Nistor, M.M., Rahardjo H., Satyanaga, A., Koh, Z.H., Qin. X and Sham, A.W.L. (2020) "Investigation of
groundwater table distribution using borehole piezometer data interpolation: Case study of
Singapore", Engineering Geology, March, Vol. 271, 105590

Nistor, M., Rahardjo, H., Satyanaga, A. (2019) "Development Assessment of the Singapore Land: A
GIS Spatial-Temporal Approach based on Land Cover Analysis", Geographia Technica, November
2019. Vol 14, No 2, pp. 60-73. DOI: 10.21163/GT_2019.142.06

Response:

The authors added/provided citations following the suggestions.

4. Present more literatures related to the studies on DVI internationally

Response:

The authors added/provided more literatures related to the studies on DVI internationally following
the suggestions.

5. Provide scale and North-East symbol in Figure 1

Response:
The authors added/provided scale and North-East symbol following the suggestions.

6. There should be explanation for every variables in Figure 2

Response:

The authors added explanations for every variables in Figure 2 following the suggestions.

7. Provide citation for Schmidt-Ferguson method and justify why it is suitable to be used in
this study

Response:

The authors provided citation following the suggestions.

8. Explain the term: Critical Land Rate Index and provide citation why this index is good?

Response:

The authors provided citation following the suggestions.

9. Figure 3 should have scale

Response:

The authors provided scale in Figure 3 following the suggestions.

10. How to verify that the results of the study is correct?

Response:

The authors provided some explanations following the suggestions.

11. Conclusions need to revise according to the results of the study.

Response:

The authors revised the conclusions part according to the results following the suggestions.

Reviewer #2:
The manuscript tries to present drought characteristics in an island complex in Southeastern
Indonesia. The materials presented in the paper could be a good starting point/introduction of a
more comprehensive paper; however, in its current state, it is very difficult to recommend this paper
for publishing. The reasons following this recommendation are:

(1) The lack of novelty and depth of discussion. The paper discusses the use of the Drought
Vulnerability Index (DVI) to indicate the level of drought in a study area. But there is very
little insight following the analysis. It is also very difficult to find the novelty presented.
Response:

The authors added some explanations for the novelty and depth of discussion following the
suggestions.

Line 64-65:

Although improved tool and model has been used to analyze of data information concerning water
problems, lack of studies focused on drought in outermost small island.

Line 70-73:

Therefore, the main purpose and concerned issue in this paper is to develop and implement an
appropriate Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI) to describe water vulnerability status for outermost
small island in Indonesia. Indeed, at present, previous research in drought index for small island is
still in its infancy.

Line 106-108:

However, lack of previous studies has been investigated with a basic, low-cost, effective and suitable
methodology for outermost small island.

Line 173-175:

Furthermore, it is sensible to modify selected variables in order to improve Drought Vulnerability

Index (DVI) and to develop an adaptive management for drought mitigation in outer small island
(Figure 4).

Line 159-167

This paper puts forward a spatial perspective in framing the methodology for drought vulnerability
assessment by using a viable index for small island in Indonesia. The index considered the
vulnerability based on temporal and spatial contexts. In developing the composition of index, four
core parameters are selected as sub-index (WUI, WSVI, CRI, and RI). Many studies have used rainfall
intensity and/or water use parameter as main consideration in developing and standardizing
drought vulnerability index. Few or no studies used water supplying vegetation combined with
critical-land rate parameters as the considered parameters. However, this study proved that all four
selected parameters are important parameters in developing a viable DVI for small island in
Indonesia.

Line

In analysis part…..

(2) The topic presented in the manuscript does not align/intersect/coincide with the journal's
field of research.

Response:

Thank you for the response. Based on the information from the journal, it is aimed at professionals,
academics and students in the fields of disciplines such as: groundwater and its connection to
surface hydrology and environment, soil sciences, engineering, ecology, microbiology, atmospheric
sciences, analytical chemistry, hydro-engineering, water technology, environmental ethics,
economics, public health, policy, as well as social sciences, legal disciplines, or any other area
connected with water issues. The academic and research background of authors are suitable for the
fields. Besides, the objectives of this paper is to how to relate water requirement assessment of
outermost small island in Indonesia by using Drought Vulnerability Index (DVI). The authors acquired
the availability of water resources including groundwater. The authors added data of existing
situation of groundwater availability as the supported data. It relates to the objectives of this journal
is to facilitate: the improvement of effective and sustainable management of water resources across
the globe.

(3) There are too many spelling/grammatical errors.

Response:

The authors asked Professional English Grammar Checking to improve the writing with respect to
English grammar.

Editor (Alan Fryar):

I agree with both reviewers that additional information is needed, including comparisons with other
studies in the discussion section. Conversely, there are instances of redundant and irrelevant text
that should be deleted. There are significant problems with awkward, ungrammatical, and confusing
phrasing throughout the manuscript. I strongly recommend that the authors have the revised
manuscript reviewed by a native English speaker before resubmitting it. I am attaching a copy of the
pdf with my edits and comments (in bold). Note the following comments in particular:

(1) Each highlight has a maximum length of 85 characters.

Response:

The authors revised the highlight part following the suggestion.

(2) Pick keywords that aren't simply phrases from the title of the manuscript.

Response:

The authors revised the keywords following the suggestion.

Line 34:

Keywords: Drought; Geographical Information System; Water vulnerability status

(3) Methods: Given the relief in the study area, how representative is a single rain gauge for this
region? Include a map with watersheds and show the location of the weather station.
Response:

The authors revised the manuscript following the suggestion.

(4) Discussion: How much work is being done elsewhere in Indonesia on drought
characterization and mitigation?

Response:

The authors revised the keywords following the suggestion.

(5) Conclusion: What would be examples of "drought-induced natural disasters"? How were
socio-economic aspects of vulnerability to drought addressed in this study?

Response:

The authors added some explanations in conclusion part following the suggestion.

(6) References: Follow the journal’s format regarding in-text citations and titles of journal
articles in the list of references (use “Sentence case” rather than “Title Case”. Journal titles
should be abbreviated following https://www.library.caltech.edu/journal-title-abbreviations

Response:

The authors revised the references following the suggestion.

(7) Tables: Follow standard English usage for numbers: use periods to indicate decimal points
and commas to separate units of 1000, 1 million, etc.

Response:

The authors revised the Tables following the suggestion.