Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

1）This paper discusses an interesting but old topic, and the conclusions  on the impact of topography and geomorphology on population and economic development are relatively consistent. Taking the mountain area in southern Anhui Province of China as an example, this paper has not drawn a conclusion different from the existing research findings.

2）This paper achieves grid scale in terrain data, but uses county level data in population and economic development. The author should obtain relevant data of villages and towns.

3）When measuring the impact  of topography on population and economic development, the paper mostly uses linear relationship to explore, lacking consideration of other factors. Landform does play a decisive role in the early stage of population and economic development, but in the later stage, there are often other factors that affect the population distribution and economic development.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Reviewer 2 Report

The article contains well-established, detailed analyzed data. The results are discussed in detail and this study could be instrumental in policymaking and highlights the underutilization of large areas of higher topographic counties as the author concluded that population distribution and economic development are obviously concentrated in the low topographic relief area. Thus, I shall suggest adding some recommendations for encouraging the contribution of higher topographic counties in GDP.

Also, give the details of the term "DEM" in the article

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.doc

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has revised the article accordingly, and I suggest publishing it.