Optimized Schemes of “Infiltration”, “Storage”, and “Drainage” Measures against Urban Waterlogging in Plain River Network Regions

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Please see attached comments.

Comments for author File: Comments.docx

Author Response

We much appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript. Your comments are very constructive. We address your comments as follows:

 

1. Define what is meant by “waterlogging”. This may have different connotation for Western readers.

 

We have added the definition of "water logging" in the text.

(Line 31 ~ Line 32) Heavy rainfall or continuous rainfall exceeds the absorption capacity of rainwater facilities of a city, resulting in ponding on the ground.

 

2. …ground elevation…4.7-9.0 m. Is this relative to mean sea level? Please describe in text.

 

We have adjusted the “ground elevation”into“sea level elevation”in the text.

 

3. Provide a reference for MIKE software. Is MIKE an acronym? If so, define.

 

We have added an introduction to the MIKE FLOOD model.

(Line 134 ~ Line 142) Based on the 2014 version of the MIKE FLOOD platform, this study coupled the one-dimensional hydrodynamic model(MIKE 11), with the two-dimensional hydrodynamic model (MIKE 21), and the pipe network model (MIKE URBAN). MIKE FLOOD is a coupled simulation platform that reflects the performance of water flow in the pipeline and surface water in the urban area. This platform extends the simulation ability of the traditional urban drainage system pipe network model, so it can accurately reflect water flow movement in urban drainage network and simulate the interaction between pipe water flow and surface water as well as other conditions.

 

4. should read: “….major methods that control waterlogging…”

 

We have corrected the grammatical errors in the text.

(Line 218) which are the major methods that controls waterlogging from the source.

 

5. In legend: Pipe filling <1, >1 and <2, etc. Please check. Also, what are the units? Is this number of pipes? Not clear.

 

We have added the description of "pipe filling".

(Line 213 ~ Line 214) Pipe filling: The pipe filling is calculated as the depth divided by the pipe height, e.g. if the pipe is running under pressure the ratio will be above 1.0.

 

6. In legend: “The Area Where Waterlogging Happens Easier”. Better to say: “Area of Greater Occurrence of Waterlogging”, or similar. Grammar is clumsy.

 

We have changed lengend of Fig3(b) into“Area of Greater Occurrence of Waterlogging”。

 

7. Divide into two separate sentences: “….control of waterlogging. If stormwater….”

 

We have divided the sentence into two separate sentences.

 

(Line 293 ~ Line 299) To sum up, if the measure of reducing runoff production is adopted to alleviate wa-terlogging, the impermeability of a large area of land will need to be reduced to achieve ef-fective control of waterlogging. If stormwater storage facilities are used to curb waterlog-ging, decentralized deployment of stormwater tanks is preferrable to decentralized de-ployment.

 

8. Is it possible to say anything about cost of the various alternatives? Or, say that costing needs to be done in order to determine cost-effectiveness of each alternative.

 

We have added the cost-effectiveness analysis in the text.

(Line 361 ~ Line 365) Generally speaking, making full use of the green land, open space and low-lying area to build storage facilities and increasing the regional storage capacity are the most cost-effective solutions for urban waterlogging in plain river network area. For regions without space to build storage facilities, the cost-effectiveness of alternatives needs to be analyzed in accordance with the real situation.

 

9. I have not seen Bibliographic format in which last names of authors were not given. It would be especially helpful to include last names on authors of all papers. Just a suggestion. Will leave this up to journal editors.

 

We have added the author's last name as suggested. Please find details in the manuscript (Line382 ~ Line416).

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript presents figures and tables which are supported the findings and conclusions of this study. In general, the manuscript is written and organized well. I did not observe any scientific lack in this manuscript and it qualifies for publication after considering some minor comments that are listed below and that could improve the manuscript:

 

• Abstract: The abstract should be more specific and the importance of this study should be presented. The authors should add some numerical results.
• Introduction: The references are out of date. The authors should present the importance of this work. What is new in their work? Also, the worldwide cases should be presented in this section.

Author Response

We much appreciate your efforts in reviewing our manuscript. Your comments are very constructive. We address your comments as follows:

 

1. The manuscript presents figures and tables which are supported the findings and conclusions of this study. In general, the manuscript is written and organized well. I did not observe any scientific lack in this manuscript and it qualifies for publication after considering some minor comments that are listed below and that could improve the manuscript.

 

Thank you for your recognition.

 

2. The abstract should be more specific and the importance of this study should be presented. The authors should add some numerical results.

 

We have added the importance of this study and numerical results to the Abstract.

(Line 13~Line 23) In the present work, the waterlogging alleviation mechanism of these three measures is analyzed; and with Huangbian Village in Panyu District of Guangzhou, China as a study case, one-dimensional, two-dimensional and pipe network coupling hydrodynamic models were es-tablished to explore the optimal schemes of “infiltration”, “storage”, “drainage” measures against urban waterlogging and which measure is the most effective one, providing a reference for sci-entific prevention and alleviation of urban waterlogging in cities.Effect assessment shows that the "storage" is the most effective measure because reducing the impermeability near the waterlogged site, deploying storage tanks upstream of the waterlogged site, and in the case of submerged discharge, lowering the downstream water level can reduce the waterlogged area by 16%, 81%, and 16%, respectively. The comprehensive measures of  "infiltration", "storage", and "drainage" reduced the waterlogged area by 87%, which are superior to single measure.

 

3. The references are out of date. The authors should present the importance of this work. What is new in their work? Also, the worldwide cases should be presented in this section.

 

We have added 5 new references, all of which were recently published articles. We have highlighted the importance and creativity of this study in the Abstract. We have presented world-wide cases as well as relevant research results.

(Line 98~Line 99) This paper studies optimal schemes of "infiltration", "storage", and "drainage" and finds out which one is the most effective one in waterlogging alleviation and should be the main measure while others are alternatives. The research results can provide a reference for scientific prevention and alleviation of urban waterlogging in cities.

We have added worldwide cases and relevant research results.

(Line 49~Line 50) Firoozabadi et al. [5] studied the optimal scheme to reduce the urban flood risk, and the results show that the permeable pavement scheme has the lowest risk.

(Line 51~Line 52) Cristiano et al. [6] studied the effectiveness of blue-green systems on reducing urban flooding and showed that extensive rainwater collection systems, combined with green roofs, can reduce extreme rainfall runoff by 5% to 15%.

(Line 75~Line 76) Jemberie et al. [12] determined that comprehensive measures of "infiltration" and "storage" can reduce the peak of urban floods by 75%.

(Line 131~Line 132) One-dimensional, two-dimensional and pipe network coupling hydrodynamic mod-els have already been widely used in works on waterlogging alleviation [14,15].