Feasibility Assessment of a Water Supply Reliability Index for Water Resources Project Planning and Evaluation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript concerns the important and crucial issue of the feasibility assessment of a water supply reliability index for water resources project planning and evaluation. It is well prepared, but the following answers should be referred to. Add reference to the equation, in case you are not the Author of it. How you define reliability?
The following table Line 10. Table 1. The comparison of four common water shortage evaluation indexes should be presented after equations description, as for example definition of DDR occurs lately after the table.
underline how in practice the presented approach can be used?
In the conclusions some obtained results should be interpreted and deliver the meanings, this section should be more focused and based on the obtained results. Also if the method was consulted with the practitioners?
This should be discussed in the point concerning discussion of the results.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: The manuscript concerns the important and crucial issue of the feasibility assessment of a water supply reliability index for water resources project planning and evaluation. It is well prepared, but the following answers should be referred to. Add reference to the equation, in case you are not the Author of it. How you define reliability?
Response 1:
Except for KF-1 (reservoir operation times) in equation (18), all parameters were established in the present study. The author of the “reservoir operation times” could not be determined, so we added the official database of the Water Resources Agency, ROC, which lists the definition of reservoir operation times, as the reference.
To determine whether the water supply could meet the demands of the final planning scheme, this study employed the water supply degree of satisfaction during the operation period to represent the water supply reliability and offers an alternative method of planning the water supply amount through the use of the water supply reliability index (WSRI).
An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 20-23 lines of page F7.
Point 2: The following table Line 10. Table 1. The comparison of four common water shortage evaluation indexes should be presented after equations description, as for example definition of DDR occurs lately after the table. underline how in practice the presented approach can be used?
Response 2: In accordance with the suggestion made by Reviewers 1 and 2, we have moved Table 1 to the end of Section 2.1.
Huang (1986) conducted a questionnaire on the severe water shortage after the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics in Japan and reported a DPD of approximately 1,000–1,500 percent-day.
The aforementioned discourse has been added as the red text in the 25-27 lines of page F4.
Point 3: In the conclusions some obtained results should be interpreted and deliver the meanings, this section should be more focused and based on the obtained results. Also if the method was consulted with the practitioners? This should be discussed in the point concerning discussion of the results.
Response 3:
According to the suggestions of Reviewer 1 and 3, I have reedited the conclusions of the manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The article is interesting and of current importance, but is relatively long. A reduction effort is suggested to the authors (for example, the appendix with notations may eventually be deleted, since all symbols and acronyms are explained throughout the text).
Authors are suggested to substitute the title of the first item from "Preface" to "Introduction". Authors are also advised to replace the M.C.M. unit, which is little used internationally, with 106 m3, for example.
It is further suggested that Table 1 move to the end of item 2.1, as the symbols indicated in the Table are only explained in the later text of the item. This table is difficult to read and may perhaps be improved by placing text with vertical orientation, for example.
Although the article is easy to read, it is thought that some text items (item 2.3, for example) may possibly have a clearer wording.
It will be interesting to include in the conclusions a note on the possibility of generalizing this study to situations with multi-purpose reservoirs.
Author Response
Point 1: The article is interesting and of current importance, but is relatively long. A reduction effort is suggested to the authors (for example, the appendix with notations may eventually be deleted, since all symbols and acronyms are explained throughout the text).
Response 1: According to the suggestion of Reviewer 2, I have enhanced the brevity of the manuscript and deleted the appendix.
Point 2: Authors are suggested to substitute the title of the first item from "Preface" to "Introduction". Authors are also advised to replace the M.C.M. unit, which is little used internationally, with 106m3, for example.
Response 2: According to the suggestion of Reviewer 2, I have replaced he first item from "Preface" to "Introduction", and also replaced all instances of M.C.M. with 106m3.
Point 3: It is further suggested that Table 1 move to the end of item 2.1, as the symbols indicated in the Table are only explained in the later text of the item. This table is difficult to read and may perhaps be improved by placing text with vertical orientation, for example.
Response 3: In accordance with the suggestions of Reviewers 1 and 2 on readability, I have changed the cell text direction in Table 1 and moved it to the end of Item 2.1.
Point 4: Although the article is easy to read, it is thought that some text items (item 2.3, for example) may possibly have a clearer wording.
Response 4: According to the comment of Reviewer 2, I have reedited any ambiguous text in the manuscript to improve clarity.
Point 5: It will be interesting to include in the conclusions a note on the possibility of generalizing this study to situations with multi-purpose reservoirs.
Response 5: I have added the following discourse according to the reviewer’s comment:
Water requirement and tolerable water shortage data for each purpose of a multipurpose reservoir shall be compiled to evaluate the reservoir’s overall water-shortage tolerance. Such statistics may serve as references for the overall development of a reservoir.
An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 5-7 lines of page F26.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The presented paper concerns Feasibility Assessment of a Water Supply Reliability Index for Water Resources Project Planning and Evaluation. Some methods to evaluate the maximum water supply capability are proposed. It should be published after regarding the following comments. Several issues are present and should be addressed.
The objectives of the present study are not completely clear. Some hints are provided in the Abstract, but there is not an explicit statement of the specific goals intended to be attained. The objectives should be clearly presented, particularly in the Abstract and the Introduction.
