diff --git a/processing/a-dissolve.sh b/processing/a-dissolve.sh
index 1e7193d..d52af9f 100755
--- a/processing/a-dissolve.sh
+++ b/processing/a-dissolve.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,27 @@
-# input filename + file
+# Synopysis: creates district and province level admins by dissolving (merging geometrise) of features with same uniq id.
+
+# input name is used to build names of inputs and output files of each process
 INPUT_NAME=vietnam-communes
+# input for dissolve to make district and province level boundaries as well as convert the commune shapefile to geojson
 INPUT=${1}/tmp/${INPUT_NAME}.shp
-# copy input shapefile into tmp directory
-# for districts and provinces + their uniq field
+
+# for both the district and province, create a new geojson that dissolves features on the unique field id supplied
+# on the right hand side of the semi-colon
 for ADMIN in 'district;DISTCODE02' 'province;PROCODE02'
 do
-  # split ADMIN into array including admin name and its field
+  # split ${ADMIN} string on the semi-colon to grab the admin name and field id
   ADMIN_ARRAY=(${ADMIN//;/ })
-  # use admin name to generate output file name
+  # make the unique output file per the current admin name
   OUTPUT=${1}/output/vietnam-${ADMIN_ARRAY[0]}.geojson
-  # set DISSOLVE_FIELD to admin field
+  # make ${DISSOLVE_FIELD} per the current admin's dissolve field
   DISSOLVE_FIELD=${ADMIN_ARRAY[1]}
-  # dissolve on admin field and write to file
+  # dissolve on admin field with ogr2ogr and write output as a geojson
+  # this comman creates a new geojson where features are geometries that share the same ${DISSOLVE_FIELD}
+  # 'ST_UNION' merges geometries.
+  # 'GROUP BY' tells gdal which gemetries to merge together
   ogr2ogr -f 'GeoJSON' "${OUTPUT}" "${INPUT}" -dialect sqlite -sql $'SELECT ST_Union(geometry), * FROM "'"$INPUT_NAME"$'" GROUP BY '"$DISSOLVE_FIELD"
 done
-# also convert communes shp to geojosn
-IN_SHP=${1}/tmp/${INPUT_NAME}.shp
+# name of geojson output file
 OUT_GJSN=${1}/output/${INPUT_NAME}.geojson
-ogr2ogr -f 'GeoJSON' "${OUT_GJSN}" "${IN_SHP}"
+# since communes don't need to be dissolved, do a simple shp->geojson conversion
+ogr2ogr -f 'GeoJSON' "${INPUT}" "${IN_SHP}"
diff --git a/processing/b-reproject.sh b/processing/b-reproject.sh
index 4a0f425..1285c07 100755
--- a/processing/b-reproject.sh
+++ b/processing/b-reproject.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
+# Synopysis: reproject each admin geojson from UTM to WGS84
 for ADMIN in communes district province
 do
-  # use admin name to generate output and input file names
+  # generate the input name for the current ${ADMIN} file
   INPUT=${1}/tmp/vietnam-${ADMIN}.geojson
+  # generate the output name for the current ${ADMIN} file
   OUTPUT=${1}/output/vietnam-${ADMIN}-wgs84.geojson
-  # reproject to wgs84
+  # reproject ${INPUT} to wgs84 with ogr2ogr
+  # -t_srs is a flag for reprojection
+  # EPSG:4326 is the WGS84 EPSG code
+  # http://spatialreference.org/ref/epsg/wgs-84/
   ogr2ogr -t_srs EPSG:4326 -f 'GeoJSON' "${OUTPUT}" "${INPUT}"
 done
diff --git a/processing/c-update-geojson-spec.sh b/processing/c-update-geojson-spec.sh
index b9ea392..577667c 100755
--- a/processing/c-update-geojson-spec.sh
+++ b/processing/c-update-geojson-spec.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,18 @@
-# enforce right-hand rule for polygons
+# Synopysis: removes the crs object within geojsons outputed by b-reproject as well as enforces right hand rule for polygon draw orders.
+# info about right hand rules and the new GeoJSON spec below
+# for right hand, see the winding section here: https://macwright.org/2015/03/23/geojson-second-bite.html
+# for the brave, here's the actual spec https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7946
+
 for ADMIN in communes district province
 do
+  # generate unique input and output files as it has been done in previous examples
   INPUT_FILE=${1}/tmp/vietnam-${ADMIN}-wgs84.geojson
   OUTPUT_FILE=${1}/output/vietnam-${ADMIN}-cleaned.geojson
-  # remove crs object to match current GeoJSON spec
+  # remove crs object to match current GeoJSON spec using sed.
+  # the below command was found in following place
+  # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38028600/how-to-delete-a-json-object-from-json-file-by-sed-command-in-bash (see the mailer example)
+  # the `-i .org` allows inplace convserion so the ${INPUT_FILE} effectively has its crs removed.
   sed -i .org '/\"crs\"/ d; /^$/d' ${INPUT_FILE}
-  # enforce right to left polygons, also to match current spec
+  # geojson-rewind winds left-to right wound geojsons right-to-left. the right-to-left output is saved to ${OUTPUT_FILE}
   geojson-rewind ${INPUT_FILE} > ${OUTPUT_FILE}
 done
diff --git a/processing/d-simplify-props.js b/processing/d-simplify-props.js
index 17f13cb..34ce5be 100755
--- a/processing/d-simplify-props.js
+++ b/processing/d-simplify-props.js
@@ -1,35 +1,51 @@
+/**
+ * @file reads streaming admin geojson and reduces properties to match the schema of the table to which it is going to be written
+ */
+
+// these modules are needed for streaming geojsons
 var createReadStream = require('fs').createReadStream;
 var createWriteStream = require('fs').createWriteStream;
 var readdirSync = require('fs').readdirSync;
-var path = require('path');
-var parallel = require('async').parallel;
-
-var baseDir = 'data/processing/d-simplify-props'
-
-// streams to read and write geojsons
 var geojsonStream = require('geojson-stream');
 var parser = geojsonStream.parse();
 var stringifier = geojsonStream.stringify();
-// helps split single-line json into chunked-by-line geojson
+// module to read path
+var path = require('path');
+// parallel allows for reading each admin geojson stream asynchronously
+var parallel = require('async').parallel;
+// since the output of `c-update-geojson-spec.sh` writes geojsons to a single line, the stream needs to be broken up into lines, otherwise it will not work
+// split is a module that does just this.
 var split = require('split');
-// tmp dir with geojsons
-var adminPath = `${baseDir}/tmp`;
+
+// directory with geojson files
+var adminPath = 'data/processing/d-simplify-props/tmp'
+// read in files as a list usable in the parallel function
 var admins = readdirSync(adminPath)
 
