Implementing the Water, HEat and Transport  model in GEOframe (WHETGEO-1D v.1.0): algorithms, informatics, design patterns, open science features, and 1D deployment

Tubini, Niccolò; Rigon, Riccardo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-75-2022

Articles | Volume 15, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-75-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-75-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 1

Model description paper

|

07 Jan 2022

Model description paper |

| 07 Jan 2022

Implementing the Water, HEat and Transport model in GEOframe (WHETGEO-1D v.1.0): algorithms, informatics, design patterns, open science features, and 1D deployment

Niccolò Tubini and Riccardo Rigon

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Final revised paper (published on 07 Jan 2022)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 21 Jul 2021)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

RC1:
'Comment on gmd-2021-163', Anonymous Referee #1, 29 Aug 2021
This paper dose a very good job of describing the design idea, software engineering, and the technical issues about implementing a physically based model–WHETGEO, to simulate the water and energy budgets in a soil column. All the text is easy to follow and understandable. The figures, tables, and equations are well prepared and organized. The authors gave a good review on the mathematical and numerical issues involved in solving the Richardson-Richards equation. However, what’s new in this paper is not easy to find. Some ideas and proposals mentioned in the front part are not well addressed in the latter. The purpose of incorporating heat transport and surface energy budget and their advantages are not well demonstrated. The overall impression of this paper is about assembling some available models or parameterizations in a new style. There can be some improvements on the science part and I hope the authors put more attention on the science part instead of the software engineering in writing, especially for the scientific significance and internal logics.

In the conclusion part, it reads that “The implementation has been shown to solve the issues presented in 7 observations, 3 requirements, and A to H design specifications”. There is no problem with “A to H design specifications”. But for the “7 observations, 3 requirements”, they are not well “solved”, or not easy to find at least, in the current presentation. This is one major concern of this paper.

Following point 1, there are “7 observations, 3 requirements” which have been solved as mentioned. Are they all unique features of the currently proposed model? Since there is no comparison with other existing models.

What’s the new development of the model in physical about this paper? Besides the software engineering or technical part. As the paper said in the abstract “a new, physically based…”

If the purpose of this paper is to assemble some models already developed, the test cases in the appendix are very common. More importantly, there is no comparison with other models. So the advantages are not well demonstrated. The resolution of the time step (60 s) and soil grids are all very small. For the energy budget and phase change (Appendix D), only the result and difference are presented. The energy budget and phase change are common functions in land surface modeling or hydrological modeling. Because there is nothing special in the case design in the appendix, many other models may also reproduce such a result.

Eq. (8) (Line 105) is not further mentioned.

Please check with (26), (27), (29) and (30) about the sign of operation.

Some units in Figs. 2, C2, C4, C9, C11, D1, D2, and D3 are missing.

Please unify the soil layer index, k or i. Such asin Eq. (21), k in Figuer 1, and some other places.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-163-RC1
- AC1:
  'Reply on RC1', Niccolo` Tubini, 16 Sep 2021
  
  The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://gmd.copernicus.org/preprints/gmd-2021-163/gmd-2021-163-AC1-supplement.pdf
  
  Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-163-AC1
  - RC2: 'Reply on AC1', Anonymous Referee #2, 26 Sep 2021
    
    The paper is well written and it address the important topic of implementing Richards equation in a land surface code. It is useful to have both radiation estimation in complex terrain and the surface energy implemented.
    
    I'm not really sure of the utility of changing water viscosity in infiltration processes, in fact the diurnal cycle in soil field measurements are always to be watched carefully because of temperature dependent erros in instruments (especially electronics).
    
    However, solving the heat transport equation is useful for the surface energy budget evalutation.
    
    I think that it can be published after it is modified following the remarks of reviewer 1.
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-163-RC2
    
    AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Niccolo` Tubini, 27 Sep 2021
    
    The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://gmd.copernicus.org/preprints/gmd-2021-163/gmd-2021-163-AC2-supplement.pdf
    
    Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-163-AC2

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Niccolo` Tubini on behalf of the Authors (25 Oct 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (29 Oct 2021) by Min-Hui Lo

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (10 Nov 2021)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (19 Nov 2021)

ED: Publish as is (22 Nov 2021) by Min-Hui Lo

Short summary

This paper presents WHETGEO and its 1D deployment: a new physically based model simulating the water and energy budgets in a soil column. WHETGEO-1D is intended to be the first building block of a new customisable land-surface model that is integrated with process-based hydrology. WHETGEO is developed as an open-source code and is fully integrated into the GEOframe/OMS3 system, allowing the use of the many ancillary tools it provides.