Groundwater Impacts and Management under a Drying Climate in Southern Australia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this study, the authors have reviewed studies on global climate change trends, groundwater status, water resources policy (plan) and vulnerability assessment, and the impact of climate change on groundwater in southern Australia. In particular, studies on the effects of each hydrological cycle factor including groundwater and the surrounding environment due to climate change were well explained.

The groundwater planning framework for responding to climate change, risk assessment (with respect to recharge and response) and risk management due to climate change in the groundwater systems are also well described.

I think that only a few technical parts of the manuscript need a little modification as follows;

• The author expressed as “1), 2), 3)” in some parts, and expressed it as “a), b), c)” or “i), ii), iii)” in other parts.
• Please modify the Figure 4 to a higher resolution figure.
• It is necessary to identify the missing references not cited in the manuscript.
• Please provide full version or additional information of some abbreviations such as; CSIRO, NCCARF, SWWA, GDE, AHD…
• The authors have already mentioned in part 7.1, but, based on the case studies which were discussed in this study, can you present in more detail the implications or applicability of groundwater planning and management for climate change response to other regions (countries) with similar environments (conditions) to southern Australia?

Author Response

Reviewer 2 Report

The informations contained in the manuscript are an extremely valuable voice in the discussion on the impact of climate change on groundwater (its resources and management). The authors clearly presented the current state of knowledge and set the directions for further research. The manuscript refers to Australia, but in my opinion the conclusions contained in it are universal and can be used in the water management of other countries.
After reading the manuscript, I have some comments:
1. The authors focused on the assessment of the impact of climate change on the groundwater quantity. In my opinion, future research should also take into account the impact of climate change on groundwater quality.
2. It is not clear to me, why in Fig. 5 the impact of land use changes on "secondary responses" has not been marked with arrows? For example, changes in land use will impact on inflows to surface water.
3. Technical note - please delete unnecessary text from the title of Figure 3.

Author Response