-// create list of async functions to pass to parallel
+// create that list of async functions to pass to parallel
 const adminTasks = admins.map((admin) => {
   return function(cb) {
+    // the basename, really the admin level name, of the current admin
     var basename = admin.split('-')[1]
+    // the relative path to the current admin file
     var adminFile = path.join(adminPath, admin)
+    // a read stream of admin file
     var adminFileStream = createReadStream(adminFile)
+    // piping split makes the new lines mentioned to be neccessary above
     .pipe(split())
+    // parser is a transform stream that parses geojson feature collections (the form of the input geojson)
     .pipe(parser)
     .on('data', (feature) => {
+      // make and pass feature's properties to the make makeNewProperties function that correctly transforms
+      // the properties to uniform spec needed to insert into the postgis tables
       const properties = feature.properties;
+      // reset the feature properties as the returj from makeNewProperties
       feature.properties = makeNewProperties(properties, basename)
     })
+    // stringify the geojson to send to createWriteStream, then write it to fiel
     .pipe(stringifier)
     .pipe(createWriteStream(`${baseDir}/output/vietnam-${basename}-simplified.geojson`))
+    // when createWriteStream is closed, fire a callback.
     .on('close', () => { cb(null, null) })
   }
 });
@@ -58,6 +74,8 @@ function makeNewProperties (properties, admin) {
   return newProperties;
 }
 
