Floods and Adaptation to Climate Change in Tourist Areas: Management Experiences on the Coast of the Province of Alicante (Spain)
, Jorge Olcina-Cantos 2, Javier Martí-Talavera 3, Antonio Prieto-Cerdán 2 and Ascensión Padilla-Blanco 4Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
First of all, I think this is a very important and valuable paper. The author systematically discusses the specific engineering measures taken by the three tourist cities of Alicant, Torrevieja and Benidorm to deal with the flood risk in cities and adapt to climate change. These measures are based on the actual local conditions, and combine urban runoff and flood management with sustainable development. The introduction of the paper is of great significance to the promotion of these technologies. Therefore, although the technology of the paper is a little insufficient, mainly in the effectiveness evaluation of specific technical measures seems to lack more quantitative indicators, I still agree to accept the paper and suggest that it be published as soon as possible.
Of course, if the author can make some modifications and improvements to the aforementioned shortcomings of the paper, it would be better.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors address a topic of great interest in the context of sustainable development of economic activities (particularly tourism) and urban management. This subject is of particular relevance in the context of the effects expected for the Mediterranean regions driven by climate change.
In recent decades, Natural-based solutions, including SUDS, have proven to be a useful tool for dealing with stormwater management and urban flooding in increasingly populated cities.
The authors provide a significant amount of technical information from several projects of this nature carried out in the province of Alicante (Spain).
Information related to the measures implemented results of interest for practitioners. Although, there is a lack of a more in-depth analysis that evaluates the effectiveness of these measures over other options and in comparison with those implemented in other areas with similar characteristics.
In addition, it would be of great interest to highlight the limitations of the systems implemented, as well as the feasibility of extrapolating these examples to sites with other climatic, topographic and urban conditions, etc.
In order to deepen the analysis of the design and effectiveness of the systems analyzed, no relevant information is provided regarding the design parameters of the green infrastructure (magnitude of the design rainfall/flood: total volume, return period, etc., and its comparison with the parameters used in traditional systems, such as the storm drainage network).
Neither is effectiveness information provided (although it is mentioned that its effectiveness was tested in the event of August 21st, 2019). That is, results of the areas that result flooded with that measure and how it was prior to its implementation (flood map, whether observed data or derived from design simulations).
Thus, the storage volumes expressed in some cases lack contextualization.
The compilation of projects is of great interest. However, this paper should reflect a research work and/or provide useful conclusions for professional practice. Consequently, it would be highly advisable for the authors to carry out, in addition to the effectiveness analysis already mentioned, a comparison between the different systems and an explicit evaluation of the conditioning factors of each case (applicability of the systems to urban basins with different characteristics).
Additionally, it would be useful for this comparison to include experiences from other Spanish cities (such as some mentioned in the Discussion section) and from other countries.
I would also like to mention some minor aspects to be improved in order to facilitate the reading of the paper:
· Figure 2. The term WWTP is indicated in the legend, but this abbreviation is not clarified in the text. From line 263 it is inferred that it means "WasteWater Treatment Plant". It is recommended to specify the meaning of the abbreviations.
· Figure 14. Two parts of the image (a and b) are mentioned in the caption, but are not indicated in the figure itself. It is inferred that the image on the right corresponds to figure 14b, in which the texts of the labels containing project data are not readable.
· Figure 16. Elements are highlighted in the image (such as 1, 2, B2, etc.). It would be helpful if they were defined in a legend.
· Lines 651 and 652, please, check the date format.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
See attached file
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather phenomena. The Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) and the Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are conducted in Alicante, Torrevieja and Benidorm, and the results show the implementation of these systems contributes to advancing in the reduction of urban flood risk and the adaptation to climate change. However, the process and the discrimination for different cities should be summarized at the end of this paper.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have significantly improved the paper.
I encourage them to go deeper into the analysis of the efficiency of the measures.
Author Response
The authors are very grateful for the positive assessment of the changes that have been made. As for the analysis of the effectiveness of the measures, we will take this into account for future research, and we have contacted the entities that have implemented these measures to request the necessary data for a quantitative analysis of these measures. We cannot address this issue in this manuscript, as the objectives pursued are different:
a) to analyse the different actions carried out in tourism towns of the province of Alicante, which seek to improve the management of rainwater runoff and mitigate flood risk; b) to highlight the importance of the SUDS and NBS for restoring the natural water cycle in urban environments; c) to give visibility to the future adaptation measures to climate change in the province.
The authors are grateful for comments that have contributed to the improvement of this manuscript.
Reviewer 3 Report
see attached file
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
The authors are grateful for their comments, even if in this case they do not help to improve the manuscript. The aim of this article is not to calculate the effectiveness of the measures that have been implemented, but the objectives stated are:
a) to analyse the different actions carried out in tourism towns of the province of Alicante, which seek to improve the management of rainwater runoff and mitigate flood risk; b) to highlight the importance of the SUDS and NBS for restoring the natural water cycle in urban environments; c) to give visibility to the future adaptation measures to climate change in the province.
The authors disagree with their assertion that this manuscript is not of scientific significance, as science is not limited to quantitative data and analysis. The geographical discipline analyses territorial processes that are occurring in the context of climate change and that are necessary for the correct adaptation of the geographical space to its effects.
The article analyses actions that have proven to be effective and explains them. And others that are in the process of development or in the pipeline for immediate implementation. Evidently, the effectiveness of the latter cannot be assessed because there has been no episode of heavy rainfall to demonstrate it.
The assessment of the effectiveness of actions such as those analysed in the research should not only be quantitative. This is not the purpose of the research carried out. Our purpose is to study processes and assess their appropriateness.
If the development of this type of actions as necessary practices for adaptation to climate change in the territory of analysis is positively valued, as indicated in the article, it is very inopportune to consider the development of this type of actions as necessary practices for adaptation to climate change in the territory of analysis.
We consider the assertion that the authors have been "incapable" of demonstrating the effectiveness of these actions to be highly inappropriate. We prefer not to comment on this unfortunate value judgement.
If you want to reject the work for publication, reject it. But we deem it necessary to put up with comments of this kind, which belittle the research work carried out. Or that use a single objection as the main reason for the rejection of an academic work that has otherwise been well evaluated by the other reviewers and even by this same reviewer as a whole.
