Recent Developments in the Application of Water Resource Dispatching Systems in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The Authors shows study has provided a systematic summary of water resources allocating schemes in China, terms of their current applications. The construction of water diversion projects and recent developments in water resources dispatching systems on the basin scale were examined, and then the application of different algorithms was reviewed. In study the Authors the following conclusions can be drawn: First, a systematic statement of the development and application of water resources management in China is presented for the first time, including management strategies and techniques. Second, water resources management in different basins has similar demands. The four modules for WRDSs in China are summarised. Then, by considering the differences in water resources management between inter-basin and single basins, problems of management were highlighted, and techniques were proposed for the South-to-North Diversion (inter-basin water diversion) process and Pearl River Basin (water diversion within basins) project.
The paper does advance the field in a way, and in my opinion is worthy of publication.
The paper presents important information on water management in the catchment area. The presented solutions will help with exemplary water management plans. This is important because the problem is still valid and concerns everyone who uses water resources.
The article is well prepared in terms of editing. Some few editorial errors are present in the manuscript:
Page 1 line 44 – numbers 9 and 10 should be in one parenthesis
Page 7 – in Figure 3, I suggest changing the font to a more readable one.
In the discussion I miss the reference to other works by the authors. It would certainly strengthen this point.
Author Response
Dear viewer,
Thank you for your useful comments of our manuscript. We have corrected several mistakes in our previous draft and modified the manuscript accordingly. Especially, we have checked and edited the English language and style.
Point 1: Change the font in Figure 3
Response 2: The font in Figure 3 is in Times new Roman, so we do not change the font, instead we enlarged the Figure 3.
Point 2: In the discussion more reference to other works。
Response 3: We refer to other references in 5.2. Suggestions for Strategies. In 5.1 Some Challenges, we do not add the reference for some challenges or problems can hardly find the related published materials, but it's truly a problem that WRDS faced in China.
Reviewer 2 Report
See attached file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear viewer,
Thank you for your useful comments of our manuscript. We have corrected several mistakes in our previous draft and modified the manuscript accordingly. Especially, we have checked and edited the English language and style.
Point 1: There is no discussion of why diversions should be the top priority in comparison among all water resources projects. The paper is not focused on the recovery or replacement or construction or maintenance of diversion infrastructure but rather on the state of existing and planned diversions and institutional aspects of their operation as well as types of models being used to inform operators
Response 1: We have changed the words used here, we just want to express that there is an upsurge of water diversion in China and diversion projects really do an important role in WRDs in China.
Point 2: I’m curious why these references were picked and how they relate to the main topic? The following paragraph criticizing traditional modelling methods seems to me more of criticizing the builders of such models for not being more comprehensive rather than the techniques themselves
Response 2: These references were picked here to describe the development of China's water resources management and the water resources management technology, of course, in a large part of the time, water resources management is mainly in the reservoirs, that is, water regulation.
Point 3: Referring to Fig. 1, have any diversion projects in China been completed? The figure is not very easy to read or to see all the arrows (links). Has the ecology of any water bodies or watersheds been enhanced due to the implementation of diversions or engineered infrastructure, as suggested? Can we engineers do better than nature? If so what criteria are used to judge that? Just curious.
Response 3: There are many diversion projects have been completed in China. Luanhe-Tianjin Diversion Project started to deliver water from Luan River to Tianjin City in the year 1983; the Middle Route Project of SNWP started to deliver water in the year 2014, it’s totally manmade canals and now the flow rate can up to 380 m3/s, however the official saying is that the project is still under construction (phase I), because the investment will be increased in the later stage to increase the water supply capacity. The ecology of Baiyangdian (a river system in Hebei Province) has been enhanced due to the implementation of the Middle Route Project of SNWP, but the enhancement is mainly compared with the recent water ecology which was damaged by the excessive water use in Hebei province, and the implementation of the diversion project enabled the restoration of the water system.
Point 4: Line 143. Could some detail be added regarding real-time dispatching schemes have been devised during the application of WRDSs in China.? How are conflicts handled when using real time control?
Response 4: Real-time dispatching schemes were mainly discussed in the water diversion projects. In the water diversion projects, the real-time dispatching scheme mainly concerns about the flow rate and water level, depends on the real time control technology in automation filed using real time information to eliminate uncertainty as much as possible, while the water allocation is mainly realized by medium and long-term water resources dispatching.
Point 5: Table 2: What do the serial numbers refer to, and what papers are being cited?
Response 5: We made some mistakes at the last manuscript, the Table 2 should be placed at the part 3.2. Different WRDS Modules in China, it is to describe the questionnaire for basin managers, the serial numbers refer to the questions. The word “this paper” is a wrong express and we have changed.
Point 6: What has determined which of the two optimization methods were applied in a particular region?
Response 6: We guess it is the complexity of the problem need to be solved determines the application of the optimization method, as in the south part of China, there are more reservoirs, lakes and more rains, the water resources dispatching problems are more complicated and the genetic algorithm is suitable for optimization of complex problems.
Point 7: What does the arrow signify in each figure? Is there a sequence implied? Not clear to me.?
Response 7: We just want to show that the object the arrow points to is mainly determined by other factors
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