+// run adminTasks in parallel
 parallel(adminTasks, (err, res) => {
+  // do nothing when the are all finished
   if (!err) {}
 });
diff --git a/processing/e-insert-tables.js b/processing/e-insert-tables.js
index 8de113e..c2ee251 100644
--- a/processing/e-insert-tables.js
+++ b/processing/e-insert-tables.js
@@ -1,55 +1,85 @@
+/**
+ * @file reads streaming admin geojson and 'inserts' each feature 'into' matching admin postgis table
+ */
+
+// these modules are needed for streaming geojsons
 var createReadStream = require('fs').createReadStream;
 var createWriteStream = require('fs').createWriteStream;
 var readdirSync = require('fs').readdirSync;
+var geojsonStream = require('geojson-stream');
+var parser = geojsonStream.parse();
+var stringifier = geojsonStream.stringify();
+// module to read path
 var path = require('path');
+// parallel allows for reading each admin geojson stream asynchronously
 var parallel = require('async').parallel;
-
-var baseDir = 'data/processing/d-simplify-props'
+// knex creates a knex obj that links to the current environmnets database
 var knex = require('./db/connection/.js')
+// postgis is a knex extension to generate postgis statements
 var postgis = require('knex-postgis');
-
-// streams to read and write geojsons
-var geojsonStream = require('geojson-stream');
-var parser = geojsonStream.parse();
-var stringifier = geojsonStream.stringify();
-// helps split single-line json into chunked-by-line geojson
+// helps split single-line json into chunked-by-line geojson as mentinoed in d-simplify-props.js
 var split = require('split');
-// tmp dir with geojsons
-var adminPath = `${baseDir}/tmp`;
+// directory with geojsons
+var adminPath = `data/processing/d-simplify-props/tmp`;
+// array including elements with each file in that directory
 var admins = readdirSync(adminPath)
-
-var db = knex({dialect: 'postgres'});
-var st = postgis(db);
+// st is short for spatial type. spatial type is the prefix for postgis functions that allow for spatial sql statements
+// see https://postgis.net/docs/reference.html
+var st = postgis(knex);
 
 // create list of async functions to pass to parallel
 const adminTasks = admins.map((admin) => {
   return function(cb) {
+    // base name mirrors admin name
     var basename = admin.split('-')[1]
+    // here's the path to the current admin file
     var adminFile = path.join(adminPath, admin)
-    var adminFile = path.join('./', admin);
+    // stream of this admin file
     var adminFileStream = createReadStream(adminFile)
+    // pipe split for the lines needed to send along to the geojson parser
     .pipe(split())
+    // the geojson parser for parsing the feature collection
     .pipe(parser)
     .on('data', (feature) => {
+      // for each feature, insert it into the table using the insertIntoTable function
       insertIntoTable(feature, basename)
     })
+    // fire a callback on end event
     .on('end', () => { cb(null, null) })
   }
 });
 
+/**
+ * transforms feature into postgis table row and inserts it into the proper admin table
+ *
+ * @param {object} feature geojson feature
+ * @param {string} admin admin name
+ */
 function insertIntoTable (feature, admin) {
+  // generate properties and geometry objects from feature object
   const properties = feature.properties;
   const geometry = feature.geometry;
   const statement = db.insert({
+    // shared identifier for each row in admin table
     type: admin,
+    // numeric id for current admin unit
     id: properties.id,
+    // numeric id for currrent admin unit's parent (for instance a commune's parent district)
+    // this is helpful for future spatial analysis
     parent_id: properties.p_id,
+    // admin unit geometry
     geo: st.geomFromGeoJSON(geometry),
+    // english name of admin unit
     name_en: properties.en_name,
+    // vietnamese name of admin unit
     name_vn: ''
-  }).into(`${admin}-table`).toString();
+  })
+  // method that inserts the insert statement into its correct table
+  .into(`${admin}-table`).toString();
 }
 
+// run tasks in parallel
 parallel(adminTasks, (err, res) => {
+  // do nothing on result
   if (!err) {}
 });