Correction to: Environ Earth Sci (2016) 75:172 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4970-x

The Editors-in-Chief of Environmental Earth Sciences are issuing an editorial expression of concern to alert readers that this original article shows substantial indication of irregularities in authorship during the submission process. The authors suggested peer reviewers whose identity was not possible to verify. This article contains overlap with (Gani et al. 2016; Mohammadi et al. 2016; Shamshirband et al. 2015) (amongst others). Ahmad Karim has not explicitly stated whether he agrees to this editorial expression of concern. None of the other co-authors responded to correspondence about this editorial expression of concern.