How the results of the present work are expected to help in establishing an efficient and transparent bottom‐up approach for water resources management? This aspect should be discussed in details after presenting the results. Moreover, the main achievements of this study should be emphasized in the Conclusion.
Lines17-19. Add references to the information you refer to: The Shortage Index (SI), which was invented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has been adopted in Taiwan since 1985 to evaluate the potential water supply in the reservoir planning stage.
Is it possible to establish the exact criterion which engineers can utilize to plan a water supply system?
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Point 1: The presented paper concerns Feasibility Assessment of a Water Supply Reliability Index for Water Resources Project Planning and Evaluation. Some methods to evaluate the maximum water supply capability are proposed. It should be published after regarding the following comments. Several issues are present and should be addressed.
Response 1: As stated by Reviewer 3, there are various means to assess the maximum water supply capacity of a reservoir. This manuscript focuses on addressing the water-shortage risk under the maximum water supply capacity in hopes of enhancing the risk communication between engineers and end-users of water.
Point 2: The objectives of the present study are not completely clear. Some hints are provided in the Abstract, but there is not an explicit statement of the specific goals intended to be attained. The objectives should be clearly presented, particularly in the Abstract and the Introduction.
Response 2: According to the suggestions of Reviewer 1and 3, I have enhanced the brevity of the manuscript.
Point 3: How the results of the present work are expected to help in establishing an efficient and transparent bottom‐up approach for water resources management? This aspect should be discussed in details after presenting the results. Moreover, the main achievements of this study should be emphasized in the Conclusion.
Response 3: In both pure water resources operation and complex water resources facilities operation (e.g., joint operation of reservoirs), the uncertainty caused by the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall in the operation of water resource system shall be presented to decision makers or to the general public in the most comprehensible way. When the reservoir capacity of an existing reservoir is reduced due to reservoir sedimentation, the analysis parameters proposed in this study may be applied to obtaining the WSRI value, which facilitates the explanation of water supply difficulty.
An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 11-17 lines of page F25.
Point 4: Lines17-19. Add references to the information you refer to: The Shortage Index (SI), which was invented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has been adopted in Taiwan since 1985 to evaluate the potential water supply in the reservoir planning stage.
Response 4: According to the suggestion of Reviewer 2, I have added the citation to the reference list.
An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the line 9 of page F6.
Point 5: Is it possible to establish the exact t criterion which engineers can utilize to plan a water supply system?
Response 5: I would like to thank the reviewer for the suggestion. This study aims to develop a more concise way to present the water-shortage risk in addition to the commonly used shortage index. The proposed method uses simple calculation and may therefore provide reference data for project selection. However, application of the proposed method in the actual water resource operation or adjustments to the joint operation of water resource systems still requires further exploration to identify potential water-supply risks.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Manuscript is well prepared. The following remarks should be referred to. Future suggestions should concern the choice of reference distinguishing tolerable water shortage level in terms of risk reliability indices as presented in Rak,J.; Pietrucha-Urbanik, K. An approach to determine risk indices for drinking water – study investigation. Sustainability-Basel, 2019, 11, 3189, and risk analysis methods concerning simulation of risk in water supply system, which have been developed in Pietrucha-Urbanik, K., 2015. Failure Prediction in Water Supply System - Current Issues. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 365, 351-358. Page 26: Line 7: What You mean by overall development of a reservoir?
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: Manuscript is well prepared. The following remarks should be referred to. Future suggestions should concern the choice of reference distinguishing tolerable water shortage level in terms of risk reliability indices as presented in Rak,J.; Pietrucha-Urbanik, K. An approach to determine risk indices for drinking water – study investigation. Sustainability-Basel, 2019, 11, 3189, and risk analysis methods concerning simulation of risk in water supply system, which have been developed in Pietrucha-Urbanik, K., 2015. Failure Prediction in Water Supply System - Current Issues. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. 365, 351-358.
Response 1: According to the suggestions of Reviewer 1, I have cited 2 references mentioned above into this manuscript and reedited the suggestions. An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 11-13 lines of page F26.
Point 2: Page 26: Line 7: What You mean by overall development of a reservoir?
Response 2: According to the suggestions of Reviewer 1, I have reedited the conclusions of the manuscript. An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 5-8 lines of page F26.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript concerns the important topic. The choice of reference should be supplemented with respect to the importance of the concept of the system safety analysis, as presented in and Tchorzewska-Cieslak, B. Bayesian model of urban water safety management. Global Nest J. 2014, 16, 667–675. Tchorzewska-Cieslak, B. Estimating the acceptance of bearing the cost of the risks associated with the management of water supply system. Ochr. Sr. 2007, 29, 69–72. In conclusions add some more information about future perspectives of work.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Point 1: The manuscript concerns the important topic. The choice of reference should be supplemented with respect to the importance of the concept of the system safety analysis, as presented in and Tchorzewska-Cieslak, B. Bayesian model of urban water safety management. Global Nest J.2014, 16, 667–675. Tchorzewska-Cieslak, B. Estimating the acceptance of bearing the cost of the risks associated with the management of water supply system. Ochr. Sr. 2007, 29, 69–72. In conclusions add some more information about future perspectives of work.
Response 1: According to the suggestions of Reviewer 3, I have cited 2 references mentioned above into this manuscript and reedited the suggestions. An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 11-13 lines of page F26. I also have reedited the conclusions of the manuscript. An explanation regarding your concern has been added as the red text in the 5-8 lines of page F26.
