The paper has fared very well in the discussion phase. All the reviewers have responded positively to the approach adopted in the paper and the conclusions drawn. They have suggested many useful suggestions to improve the paper, which authors should consider including in their revised version. I am confident that the paper will be widely read, especially by graduate students or new entrants to hydrologic research. I look forward to receiving and approving the final version in due course.

I have gone through the revised manuscript and their responses to the reviewers. I found that they have done a good job addressing all of the review comments, which has made the paper a major contribution to this special issue and to hydrology in general. However, I have found several typos in the first part of the paper and ask the authors to correct these and resubmit them in short order. I will treat these as technical corrections - I do not need to see the manuscript again. I am therefore approving the paper for final publication, subject to these technical corrections. (I attach the annotated manuscript where I highlight these typos).