A New Digital Twin for Climate Change Adaptation, Water Management, and Disaster Risk Reduction (HIP Digital Twin)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This interesting paper presents Danish model Hydrological Information and Prediction system and a Digital Twin. It evaluates following aspects of Digital Twin factor of the HIP DT: real-time, high-fidelity, predictive quality, prescriptive quality, and feedback. Use of HIP portal services by various stakeholders (municipal and climate adaptation planners; waste water officers; watercourse employees; water supply and utility employees; water supply workers; regional employees within soil pollution, resource utilization, climate and water; regional resource utilization officers; state employees; farmers; IT developers; engineering consultants; advisors; etc.) is particularly interesting highlighting the importance of data on the hydrological cycle and their use for different purposes. 

The authors have clearly worked hard on this paper, so I hope they will find following comments useful.

General comments:

Since the paper states that the HIP DT supported with plug-in DTs can enhance implementation of EU policies, it would be beneficial to discuss the challenges and preconditions related to introducing Digital Twin at the national level so the other EU countries could gain better insight into this important national tool.

Specific comments:

- Figure 6 is very difficult to read and should be enlarged;

Some sentences could be improved:

- page 9 the beginning of the first sentence in the subsection 2.2.3. is missing;

- page 10 "...flooding process descriptions were compared fo rthe submodels...";

- page 12 "...drainage of rainwater throught sewage systems";

- page 13 "In this context, knowledge-guidedded ML DK-model HIP approach /8/ is used to model water table depth at high spatial resolution modeling."

- page 13 "...(many of which we cannot directly quantify, ...)."

- page 14 "...production of winther crops."

- page 14 "...which could negatively affect forest trees."

- page 14 - the potential oxygen depletion is mentioned twice "...may cause oxygen depletion, due to increased nutrient loading and potential oxygen depletion."

- page 18 - it is not clear what fbm means "...and lower costs in fbm new construction."

- page 18 "...stream models are to be used for impact analyses..."

 - page 19 "Not only are shallow groundwater levels available..."

- page 19 "Another major feature and strength of HIP DT is the possibility..."

- page 20 4.2. Possible strengthening of the use of HIP DT with the development of real-timetime model with a 5-10 days forecast for disaster risk reduction purposes:

- page 20 "It is quite remarkable that the chapter on cities does not have groundwater higher up on the list, and that the one on Europe, does not unfold the challenges with high groundwater levels in northern Europe

- page 20 "In the context of climate change, /2/ makes a strong..."

- page 20 - not sure if a dry summer is followed by a dry summer or dry winter "...in a case where a dry winter is followed by a dry summer, which is again followed by a dry summer..."

- page 21 - "...eventually also insaltwaterlt water intrusion."

- page 21 - "We do not anymore have a climate of peace and political stability, but with help from the real-time version of HIP DT we can better assure water security than without"

- page 21 - "a solution to one problem, results in another problem.."

- page 22 - not clear "And the same can managed aquifer recharge and adaptation planning..."

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper present a Danish case and a new Hydrological Information and Prediction Portal Digital Twin (HIP DT) focused on dealing with climate change adaptation, water security management, and disaster risk reduction related to the depth of groundwater table, soil moisture, and streamflow. It has strong practical value, but some major concerns arise when reading the document.

(1) In Abstract, “GEUS delivered 5 terra-byte…” should be “5 terabyte ” . In References 2, “Working Group II contribution tot he…” should be “Working Group II contribution to the… ” .

(2) Please unify the format of all tables.

(3) There seems to be no literature review on any other technologies that support climate adaptation, water resource management and disaster risk reduction, nor on digital twin technologies in related fields.

 (4) This article has devoted a lot of space to introducing the functions and advantages of the model, but I think the construction of the model is not detailed enough.

In my opinion, a review is needed before it can be reconsidered for publication.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper meets the requirements of publication. It is acceptable for this journal.