This study proposed a method for the determining of warning water level for storm surge and investigated their variations in China, which could provide useful guidance for storm surge early warning and is of great practical significance. While, the manuscript should be more relevant as a scientific article and the scientific contribution of this study should be more clear. Specially,

(1) The literature overview in the Introduction is not sufficient; The review of existing studies especially for some latest researches should be strengthened to reveal the research gap and justify the novelty and contribution of this study.

(2) The methods used in this study should be evaluated, for example, the reason of using Gumbel model for return period analysis should be given and the significance of the fitting should be evaluated; the rationality and effectiveness for the method of calculating the four warning water levels should be clarified.

(3) I would suggest a discussion for the advantage and limitations of the proposed method in comparison with other methods.

(4) The caption of Table 3,4,5 should be complete.

(5) The compass (the North Arrow) was missing in all figures.

This paper proposes a quantitative method for determining the four-color warning water level, and the results show that proposed method could be easily adopted in various coastal areas. Especially, the study provides an insight into the spatial distribution of the four-color warning water level and its correction value along the coastlines of China. It can be helpful for storm-surge forecasting and prewarning. The paper is well structured and mostly easy to follow. However, there are few critical points that should be addressed in the manuscript as follow:

1. Figure 4 gives the distribution map of the shore section importance level. It is very necessary to further clarify the distribution characteristics, for example, what is the proportion of the 259 shore sections corresponding to the different importance levels?
2. The paper points out that the four-color warning water level corresponding to the four levels of marine disaster emergency response is more helpful for the storm surge prewarning. It is better to explain what is the marine disaster emergency response level and how the four warning water levels improve the marine disaster prevention capabilities compared to the previous system.
3. The "Discussion" section should be further improved. For example, more detailed explanations of the advantage, limitation and future research could be presented.
4. U. S. or USA, China or PRC, please make it uniform in the entire manuscript.
5. Re-check the unit of Table 2 and 5. At the same time, it is recommended to move the unit "cm" of Table 5 from the table to the header position.
6. Figure 5 shows the spatial distribution of Hs and Hd. Please re-check the name of Figure 5 and make sure the name corresponding to the content.

The authors present new technological methods utilized for determining warning water levels, as well as the procedure and results of this determination in Zhifu District, Yantai City, Shandong Province, China. This study discovered the existing marine disaster prevention capacities of coastal areas by analyzing the spatial distribution patterns of warning water levels in 259 shore sections in China, and recommend changes for future warning water level evaluations based on their findings. Notably, this assessment can serve as a scientific reference for encouraging the redetermination of warning water levels in China's coastal areas, thereby improving their marine disaster prevention and protection capabilities. In summary, it is a topic of interest to the researchers in the related areas. This is a carefully done study and the findings are of much considerable interest. I recommend this manuscript to be published in NHESS.

My detailed comments are as follows:

1. The "Discussion" section needs to be improved. For example, sea level rise under the effects of global warming exhibits an accelerating trend and may potentially be irreversible. The impact of the ongoing sea level rise on the rise in severe water levels has to be covered in more detail and depth.
2. In the "Discussion" section, more detailed explanations of the advantage, limitation of the technological method used in this study could be presented.