Comparative Study of Factors Contributing to Land Surface Temperature in High-Density Built Environments in Megacities Using Satellite Imagery

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The study sounds interesting. However, it could be improved for more clarity. My comments are below for your reference:

• Abstract: Include some numerical quantities based on your model results
• Introduction: In line 90, you mentioned “Ahmed investigated …..” Who is Ahmed? Explain in the text.
• Introduction: Discuss some advantages and disadvantages of using remote sensing in your study.
• Study Area: Add more discussions to the land use in the study area.
• Image Data: Justify using Landsat 8 in your study
• Using Landsat 8, what were the cloud cover % selected in this study
• Figure 3: Identify subplots (a, b, c, d, and e) in the caption
• See comment above and do the same for figures 4 & 5
• Line 258: correct typo of “(Table 3)” into Table 4, do the same for tables 5 & 6
• Explain model results starting in line 297 more clearly, try to shorten your sentences to minimize grammatical errors
• Discussion: Justify your attempts to compare your results with Su-Fang et al. [22]

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your comments to help improve the writing quality and clarify the issues in the original manuscript.

Yours sincerely,

Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

In this study, root sources contributing to the urban heat island (UHI) effect between meg-18 acities, such as Hong Kong and Shenzhen, were integrated and compared using satellite remote 19 sensing data. However, there are points that need to be corrected or further discussed.

Decision: The paper needs major modification before it can be published.
Comments:
-It is recommended to use the most important numerical results of your work in writing the abstract.

-To obtain the given solutions did you use CARTMLP (present more details) ?

-Introduction: In Introduction, there are still much information, but many of them are not related to the proposed approach.

-for pre-processing section, no results support this statement. Please clarify.

-Please discuss about all parameters in Eq.(2)?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your comments to help improve the writing quality and clarify the issues in the original manuscript.

Yours sincerely,

Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 3 Report

The review on the manuscript in journal Sustainability entitled „Comparative Study of Factors Contributing to Land Surface Temperature in High Density-Built Environments in Megacities Using Satellite Imagery“.

The article examines the effect of urban heat island (UHI) using satellite remote sensing data on the example of megacities, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Linear regression analysis has been used to determine the correlation between land use types and UHIs.

Broad comments

The description of the models used in the analysis is practically very general (lines 169 – 228). The relationships and calculation equations underlying the models are completely missing from the article. The assumptions and limitations and possible uncertainties of the DW-test used have not been analyzed in detail.

The article does not provide information on whether the frequency distributions of the data have been studied.

The conclusions are diffuse, there is no specificity and there is no understanding of what is new in this study. It is not taken into account that the correlative relationship found in the analysis may not characterize any dependence at all (lines 418-433), ie correlation and dependence are not synonymous.

The article needs technical revision.

Specific comments

Line 216 is written "The model formula was as follows: y = β0. + Β1 D1. + Β2 D2. + Βk Dk. + U (1) This equation is mathematically incorrect: first, there is no explanation for the nature of the parameters; second, in the case of similar parameters, indexes are used as subscripts. Equation (3) is also written mathematically inadequately.

The "where" following a equation is part of the sentence containing the equation and must begin with a lowercase letter – line 227.

It must always be a space between the numerical value and unit symbol except the plane angle and percent. Line 95 is „0.2°C“, has to be „0.2 °C“, etc. lines 97, 243, 269, 275, 276, 298,299, 301, 302, 304, 305, 307, 308, 310, 312, 313, 314, 316, 317, 319, 320, 322, 323, 325,326, 328, 329, 331, 332, 334, 335, 337, 338, 340, 341, 343, 344, 346, 347, 349, 350, 352, 353, 355, 356 and 412; line 157 „30m“, has to be „30 m“; line 163 „Size(m)“, has to be „Size (m)“.

Lines 118 through 134 have two lists. All items in the list should have the same punctuation at the end and a dot at the very end. Unfortunately, there is complete confusion in this regard.

The sentence "The procedure is summarized as follows:" written on line 135 is incomplete. If reference is made to Figure 1, this should also be noted.

Line158 is the phrase "Level 2 data is the surface reflectance data that has been corrected by the atmosphere." This raises the question of how the atmosphere acquired the ability to correct data?

The study area description in the form of "Hong Kong, the pearl of the Orient, ..." (line 143) is suitable for tour guides, but not for research articles.

Line 151 has the words "chieflymountainsous" ; line 153 "whereas Shenzhen's"; line 230 „temperaturethe“; line 246 „verificationverification“ - perhaps it could be worded clearly.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your comments to help improve the writing quality and clarify the issues in the original manuscript.

Yours sincerely,

Authors

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

It is ready for publiction

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you so much. We have revised and improved as you suggested.

Yours sincerely,

Authors

Reviewer 3 Report

The review on the manuscript in journal Sustainability entitled „Comparative Study of Factors Contributing to Land Surface Temperature in High Density-Built Environments in Megacities Using Satellite Imagery“.

The article examines the effect of urban heat island (UHI) using satellite remote sensing data on the example of megacities, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Linear regression analysis has been used to determine the correlation between land use types and UHIs.

The article has been significantly supplemented and corrected.

Research methods have been described at satisfactory level.

The conclusions are based on analysis and are adequate.

The article needs a minor technical corrections.

Specific comment

Tables and Figures should be referred to in the text by their number and not by their location (front, back, next, etc.). Therefore, line 143 contains the sentence "The procedure is summarized as follows." completely meaningless or essentially unfinished. A specific view should be taken as to whether Figure 1 deals with "study" or "procedure". If "study" and "procedure" are synonymous, the sentences in lines 132 and 143 have the same content, ie an unnecessary repetition.

There are no spaces after the commas in the Equation 1 explanation.

Line 389 does not contain a space before the reference "before[3]".

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you very much for your comments. We have revised and improved as you suggested.

Yours sincerely,

Authors